Jim,I've continued to put mileage on the beta version of PO&N9, all the latest files are in place as of today 17th Sept.I was approaching Port Ogden from Westcott, coming in over the bridge that used to be a headshunt, I intended to head up the South Pass but missing the switch and turned right by Jim's Junkyard and started heading towards St Marys. I stopped by signal/junction 221 and stared to reverse back in order to gain the South Pass, I could only move back about half a car length. When I examined the train I found that the points that form the crossover from the Westcott line to the North Pass had switched under the train and my revrse move had been stopped by a vehicle splitting the points.To enable the reverse move I had to pull forward until the whole train had cleared the points, reset the crossover then I was able to reverse back.Is this a bug? or is that how that particular set of points is supposed to operate?Alan
Hotmetal
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The switch you refer to didn't change under your train, you were coming from the curved part of a trailing point switch and the points were set against you, since all switches default to straight ahead.http://www.train-sim.com/cgi/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=23168&forum=DCForumID3First post in that one shows the problem and how to avoid it, post #12 shows the alternative method of uncoupling the cars to gain control of the switch. In your case that's more complicated, since there's a trailing point automatic switch just beyond the manual switch.
It can still be done, but you have less room for error, you need to uncouple the engine from the cars and pull forward just far enough to get the back coupler of the loco past the base of the manual switch without going beyond the base of the autoswitch. Otto did a whole mega thread on this one recently, the short version is that when your path goes thru the switch it will autoset for you when you approach a trailing point from the curve. If you're off the path then it won't, unless it's (A) part of a wye or reverse loop and (B) the moon is in Taurus, Virgo, or Capricorn. Well, according to Dionne Warwick, the official PO&N Psychic that's the way they work, but actually "on the path" is a slippery concept. In explore route mode everywhere is "on the path", in activities the track configuration plays a part. If you're actually on an official path in the activity it will autoset, if you're off the path it only autosets when confused by wyes and/or loops.Incidentally,"coming in over the bridge that used to be a headshunt", somebody needs to do a British-American translation dictionary. My guess is "headshunt" means "switchback", but a complete list would be helpful for "two nations seperated by a common language"!