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Does order of joining trains matter?

You are here: Home > Forum > General > General questions, comments, and issues > Does order of joining trains matter?

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Does order of joining trains matter? 31/01/2014 at 22:43 #54750
maxand
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I noticed this on the Westbury sim. Can't recall headcodes but it probably doesn't matter in this fictitious example and applies across the board.

Train 1A11 terminates at station X, platform 1. Its timetable concludes "J:1B22 N:1C33".
Likewise, Train 1B22 also terminates at station X, platform 1. Its timetable concludes "J:1A11 N:1C33".

No problem here if 1A11 and 1B22 are approaching X from opposite directions. They will join head-to-head. But what if they converge on X from the same direction? In my case, 1A11 approached X on the Down line; 1B22 happened to be parallel to 1A11 on the corresponding Up line, having got there from the shunting yards via a Reverse manoeuvre. Both are now facing Down, pointing towards platform 1.

Depending on which I allow in first, B's front will join to A's rear or vice versa. The Join command doesn't make the actual order implicitly clear. I suppose the only way to resolve this would be to check the arrival times of each and let the earlier one in first. But I don't make a habit of doing this and, as both were late on this occasion, let B in first. The join completed without problems.

I guess I had a 50% chance of getting the order right. But does it matter?

Last edited: 31/01/2014 at 22:48 by maxand
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Does order of joining trains matter? 31/01/2014 at 22:45 #54751
peterb
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Certainly in older sims, eg Trent, yes I believe it does matter. The sim will expect to merge trains in the order on the WTT, so you have to change the order around if it's disrupted.

Whether the code is the same for Loader sims, I'm not sure.

e: this is for three or more trains joining from the same direction. For two trains joining I wouldn't imagine it would be a problem if they're both facing each other.

Last edited: 31/01/2014 at 22:54 by peterb
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Does order of joining trains matter? 31/01/2014 at 22:49 #54752
AndyG
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Shouldn't make any difference, nor problems. As long as both trains are within touching distance within the join location (ie they have both 'arrived' there), they usually join up without any prompting.

Most common problem is one of the trains' TT hasn't stepped up at some place prior to the join location, and so thinks it's not ready to join yet...easily fixed up setting the TT current location to the correct point.

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Does order of joining trains matter? 31/01/2014 at 23:00 #54753
Steamer
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When there's only two trains joining, it doesn't matter- just get them in the same platform and 99 times out of 100 they'll join no problem. If they don't, a quick fiddle with the 'reverse' and 'shunt forward' commands in F2 sorts them out.

It does matter when there are 3 trains involved. Unless there's been a change recently, activities are executed in the order in which they appear in the timetable. For example:

Train X: Join train Y, join train Z, Form train A.
Train Y: Join train X
Train Z: Join train X.

Where X, Y and Z arrive from the same direction, scheduled to arrive in that order. However, if train X arrives, then train Z, they won't join- train X is 'looking' for train Y, and won't recognise the presence of train Z until it's joined train Y. When that happens, a fiddle with the timetable via F2 is necessary.

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Last edited: 31/01/2014 at 23:01 by Steamer
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Does order of joining trains matter? 31/01/2014 at 23:31 #54757
mfcooper
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It can matter in real life, but is very difficult to simulate .

At Victoria (Central) There are commonly joins and splits between a 4-car unit and a pair of 3-car units (6-cars total). These portions do different things before joining and after splitting. If they end up the wrong way round when joining, after spliting later on there are too many coaches on the planned 4-car journies, and too few on the planned 6-car journies.

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Does order of joining trains matter? 01/02/2014 at 03:44 #54761
Airvan00
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In the westbury sim there is one instance where it does appear to matter. No amount of shunting them together will get them to join if they arrive in the "wrong order" . I just go back to a saved version 30 minutes prior and hold the second train out, till the one that is timetabled to be first, is safely in the platform, then they join no problems at all. I lose less time that way, not a big problem.
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Does order of joining trains matter? 01/02/2014 at 09:47 #54768
postal
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" said:
In the westbury sim there is one instance where it does appear to matter. No amount of shunting them together will get them to join if they arrive in the "wrong order" . I just go back to a saved version 30 minutes prior and hold the second train out, till the one that is timetabled to be first, is safely in the platform, then they join no problems at all. I lose less time that way, not a big problem.
You can also make things happen by going into F2 and editing the TTs for the trains concerned to put things in the order you need them to happen rather than the order the TT writer planned.

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Does order of joining trains matter? 01/02/2014 at 11:55 #54777
John
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" said:
It can matter in real life, but is very difficult to simulate .

At Victoria (Central) There are commonly joins and splits between a 4-car unit and a pair of 3-car units (6-cars total). These portions do different things before joining and after splitting. If they end up the wrong way round when joining, after spliting later on there are too many coaches on the planned 4-car journies, and too few on the planned 6-car journies.
Plus if one of the units has planned maintenance or an urgent exam required at the end of the day, it will have been allocated to a diagram that gets it back to the depot. If you take it off that diagram without telling anyone, it could finish up in some remote siding somewhere and unable to enter passenger service the following day.

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Does order of joining trains matter? 02/02/2014 at 02:39 #54817
maxand
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Thanks for all your responses to date.

I'm not enthusiastic or very confident about fiddling with timetables yet, so I guess the bottom line is that whenever one sees a convergent join coming up, one should get into the habit of always checking the ETA of each component train, just as I bet signallers do in real life, but they probably know their area so well the order of joining becomes second nature after a while.

Last edited: 02/02/2014 at 02:40 by maxand
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Does order of joining trains matter? 02/02/2014 at 09:05 #54820
Forest Pines
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Another real life example - which is relevant to the Westbury area - is where you might be joining two different types of train which have different top speeds. When they part, it's important each goes on to the correct next service or the slower stock won't keep time.

The example I had in mind was 1F05 Cardiff-Portsmouth, which sets out from Cardiff as a Class 150/2 (2 coaches, 75mph) coupled to a Class 158/9 (3 coaches, 90mph). At Bristol the 150 is detached and the train runs forward to Westbury and Portsmouth with just the 158. If the 150 was sent forwards instead, it would lose time.

(I did once see it arrive at Bristol the wrong way round, incidentally - the 150 was shunted off the rear, delaying things by a few minutes. SimSig wouldn't automatically know what was wrong, though.)

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