Now that I have recently completed a big old pdf timetable for this route, I wanted to get out something that became a nuisance while I was making it and that is I feel that the pathing for this route is bugged. As in, you have situations where trains are held up for long periods of time when they could of gone on long before the train they are waiting for shows up, this issue is particularly prevalent around Dresden Hbf. In this thread, I want to bring up 3 of the most noteworthy pathing issues that I have encountered on this route and I have put with each of them a labelled image to try and show the issue a bit more clearly. RB30 services holding up an S3 services trying to leave Dresden Hbf This was one of the first cases I discovered and it's related to circuit westbound S3 services bound for Tharandt/Freiberg (Sachs) that start at xx:35. But basically, in the case of certain services (not all of them), you get held up trying to leave the station by a RB30 services coming into Dresden that still miles away when the service first starts and could have easily left long before it even arrives, as soon below. Part of the problem is that I discovered with the RB30 services that they have no arrival times for any of those services apart from the key locations along this route such as the two end stations, Tharandt, Freiberg (Sachs) and Flöha, as well as Niederwiesa for RB30 services going westbound, but it could be more down to the fact that these service do not have a go-via point located somewhere between the final two stops going eastbound, Plauen and Dresden Hbf, and the subject of go-via points is going to come up consistently here. Freight Service 85303 starting at 12:13 jumps ahead of a Dresden bound S3 service causing it to fall behind schedule Now I noticed with the full-line freight services that run between Chemnitz and Dresden that they have a go-via point located between Edle Krone and Tharandt, which means that near of end of these services, you are following behind an S3 service. I don't have a problem with this as it means that the S3 service can still keep to time. But with the freight services that only go as far as Freiberg (Sachs) they do not have a go-via point located around that area. This isn't really a problem... until you get to service 85303 starting at 12:13. Now this service is the second part of a run that starts as a light engine move to Freiberg (Sachs), picks up a mixed freight consist and then takes it back to Dresden. On the return leg, the service encounters an S3 service starting at Tharandt at 12:00, heading back to Dresden. But because this service doesn't have a go-via point located just behind the station, it's allowed to overtake the S3 service no problem. This isn't a problem for the freight service as it just run the whole length of the service non-stop, but for the S3 service, it means that it has to wait a bit before leaving the station and as a result, falls slightly behind schedule. That's not all, because the freight service would later go on to hold up an S3 service departing Dresden at 12:35, causing that service to fall slightly behind schedule too. Again, this would of worked much better if the freight train followed the S3 service into Dresden rather than overtaking it, as it would allow to keep to time and you could only put the absence of a go-via point located behind Tharandt as the reason for why this seems to happen. But these two issues are nothing compared to the last one I have for you. S3 Depot service gets held up by an S3 service that still has a way to go before reaching Dresden Now there is this one S3 depot service, starting at 17:50, that is a simple move from Dresden Hbf into the yard at Altstadt. Seems like a simple service that should only take roughly 3 minutes to finish, right? Well, your wrong, as it seems to actually take 8-10 minutes to complete as it's held up getting into the yard by an inbound S3 service. But the thing is though, when the S3 depot move gets to the red signal it's held up at... …the inbound S3 service is all the way over by Freital-Potschappel. It's seems ridiculous that you have to wait all this time for a service you could have gotten well out of the way of by the time this service actually gets anywhere near Dresden Hbf. But that's not all, because the service is stuck waiting for this service to arrive on the entry in Dresden Hbf, it also means the RE3 service, starting at 17:52, can't leave the station as it's held up by this depot service and therefore, ends up falling way behind schedule. This is again a result of, like with the first issue brought up here, a lack of a go-via point located in between the final two stops, Plauen & Dresden Hbf, as these sorts of points do seem to help at prevent these sorts of circumstances on many other routes in TSW2, especially some of the more recent ones. Don't get me wrong, I do know that some services going in Dresden Hbf do have a go-via point located around this area, but it doesn't seem to have been enforced across every service that goes into Dresden Hbf, why I do not know. But one things certain to me, is that by having more go-via points on these services, it could go a long way to improving the pathing on this route around these areas and at prevent situations like these where services end up being held for long periods of time, resulting on them falling behind schedule. Also, if you have found any pathing issues with Tharandter Rampe, then do feel free to bring them up in this thread, as I am sure there's probably more out there that I haven't covered here so far.
Stabling services S3 at Freiberg (Sachs) There is a pathing issue with the S3 stabling service at Freiberg (Sachs) if you use a EMU BR442. The path routing eastbound before reversing into the stabling track 5503, goes via an unelectrified track, and can't be finished due to missing catenary wire... (Or is there a "hidden battery driving feature", that i miss???)
