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"Engine will NOT couple or even budge consist in custom designed activity"

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lnghairedwizard (76 posts)
Oct-12-01, 10:21 AM (EST) "Engine will NOT couple or even budge consist in custom designed activity" Just started my second activity which happens to be for the Hobobken shore route and I have a player consist (gp 15 + 4 freight cars) where you are to drop the cars of on a track, take your engine on up to the wye to turn around and then runaround the freight cars and recouple on to them from the oppisite end but when I try to do this, the engine will NOT couple to the cars no matter how many times or how hard i try and the engine cannot budge the cars even on full throttle....Anyone have a clue as to why this is happening.....? (My only thought is the fact that the freight cars started as part of the player consist as opposed to being pick-up , then dropped to be run-around)PS--Once I get things rolling hope to upload some custom activities for some of the add-on routes using add-on rolling stock if anyone would be interested. (I'm about bored or bnsf on marias or NEC)Longhairedwizardbbzak@msn.com Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
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Subject Author Message Date ID RE: Engine will NOT couple or even ... rgarber Oct-12-01 1 RE: Engine will NOT couple or even ... lnghairedwizard Oct-12-01 2 RE: Engine will NOT couple or even ... rgarber Oct-12-01 3 RE: Engine will NOT couple or even ... sniper297 Oct-14-01 4 RE: Engine will NOT couple or even ... rgarber Oct-14-01 5 RE: Engine will NOT couple or even ... sniper297 Oct-14-01 6 RE: Engine will NOT couple or even ... rgarber Oct-15-01 7 RE: Engine will NOT couple or even ... sniper297 Oct-15-01 8 RE: Engine will NOT couple or even ... fgago Oct-16-01 9 RE: Engine will NOT couple or even ... lnghairedwizard Oct-23-01 10

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rgarber (314 posts)
Oct-12-01, 12:57 PM (EST) 1. "RE: Engine will NOT couple or even budge consist in custom designed activity" Bill,Okay, if I understand you right, after you come back from the Wye you want to push the cars? If so, the problem as you probably know is the front end coupler doesn't do something, but it doesn't work right. Here's what I do.first, you gotta approach real slow, no more than 2 mph. If no click then...push real hard.then... pull back slowly, and it will couple. Then you should be able to move the whatever using your throttle up real high.Rich Garber Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
lnghairedwizard (76 posts)
Oct-12-01, 03:22 PM (EST) 2. "RE: Engine will NOT couple or even budge consist in custom designed activity" Actually Rich, what I'm doing is I'm running around the cars "after" turning my engine so Im actually backing into the cars with my rear coupler but even useing your advise (i.e. pulling up and back into them again ) there is no effect the couplers WILL NOT engage each other nor will the cars move....Its as if the cars became a wall!!!One thing I forgot to mention though is that the cars are only dropped off by the player (at the behest of a displayed message) as opposed to dropping the consist off to satisfy a action event then picking them back up again to satisfy a second action event (plan to try that later but don't think I should need to just to be able to drop a consist and pick it back up shortly after)Thanks though!!!LongHairedWizard Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
rgarber (314 posts)
Oct-12-01, 09:04 PM (EST) 3. "RE: Engine will NOT couple or even budge consist in custom designed activity" My suggestion is only good for front end couplings. Trying to move a static consist won't be a problem even though it's not a part of the pickup/dropoff events. I'm clueless.Rich Garber Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
sniper297 (705 posts)
Oct-14-01, 11:07 AM (EST) 4. "RE: Engine will NOT couple or even budge consist in custom designed activity" Well, you mentioned "GP 15", which is the first I've heard of that, so I'm assuming it's a new download. Sometimes the "bounding box" in the .eng file is off a little, and the engine is fine as part of a consist, but trying to couple on to anything is impossible because the coupler is wrong. The front coupler bug is a well known problem, but I had the same thing on new SD40s with the rear coupler. I don't have a clue how to calculate the correct values for the bounding box, but I've found that hacking the "derail buffer force" from 200kN to 600 or 700 kN in the .eng file not only fixes the back coupler but also helps with the front too. It also has the added advantage of making the couplings more realistic (to me, I know the physics guys disagree completely) because you can couple on from 1 to 4 mph even on curves and grades, 5 to 6 mph bumps the car without coupling, and it takes a full 7 mph plus impact to get a couple hundred tons of locomotive to jump clean off the tracks, which somehow seems more realistic to me.Jim Ward
Port Ogden and Northern
As UNreal as it gets. Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
rgarber (314 posts)
Oct-14-01, 12:14 PM (EST) 5. "RE: Engine will NOT couple or even budge consist in custom designed activity" I know what you mean. I saw something like that happen. I was approaching something and looked the other direction away from the computer. I looked back just in time to see the engine get tossed off the track and the cars it hit remained stationary. Gollyyyyyyy I exclaimed, and went back to workI should've thought about the bounding box issues. So many places, so many issues. Rich Garber Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
sniper297 (705 posts)
Oct-14-01, 10:46 PM (EST) 6. "RE: Engine will NOT couple or even budge consist in custom designed activity" LAST EDITED ON Oct-14-01 AT 10:47 PM (EST)Derail buffer force is the thing that causes that. The kN stands for "kiloNewtons" some kind of physics thingie that expresses E=MC squared type of stuff that defines mass times velocity squared equals foot pounds of impact, or something. One of the math wizards could probably give you all that chapter and verse, but the dummies version is that freight cars are all set at 400kN, and for some odd reason a lot of engines get only 200 kN, which causes them to derail at ridiculously low speeds. I have no clue why this affects the coupling at speeds under 4 mph, but for some reason the hack always fixed the problem for me. Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
rgarber (314 posts)
Oct-15-01, 00:53 AM (EST) 7. "RE: Engine will NOT couple or even budge consist in custom designed activity" Well... now that you explained it with that e=mc2 thing.. I think I got a handle on it now. So the acceleration mass squared creates enough power while standing still to muscle a engine a million times its weight off the tracks. I think I saw that explained in a biology class in high school. But I'm with ya. I took copious notes too. Could you just run that by me again now that I got my pencil? Rich Garber Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
sniper297 (705 posts)
Oct-15-01, 09:49 AM (EST) 8. "RE: Engine will NOT couple or even budge consist in custom designed activity" That's what the constipated mathematician did, worked it out with a pencil. Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
fgago (3 posts)
Oct-16-01, 07:46 AM (EST) 9. "RE: Engine will NOT couple or even budge consist in custom designed activity" Hi,
I've written a tutorial "Running in reverse" that explains how to modify ENG, WAG and SD files to solve most of the problems associated with front and back couplers. No more broken couplers, no more bouncing cars. Now it is possible to uncouple from the back, run around the consist/rake, couple from the front and get on your way.
You can find the tutorial at trainsimfiles (http://www.trainsimfiles.net/cgi-bin/models.cgi?a=downloads)Saludos,
Paco Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
lnghairedwizard (76 posts)
Oct-23-01, 09:43 AM (EST) 10. "RE: Engine will NOT couple or even budge consist in custom designed activity" Finally figured out the problem.first I replaced the gp15 and I finally did manage to "couple" to the consist (using the rear coupler) but couldnt go forwards or back...then I read a thread on fixes for couplers on a couple of gondolas. Sure nuff!!...it was the conrail gon that was bein mean to me! replaced it and no more problems.Longhairedwizard Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

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