The LNER channel just posted a video of one of it's driver doing the whole ECML route in TSW4 with some interesting comments. There was someone from DTG there as well. Can a real Train Driver play Train Sim World 4? | Part 1 (youtube.com)
Probably cursing the rogue double yellow signals due to the crossing timers being out. Though not as impressive as my queue of trains on the North Wales Coast in SimSig the other afternoon, trying to understand how the heck to get their take on absolute block signalling working!
Was a good video, I'm always intrigued to hear how a real driver drives the route with all the braking points and whatnot. Greatly adds to the immersion when driving in the sim, for me anyway. Could do with more of these for other routes.
This is amazing! I like to see more Real train drivers play TSW and drive the train they operate in Real Life. Why is this video not more promoted on tsw channels, i just found out because i browsed the forum.
Good insights from this video, funny how the driver forgot about the master key lol I'm also surprised they didn't turn AWS on
As I noted, this video is done by LNER and put on their channel. I am glad that they were willing to do this with DTG.
Well, for driving this route in TSW 4 for the first time, she did not do badly. She remarked about the safety systems once during the video, but don't recall Chris saying more than they can be turned on.
Haven't watched the video yet but I note someone said about turning the aws on, aws is always active when you key on, it will generally only be off when it's been isolated by a fault , I find it odd in tsw how you have to specifically switch it on when it should be active as soon as you key on.
My wild guess is that she had applied the snow brakes earlier, so they were still working. I really do not even know if that button does anything.
Will DTG actually take the feedback from Jess and make improvements or fix issues based on Jess' comments? Such as the lack of a speed limiter, DRA not being correctly set by default, etc?
They shouldn't need to. Everything that's not right should have been from the start as I presume they'd have been told these things. Hopefully, they listen for once.
Very insightful. Apparently, in part 2, safety systems will be turned on. Just wondering - Are drivers trained on both Class 800s and Class 801s? She seems to be comparing the 801 to the 800 a lot, and am wondering if LNER train their drivers to separate classes or if all AT300s are the same.
I actually thought it showed Dovetail not at their best. The guy wasn’t massively helpful by not asking her to turn safety on and ignored some of her questions. The random slowing down on downhill gradients wasn’t a great look either. However her insight was brilliant especially with braking points etc. Reminded me of how F1 drivers learn circuits and braking points using random things like bridges, brake markers etc.
I suspect the lowering and raising of the pantograph (combined with the fiddling of the display) may have bugged out the traction system in game. I was driving a 10-car train the other day, tried to fiddle with the pantograph, and the rear 5 coaches stopped powering when I raised the pantograph again. I also suspect that she may have had a brake of some sort engaged during her run, but I am not sure. The performance of the 801 she was driving did not match the performance of the 801 I normally play with.
The loss of power seemed to coincide with her turning on the Snow Brake. I am guessing that the resistance it is providing in game is a lot more than the real world train and should be barely noticeable.
Just watched this. I really enjoyed it and certainly learned a bit more about driver procedures and general route knowledge / fun facts. Would be really great if other TOCs could get involved in similar projects
Not TSW related by Don Coffey on YouTube has many drivers eye view videos that have what you’re looking for
Interesting video. I agree with the opinion that the "host" was not particularly helpful. Just a couple of remarks. If we intend "Speed Limiter" as a device which merely cuts or greatly reduces traction beyond a cetain speed threshold, that exists in game. It is simply set at 127 mph, rather than 125. This is most definitely correct. The rare occurrences of zoomed out view, clearly show the red needle off the zero position (actually around 0.4 bars). I am tempted to infer from the driver's comments that she expected it to operate discontinuosly, perhaps according to a programmed pattern. This is obviously not the case in game. The brake just stays on, unless manually de-activated. Producing a force roughly indicated as 1/2 of the "Minimum Brake" application, is certainly capable of moderating the train's speed even downhill. For a comparison, in game the Acela's snow brake is turned off automatically after 30 or 40 seconds (which seems much more sensible) but is also quite powerful, resisting to an applied traction close to 20Klbs (order of magnitude) or, equivalently, holding the train on a 1% slope.
Were there any comments from the real world driver regarding the Azuma sounds? Are they the real deal? Sorry for asking, but I don't have the time to watch the video E2E.
In layman's terms, in real life they are actually capped at 124 automatically, however the speed can be manually limited to a lower speed as well (e.g set it to 100 so you can sit on the limiter through an significant stretch with a 100mph PSR), however I do not like this and so don't use it, unless I have to! The in game speed limiter representation is the automatic one, just set to a higher speed than reality, I think 127 in game, which didn't actually apply when the units first came into service, however after more than a couple of incidents they got the technical boffins to not allow them to exceed 124mph.
Thank you for the insightful reply. It seems to me that this is actually a somewhat tolerable inaccuracy, compared to other technical issues in the game. As a side note, in the simulation, the partially related Javelin does not show any active speed control. It merely ceases to accelerate when drag equals traction... Is this correct? Also, given your apparent direct knowledge, you can perhaps (if you are allowed to) shed some light on the question of the Snow Brake. It is obvious that its in-game behaviour did not meet the driver's expectations, since she never bothered to take a look at the manometer, despite the puzzling downhill deceleration. So, is the Snow Brake indeed time-capped, intermittent, modulated in strength of application, or something completely different?
No sweat mate. Yes, like I say I can't stand the limiters in real life, and I do enjoy actually having to manually hold them at 125 in the game. I have absolutely no clue on the Javelin I am afraid, however the 80xs certainly have a lot more that 125 mph in them. I haven't watched the video personally yet, so am not really sure what went on with the snow brake and I don't fiddle with buttons unless I know the shortcut for them in TSW so haven't used it in game myself, nor have I actually driven in the snow yet either in game with the 801. If I get a chance I will look over it tomorrow and see what I think has gone on, do you know roughly how far into the video it was? I do highly suspect it will be a TSW issue though!
Very interesting video, nothing better than learning from the real deal. In the comments, LNER replied that there’s going to be a part 2 as well to look forward to. She applied the snow brake here and then she talked about losing speed too fast from here on. Here, she explains what they do and how it works - if I caught it right it’s 0.8bar at different intervals. Finally, here as she talks about it again, we can see that in TSW it appears to be a 0.5bar continuous application.
I think for things like DRA and AWS not being set by default is just to not confuse the new people and overcomplicated things for them as it isn't mentioned in the tutorial anyways (I'm not saying it's ivercomplicatrd for me, I'm just saying there are newbies out there) To be honest, the best they could do is make the AWS, DSD, Vigilance and DRA buttons as an option for "set default as [on / off]"
I second this. It would be nice if the DRA was set every time you took over or started a service, along with having the option to turn safety systems on or off by default, but yeah, I feel like implementing these will confuse a lot of the less experienced players, which is why DTG haven’t yet acted upon the suggestions. Hopefully one day
Thanks mate, as said by both yourself, and the video it is 0.8 bar intermittently across the unit, on the friction brake, and after watching the video myself I suspect TSW is just applying the brake as if the train were being stopped as usual, continuously on all wheelsets.
In the original Southeastern Highspeed, this was a feature. It has not appeared since (and may have been removed in the extension). Also how do you turn off the snow brake? Do you just press the button again?
The 158 has DRA set by default. Not much consistency in this game. Anyone wanting the speed limiter set to 124mph as the driver mentioned, I've uploaded a mod to trainsimcommunity. Amongst some other things.. like cab sound balancing for those who like to hear some motors from inside. Edit. I didn't really drive the 801 until this video. Somethings a bit strange with the rolling resistance, it doesn't gain speed on the downhill stretches even when the snow brake *isn't* stuck on.
Part 2's out for anyone interested. She does the Hot Seat scenario with the Temporary Speed Restrictions (with safety systems on)
Again, the guy isn’t very helpful, especially not telling her about the go via marker until she’d actually stopped. Also ironic that she finds all the things wrong with the game. Doesn’t put Dovetail in a great light again.
Suppose they could use it as an opportunity to put themselves in a great light if they go through and fix all she highlights is wrong. If not, definitely shows them in a bad light.
I thought the same but I wondered if he wasn't able to see her screen which led to some tentative replies
Only just got round to watching this and yes very surprised the run wasn't set up to operate with at least the AWS/TPWS active if not the vigilance. Running IRL with the AWS deliberately off would be considered a serious infraction. Quite interesting to hear comments about the driver not doing the doors on LNER and this is a point of detail DTG ought to be adhering to more. Maybe would have been better done on a PC with key commands (Chris could simply have said Ctrl-D to switch on AWS) and starting with Test Track obviously caused a bit of distraction - km/h and no signals. But still very enjoyable and instructional.
It was all filmed in one session. I was just there to let the professional do what she does best. A dry run without safety systems was done first, to let her get acquainted with the game. This was also her first time on an Xbox console. Also, I could only see her gameplay through a laptop webcam pointed at a TV, but was running the scenario locally to work out where she was at.
Jess the driver commented on how accurate the signalling was and that the double yellows changing to green not long before passing them was prototypical for certain sections.
Finally I found someone who plays simsig here! Anyways to keep this post relevant, I absolutely did favour the video just to get a sort of comparison by a real train driver. thou was confused at first for safety systems being off but then I realised it was on in the second video.
Yes on some sections of the route it does happen on occasions, however on every run in game on approach to crossings we have the signal clear to green as you get to the signal/not at all, whereas this is a rarity in real life (assuming we are solely talking about the level crossing timings) on the line. Like I have said it can and does happen, but no where near as regularly, or to the extent it does happen in TSW.
The driver in the video was unaware that the signals behaviour was due to level crossings. She said that, in real life, the signals did this because of a train in the section ahead. (and possibly something about double-blocked signals, where the train occupies two blocks instead of one so that if a driver SPADs, they have an entire signal block to brake before hitting the train in front). She did once joke that the in-game signaller was asleep when one of the restrictive aspects changed. I wonder how frequently signallers forget to change signals.
Most signals along the ECML are going to be automatics, apart from those protecting junctions and level crossings.
Ah right, thanks for clarifying that mate. Yes, usually when this happens it is down to another train rather than every single crossing going down late! It does happen where a signalman will forget about you or do something seemingly strange (Peterborough has given a few interesting decisions since moving to York ROC) and sometimes you will have to slow due to a crossing being late down but as, I have said, on every run at every crossing is way too far over the top. Also as Vern says many signals are Automatic signals anyway.
There’s also the ARS factor. I remember in the Control watching the CCF screen and ARS wasn’t always that quick or adept at clearing ahead of trains. You can even see that to some extent if you play SimSig.
