Just got the new addon and it's obvious they didn't test all these timetable scenarios. 4 units pulling 36 cars and the train won't go above 10 MPH on the hill climb to Victorville. The amp meter is at 1000 which is way too much. This is the same problems that the one SD 40-2 scenario has. They need to really test these activities before they post them.
According to MP, the 6,000 horses were matched to a reduced consist length and should have the pulling power appropriate to the train weight. I haven't got the loco yet, but I remember from the CRR F7, there are some control switches in the cab which need to be set for the MU's to work together. I would think a speed of 15-20 mph should be attainable on that climb. It's the 2.2% grade, right? The other loco sets don't get any more than that.
The AI train they test the F7 timetable (and presumably the scenarios) with, in Clinchfield and in this new pack, is much more powerful and can reach higher speeds uphill than a player ever could. The timetable services take much longer than they quote in the timetable screen (which are taken from the AI times). They know this from detailed bug reports from Clinchfield. There isn’t a single service in that route that a player can match the AI and this appears to be the same. It could be an issue with the A-units, the B-units or the whole thing but we don’t know. The control switch for the number of locos does nothing, all the setup is hardwired into the loco. The switch is just artwork. I set it correctly each time but it makes no difference if you do or don’t, the locos struggle up the hills (and The AI trains have no such issue and also go too fast downhill too). If you remember the banking comm was missed from the loco too but the AI had no problems using helpers. It just wasn’t made with due care and attention and now it has been largely copied with the same issues. It’s fun to drive but only if you know you are not going as fast as the timetable intends you to go and, in Clinchfield at least, don’t drive the services that require helpers at the rear. Luckily this pack doesn’t seem to have any such services as no banking comm has been included this time (hopes of it being back-ported to Clinchfield well and truly dashed).
Good analysis. I will get this loco, if only because it's so much fun, and it's the price of a caramel latte. However, the absence of banking com in the F7's is, perhaps, one of, if not the most egregious broken promise in the history of the game. I recall being told very clearly that its omission from the CRR version would absolutely not be repeated in any future loco.
Well I don't think you get any helpers with the f7 for cajon pass so banking comm would be useless even if it was implemented. It's not going to do anything if all the locos are in the front
I think you have it backwards. The reason that the F7 doesn't have regular full consists and therefore lacks the necessary helper locos is because DTG failed, once again, to equip the loco with banking com, just as they failed to do in CRR. We all know that banking com is a fictional device, but it's the only way we have of running long consists with helpers mid- train and at the rear of American freight locos. No freight loco in the game should be without it. The absence of banking com in this or any US freight loco is inexplicable and inexcusable to me.
10mph sounds about right for a American railroad, just kidding. I don't think the trains are underpowered, even the es44 struggles on that grade. It's probably more to do with dtg's physics, it seems strange that there's the same exact speed and throttle setting when you get wheelslip, every single time.
Will this get adressed? The only way to get through the hill is to have much more apps than the loco is rated for, and even then you're barely breaking 10mph... And in wet (which is one of the jorney scenarios), there is no way you can get up the hill from San Bernardino as you cannot put enough power to the rails, without wheelslip, to keep the train going...
Back when the F7 was in active service, they didn't run today's monster consists with distributed power. Yes, helpers were used to get up steep grades, just as they were in steam days, but they were local and temporary. The egregious oversight in Clinchfield was not including banking comm with the SD40 ------------------------------- The important thing conceptually with the Santa Fe F7 is that it's a museum train, making demo runs for the railfans. It isn't hauling actual revenue freight from San Bernardino to Barstow!
It is hauling something though, or are they just empty cars? And it is ubiquitous, at least on the services I've run. So, I wouldn't consider it a demonstrator or showpiece.
This switch is not supposed to have any influence on acceleration anyway. The only thing it does is compensate for resistance in the dynamic brake MU wiring, as unlike for the power notches, the dynamic brake signal is a one wire voltage signal only. This is however not simulated in TSW, as wiring resistance is not simulated.
