Replies to telephone calls

Sorry Drive the job's up the wall at the moment. You'll be there for a while so screw 'er down amd admire the scenery.


Kev

KymriskaDraken in post 114813 said:

Sorry Drive the job's up the wall at the moment. You'll be there for a while so screw 'er down amd admire the scenery.


Kev

I assume that is a post translated message of the more normal message ;)

Nowadays, with GSM-R and ways/means of the signaller contacting the driver I'd agree with you. But that's only a very modern (last few years) invention. Previously drivers would have to check in regularly as the signaller would have no way of contacting them.

Dealing with lots of calls is part of the job - tune it out and prioritise. There's no score for the fastest answered telephone call.

Nowadays, with GSM-R and ways/means of the signaller contacting the driver I'd agree with you. But that's only a very modern (last few years) invention. Previously drivers would have to check in regularly as the signaller would have no way of contacting them.

JamesN in post 114814 said:

Nowadays, with GSM-R and ways/means of the signaller contacting the driver I'd agree with you. But that's only a very modern (last few years) invention. Previously drivers would have to check in regularly as the signaller would have no way of contacting them.

But were're talking about 2015 with the Derby scenario that I'm playing and there are a lot more modern era sims as well. In what era would the signaller have become aware of these faults? As a matter of interest, what would today's signaller tell the driver? I doubt he would just say phone back in 15 minutes.
Now, I know as much about coding as I do about chemistry, i.e. nothing, so if it's not possible, I'll put up with the phone calls as long as I'm given enough time to go to the loo, although there is always the pause button isn't there?

bugsy in post 114819 said:

JamesN in post 114814 said:

Nowadays, with GSM-R and ways/means of the signaller contacting the driver I'd agree with you. But that's only a very modern (last few years) invention. Previously drivers would have to check in regularly as the signaller would have no way of contacting them.

But were're talking about 2015 with the Derby scenario that I'm playing and there are a lot more modern era sims as well. In what era would the signaller have become aware of these faults? As a matter of interest, what would today's signaller tell the driver? I doubt he would just say phone back in 15 minutes.
Now, I know as much about coding as I do about chemistry, i.e. nothing, so if it's not possible, I'll put up with the phone calls as long as I'm given enough time to go to the loo, although there is always the pause button isn't there?

The rule book (S4) states that the driver should contact the signaller again every five minutes, unless alternative arrangements have been agreed

So what about a 'call back in <blank that the operator fills in> minutes option, for those really [railway equivalent of awful] days? (Of course, you run the risk, if you select too-long a time, that you end up needing to contact that driver. Waiting for him to ring back then creates the next disruption of your day, without a single failure in sight. But hey, that's the way it goes on this job.)

kbarber in post 114826 said:

So what about a 'call back in <blank that the operator fills in> minutes option, for those really [railway equivalent of awful] days? (Of course, you run the risk, if you select too-long a time, that you end up needing to contact that driver. Waiting for him to ring back then creates the next disruption of your day, without a single failure in sight. But hey, that's the way it goes on this job.)

Or, when he originally phones in, just ask him to be patient and wait for a proceed aspect.

So what about a 'call back in <blank that the operator fills in> minutes option, for those really [railway equivalent of awful] days?

(Of course, you run the risk, if you select too-long a time, that you end up needing to contact that driver. Waiting for him to ring back then creates the next disruption of your day, without a single failure in sight. But hey, that's the way it goes on this job.)

You can authorise a driver to pass signal at danger / examine the line without waiting for the driver to call first using the F2 screen. Right click >signalling options.

Nowadays, with GSM-R and ways/means of the signaller contacting the driver I'd agree with you. But that's only a very modern (last few years) invention. Previously drivers would have to check in regularly as the signaller would have no way of contacting them.

Dealing with lots of calls is part of the job - tune it out and prioritise. There's no score for the fastest answered telephone call.

Redbusman in post 114834 said:

You can authorise a driver to pass signal at danger / examine the line without waiting for the driver to call first using the F2 screen. Right click >signalling options.

I think that is perhaps what pedroathome meant when he wrote "SimSig cheaty tools like F2".

kbarber in post 114826 said:

So what about a 'call back in <blank that the operator fills in> minutes option, for those really [railway equivalent of awful] days?

Certainly that's possible. It's a core code change, so if someone puts it in Mantis it might happen one day.

kbarber in post 114826 said:

So what about a 'call back in <blank that the operator fills in> minutes option, for those really [railway equivalent of awful] days? (Of course, you run the risk, if you select too-long a time, that you end up needing to contact that driver. Waiting for him to ring back then creates the next disruption of your day, without a single failure in sight. But hey, that's the way it goes on this job.)

Or, when he originally phones in, just ask him to be patient and wait for a proceed aspect.

JamesN in post 114814 said:

Nowadays, with GSM-R and ways/means of the signaller contacting the driver I'd agree with you. But that's only a very modern (last few years) invention. Previously drivers would have to check in regularly as the signaller would have no way of contacting them.

Dealing with lots of calls is part of the job - tune it out and prioritise. There's no score for the fastest answered telephone call.

Simsiggers who have been playing for a year or more may have noticed that as soon as a train comes to a stand at a red signal, you receive a message notifying you that its waiting there (without a phone call). This, I can only assume, is a simulation of the driver pressing the SG button on the GSM-R, which is the way we let a signaller know we're stood at a red signal in the first instance if no emergency has taken place. So, as far as I'm concerned, the game already acknowledges that GSM-R exists, and that drivers are using it correctly.

But I agree that it would be nice to have a more flexible driver-to-signaller interface (as no doubt some manager or other on the railway would call it) so we could tell the buggers to stop calling in all the time. :)

bugsy in post 114828 said:

kbarber in post 114826 said:

So what about a 'call back in <blank that the operator fills in> minutes option, for those really [railway equivalent of awful] days? (Of course, you run the risk, if you select too-long a time, that you end up needing to contact that driver. Waiting for him to ring back then creates the next disruption of your day, without a single failure in sight. But hey, that's the way it goes on this job.)

Or, when he originally phones in, just ask him to be patient and wait for a proceed aspect.

What about if there is a good reason you woulden't be able to get a proceed aspect?

For example, been points failure in advance, and between that, a track dropping. Points get fixed, now you'd still have to wait for the track to be fixed before being able to authroise the train past the signal at danger.

Or, if the signal you have routed upto is a fixed red. Possibly wrong routed, or other cause. Accidently telling the driver to wait the signal until it clears then would mean game over without, shall we say, SimSig cheaty tools like F2.

James

IRL a Driver probably wouldn't just sit there for hours on end waiting for a clear signal. If I had been waiting for more than five minutes for a Driver to call in I'd be asking another train to investigate (Train a long time in section regulation).

Kev

kbarber in post 114826 said:

(Of course, you run the risk, if you select too-long a time, that you end up needing to contact that driver. Waiting for him to ring back then creates the next disruption of your day, without a single failure in sight. But hey, that's the way it goes on this job.)

At present the driver is always attentively watching the signal waiting for it to clear, no matter how long the wait. I think there's a Mantis entry somewhere to make her less attentive for the first part of the wait.