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Tehachapi DE, or Tehachapi developers, Can you help with activity creation problem?I've been hanging out over in the MSTS forum, and this is my first post here. I'm another one of those newcomers and am just beginning to play around with activity creation. I've read all of the tutorials, help screens and searched this forum, but can't find the exact problem.My activity is the EB San Joaquin Daylight departing the SP Depot (OK the vacant grass-field on the SP Mainline) in Bakersfield at 12N. I want to meet a 12 hour late WB San Francisco Chief just out of Bakersfield, so I have it entering the ATSF main just out of Mojave at 10:20. This meet works great. I then added a WB SP reefer block just 10 min behind the Chief. Both trains run normal (right-handed) out of Mojave. As I run the VCR accelerated time play, the two trains follow each other just fine, until the WB reefer block hits the end of multi track at the W Cable Spur at 11:00 AM. As the Chief speeds on it's way westward past the loop at Walong, (several path sections and signal blocks ahead) my lonely freight sits for an unexplained red with no conflicting traffic. My player EB Daylight has not even started yet, so no opposing path has been laid in.Why do the WB signals not set up green for the following train?I also note that MSTS wants to automatically set my EB path to run irregular (against flow of traffic or left-handed) from W.Cable into Mojave, reluting in 40 mph running on approaches all the way in. I therefore set my path for this train to take the alternate route so it will run right-handed and at max permissable speed. By itself, the EB runs fine on the play preview.Ideas?
Marty Box Elder County, UT Home of the Golden Spike
RE: AI train stops behind other AI on Tehachapi DE
DO NOT USE THE PLAYBACK! It doesn't work. The only way to know is to run the activity.Kevin Arceneaux DEFAULT IS FOR DUMMIES Lone Wolf Activities Forum on www.3DTrains.com
RE: AI train stops behind other AI on Tehachapi DE
I'll try both, and let you know how it turns out. I did try this activity once before, the playback showed the freight running around the Chief, so I tried it in the actual sim, and sure enough, I met the freight first, with the passenger trailing behind.Thanks - I'll try running the game with just these two trains and let you know where I find the freight. Gee, I thought this was train simulation, not mystery Suprise train.
Marty Box Elder County, UT Home of the Golden Spike
RE: AI train stops behind other AI on Tehachapi DE
Thanks to all for your help. I have done some more experimentation. I am also very wary of the playback, as Kevin has mentioned - it isn't very accurate. Still it gives me a starting point, and generally seems to identify red light stand-offs. I did find that I was being inconsistent with passing paths - where my player train perhaps showed a particular siding as a passing path with optional pass box checked , but not all of my AI paths did for the same sidings. Since I really don't care what the AI does when I don't see it, I finally set some of the longer sidings for all paths to stay to the right, then made sure whichever sidings I had as passing paths, were set consistently for all paths in the activity. That did seem to free up a lot of the stalled AI trains. I did find that sometimes, one AI will catch up to another and actually tag on. When running my activity in a normal session, my Eastbound Daylight met a west bound excursion train, with a ATSF berk working as a mid-train helper dragging a block of reefers. Weird looking train - no, I didn't create it that way. Oh well.I guess the bottom line here is that activity creation is a real trial and error science, since no rules seem consistent. I did just find a more detailed activity tutorial which I will read, and perhaps get a better idea of how the AE works and it's rules.Thanks to all for the help. (I'll also try one on Marias, perhaps the signal system reacts differently on a default route?
Marty Box Elder County, UT Home of the Golden Spike