PC (sherman Hill) Sd70ace Stuck Going At 30mph On A 1.5 Grade

Hi Train Community , So Not sure if this is right forum section for this but recently I started to do Sherman hill (Cheyenne yard to Laramie yard 1233 Automotive) and I've been wondering if any of you guys know how to set up the 4 ACe's (3 in the front 1 in the back) cause I've tried to do the same set up like in sand patch grade but it ends up still going 30MPH on the 1.5 grade so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong snice the ACe's are a bit weird for me to control and set up :/

 

Good news, sherman hill is more of a realistic freight route so what you are experiencing is supposed to happen.

Once you load in, press banking comm (ptt button I think on the radio thingy). Make sure you don't touch anything before you turn that on, then turn on the three switches you always have to turn on in freight locomotives. Set up the brakes to lead and cutin. Insert reverser, go off. On the longer trains, the most I will get is 23mph even with banking comm on. You may go slow, but there's a lot of power. Slow, but mighty

Also since you're on pc, you get consists that are double the amount you see in the older freight routes like clinchfield and spg. The longest trains are 1.6 miles long (~105 freight cars with the locomotives). Heaviest trains are close to 12000 tons. You're going to go slow cuz it's reality. You are going uphill on a steep gradient (1.5%) and with 3-5 engines, hauling close to 10000 tons. As long as you have banking comm on, you will only be able to achieve 20-30mph max and when you're going downhill, don't go above 30 cuz dynamic brakes aren't effective above that and you will have a runaway train.

Dynamics can hold the train downhill if you go at 30mph or below. If you need more brakes, you can add in automatic brakes, but remember to bail off independent as soon as you apply/increase auto brake cuz it will override the dynamic brake. Using only automatic brake to control the train basically wears out the brakes quickly and overheats and it takes ages for the brake pressure to come back to normal. Basically, if you keep on applying and releasing automatic brake before it recharges fully, you get less effective braking and eventually fails to even stop the train.

 

Ah thank you for the knowledge! Kinda answers but doesn't answer my main question, which is do I have to turn off radio on the 2 locos behind the lead loco and switch headlight control to controlled from unit coupled at either end, On the rear loco at the very back do I need to do the same for headlight control and turn on radio plus the 3 main switches etc.

 

In terms of setting up the locomotives, you would have the three switches off in each trailing loco. For the most part, you won't have to check each loco since sometimes, it is done automatically. I have attached a few pages from a manual of another dlc, cane creek and it tells you how to set it up. I couldn't include all the different ways to set it up since the file size would have been too big. If you are on the steam page, you can download the manual on some routes. There's also instructions on how to set up a dead loco, etc. There is a youtuber who goes by the name of nealtv8 who does the whole setup too if you want to have a look.

 

Oh wow I wish I knew about this file, This will help alot, Thanks for the Help!