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Can an activity cause the well-known "broken coupler" issue, or that issue is related exclusively to route building ??? I played an activity of mine several times without problems. In the meantime I modified the activity. The last time I played the activity the "broken coupler" issue put forward... Help !!! Thanks !!!
lisander, Have you edited the break value in the eng/wag files of your rolling stock? Based on earlier problems with this issue, I think most of us have increased this value at least to 5 (see example)Coupling ( Type ( Automatic ) Spring ( Stiffness ( 0N/m 5e6N/m ) Damping ( 0N/m/s 1e6N/m/s ) Break ( 5e7N 5e7N ) r0 ( 20cm 30cm ) )The coupling entry should be near the top of the file after you open it in wordpad or other unicode editor. Hope this helps.
Sharon Evans Glen Allen, Virginia Activities are what makes MSTS run.
You do stirr up an interesting point there. On one activity I made I had broken coupler troubles when driving across the switch at east Java. For testing purposes I modified the path so it started one block before Java, instead of in Shelby. To my surprise the unmodified couplers did not break in that set-up. So I think you are right, it is not something that just depends on the route, the path you create has something to do with it as well..Frank.
I've had problems with the broken coupler at the east end of cutbank, where there is a double crossover with a road crossing between the crossovers.A long time ago, I changed the .eng and .wag files' "break" values from 1.1 to 5.1, so those have been the settings I've used all along.I've been working on a simple activity where I run a 50 car double-stack from Shelby to Summit on the Marias Pass. All I want to do with this activity is run the train and see as many opposing trains as possible. Sort of an "explore route" with traffic...I tested this activity maybe 20 times while rolling downhill into Cutbank under dynamic braking at about 20mph (the speed limit is 30mph). Not one single problem with the train.Now I can't get thru this section at all! The train derails sometimes but usually the activity ends with the broken coupler message. I haven't changed the train or the speed at all...Through this section all this time, I've noticed that the "projected speed" in the track monitor (F4) would jump all over the place, going from 2mph up to 78mph and back again...Something seems to have changed, but I can't figure out what.Very frustrating...
What basically seems to happen is that MSTS is 'confused' about the location of the cars. It may be some kind of round-off error at the end of a long dynamic track without switches. The result is that a car driving across a switch suddenly 'jumps' to the front by sometimes as much as a meter, which causes these enormous in-train forces that cause the couplers to break. If the couplers hold the resulting movements can still cause the car to derail (I even had a derail at Cutbank once while I had the derail option off!!)I'm not a route-building expert but I sort-of expect that it might perhaps be solved by breaking dynamic tracks up into parts of 5 miles or less. This might help to keep the positional error within safe limits...Frank.
HiI think certain cars are prone to breaking couplers more than other cars even though both cars have the same coupler settings.I've watched one of these cars closely at very slow speed. The impression I got was that that particular car seemed to have a setting that was at or possibly just below rail level and it kept snagging. I don't remember which car it was but it was one of the original MSTS cars. Perhaps a design problem.Another thing I've done that seems to have helped (can't remember when I last broke one) is I disabled bounding box settings for all track sections. I did this by adding a '#' at the start of the Bounding Box lines in the .sd files. I just did the track and switch files in the Global\Shapes directory.Your mileage may vary - back up first before you experiment.GaryG
Take an engine or a car over a problem area very slowly (2mph or so), and pay close attention to the truck on the engine or car's PHYSICAL front, not the RAILROAD front. The truck will momentarily reverse 180 degrees, then flip back.On a car or engine with symetrical trucks this will be harder to see, so you may need to try it with different engines and cars. John Greenstone www.3dtrainstuff.com