How to slow down a heavy German freight train ? Eg. - I'm driving a train weighing 1500t under PZB U mode. Top speed is 105 kmph & speed under PZB 1000hz restriction is 55kmph. 2 questions - 1. I'm having a tough time figuring out which speedpost / signal will trip the 1000hz. Sometimes a post with '7' trips the system, sometimes a '6' doesn't. So what's the speed threshold for U,M & O at which I should assume that the 1000hz will be tripped ? 2. When you do encounter a 1000hz, you're supposed to slow down to 55, 70 & 85 for U,M & O respectively. Having some route knowledge or the track monitor is fine but what if there's a train ahead forcing you to slow down suddenly. If your train is excessively heavy or has sluggish brakes, how should you slow down effectively without stalling or creating a panic ?
I'd recommend watching Matt's tutorial on YouTube. It is long but it's the best way of describing how to use PZB. He did not long after TSW2 was released. Usually, if a signal is yellow, acknowledge and slow down to the 1000hz speed which for mode U is 55. If you're consistently hitting yellow signals (surfing yellows), especially in a heavy freight train it's best to run a bit slower than line speed, if the track and loco have LZB this will do it for you. Best to watch the tutorial as it involves knowing what signals and posts mean.
Any restriction under 100km/h can trigger a 1000Hz monitoring and should be treated as such. If you encounter any speed reduction announcement under 100km/h, assume it has an active 1000Hz magnet. If there’s a train in front of you, you should adjust your speed accordingly to avoid having to stop. If you encounter various restrictive signals you will quickly realise that there’s someone in front of you or (in real life) signallers will usually tell you as much. Of course, you should also brake as soon as you see the signal in question, not when you pass it, which will give you more room to slow down. If push comes to shove and a signal really does catch you completely off-guard, you’ll have to bite the bullet and brake hard, maybe even a full service application. Being safe is much more important than being energy-efficient. As far as normal braking goes, there are some rough guide figures. Anything up to a 1bar reduction in the brake pipe is considered normal, if hard, braking. If you know that you’re well withing any braking curves and don’t expect to stop, release the brakes early since they’ll take a long time to release. In the end, it all comes down to defensive and anticipatory driving.
What's worth noting is also that if you are running PZB U train, you most likely should not be running 105 km/h. There is a good chance that your train should not be running more than 80 km/h, and slowing by 30 km/h within 38 seconds is much easier job than slowing by 55 km/h. Maximum speed of a train is determined by more things, and PZB mode is usually not the most limiting of them. Unfortunately, the game does not tell you that, HUD usually shows nonsense maximum speeds overall. In other words what Lamplight says, simply make a habit of acknowledging every speed board and every signal that is not fully clear. Whether the magnet is active or not follows some good rules in reality (some change also based on your speed!), but it's not always perfectly implemented anyways. In reality the driver also has bit more route knowledge than players and also has a timetable that has all speed reductions marked in it. You can get some of these timetables and a calculator for maximum speed in links below my post, but beware that learning more about german freight is a very deep rabbit hole Edit: Also to specifically answer this question: Speeds <= 70 km/h always come with a magnet. 80 and 90 km/h trigger if you are doing 15 km/h or more over the announced speed. Speed boards announcing 100 km/h and over do not come with a magnet. But this is a general rule, locally it may be different, and also the implementation in TSW is sometimes not correct. It is also not related to PZB mode, but if you are driving heavy freight, you are more likely to not be triggering the 15 km/h difference rule, for example.
Thanks, noir. That’s a very good point I completely neglected: As the freight cars have quite realistic braking performance in TSW at this point, these speed limits really aren’t optional and should probably be communicated to players not well versed in German freight.
This is what I was missing so far... The weight of my train is a bigger challenge than the PZB. Thanks everyone
Must admit PZB 70 confuses me. Can never remember if the top speed is 90 or 100 km/h. And if the upcoming restriction is 60 or 70 km/h why enforce the reduction to 55km/h? Generally with a heavy train I tend to drive between 85 and 90 km/h which usually provides enough margin between spotting the Vorsignal at caution to stopping at the red 1000 metres away.
125kmh, but 120kmh in practice. Somehow I'm able to remember 55/70/85 = 100/120/160 when I'm driving!
As a general rule of thumb when I don't have the energy to generate my own Fahrplan according to the elaborate calculations and tables, I just hold German freights to 100, unless they're intermodals or all stated to be empties (nearly all German freight cars are limited to 100 when loaded) and Mode M unless they're exceptionally heavy.. Although that's probably faster than the official consist Vmax on a hilly route (which can go down to 90 or even 80), It's rarely a problem to get down from 100 to 70 when a 1000-Hz goes off.
