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I've been running the MP3.1 route and find that it's a big improvement over the default version. The only problem I'm having is with a coupler breaking just east of Cutbank, MT (the same place one would break in the default version). I'm assuming that it's due to a rough connection between two track sections. Is there any way to fix this easily (I'm assuming that it would involve going into the RE and trying to find the place where the two sections don't quite join up). I'm not too familiar with the RE, so any suggestions would be appreciated. Dick WilliamsThanks again to those of you who are bringing out all the nice route add-ons. Your work is surely appreciated!
The "Cutbank syndrome" is not actually caused by bad track, but rather a bug in the MSTS program, in which a small error can creep into the game's friction calculations. This error occurs when a train is going over two opposite switches simultaniously, like at the Cutbank trestle. The longer the train, the bigger the error becomes, then finally SNAP! you have broken couplers.Jonathan Nikiforovs. Milepost 180, CP Belleville Sub.
Some more follow up on the coupler/derailment problem east of Cutbank: I decided to go into the EXPLORE THE ROUTE activity and move a train of Amtrak Superliners across the crossing where the problem occurred. Using the #3 camera key, I moved off to the side of each car as it went across the crossing and watched what happened in slow motion (1mph). As the front of each car approached the middle of the crossing, it appeared to "catch" on the crossing, stretching out the coupling between it and the car in front. Sometimes the coupling held and sometimes it broke. When the front of the car would break free from its' "catch" it would leap forward, sometimes breaking the coupling between it and the car behind. The crossing I'm referring to is at lat/long = 48.62786/-112.31351 (the first crossing after entering the 315-degree tangent leading into Cutbank) at mp 1089.7. Going into the Route Editor, I examined the crossing and found that on both the eastbound and westbound tracks there is a 10-meter section of track that starts in about the middle of the northeast-bound vehicle land and extends to the southeast from the edge of the roadway for a distance of about seven tie spaces that is not selectable or identifiable. These two track sections have a different appearance (more detailed) than the two similar 10-meter sections that start from the same point in the roadway and extend to the northwest (these sections are identifiable as "Alt10mstrt.s"). I suspect that the two sections in question, although they appear in the visible database, do not show up in the trackage database that TS uses to actually run the train, leaving a 10-meter gap in that database in both the eastbound and westbound tracks at this point. I've got XTracks installed, using the version that came along with the Marias v3.1 download. Would appreciate any comments on this analysis and what I might do to fix it. Thanks. Dick Williams
Search on Marias and coupler and you will get many hits on this problem and how to get around it. This same problem exists in the original Marias route also, and some other routes.Bob Siederer Co-author of Marias Pass 3.1
Nope, it doesn't have anything to do with activities. It has to do with the length of track between nodes on the route. If they are too far apart, the sim messes up when it recalculates wagon position at a node crossing (which is at a switch) and causes itself problems. Change the coupler values to strengthen them as has been mentioned here many times and you won't have the problems.Bob Siederer Co-author of Marias Pass 3.1
