Is it possible to see how long our train is or how many wagons? I am in a free to play mode, New York I believe? Anyway, I grabbed all 6 locos, and am trying to get every wagon in the yard, but I have reached a point where the 6 locos do not seem to want to lift the wagons lol Edit - turns out the locos were lifting just fine, but it was taking forever for the brakes to release. And OMG as I was attaching the last rake in the yard, I hit it too hard and immediately got a message saying "Scenario failed, derailment"
As to knowing how many cars are in a train, try using the number 3 or number 8 camera, but counting them in the 2D map might be easier, although distinguishing engines from cars is not always easy there. By the way, engines pull cars, not lift them -- although that might be interesting.
Yea the longer the train, the longer it takes to release all the brakes. Also when you couple up new wagons, it first has to refill their air tanks, which takes some extra time. Some american trains have a EOT (End of Train) device, which tells you the air pressure at the end of your train, so you can see how far they are released. If you want to get away quicker, try to brake with the least amount applied that brings you to a stop at the right time. If the train is mostly flat, you can apply the manual brake, which only applies the brakes on the loco, and release the train brake. Then to start just apply step 1, release the manual brake and off you go..
Very possibly (although I've never encountered it before), but isn't the idea of a simulator to immerse oneself in what it simulates, including vocabulary? One of the things I enjoy about both TSW and TS is learning the lingo.