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| Freight failures 09/10/2013 at 04:44 #49865 | |
flabberdacks
636 posts |
Hey all. Playing SwinDid, after watching ARS block an express in favour of a 45mph freighter for the 500th time (yes I know), I got to thinking... I don't see freighters reporting failures very much, if at all, which seems a little odd! I suppose it's got something to do with existing failures being triggered at stopping points. Could we bring in a system where freighters could also fail from time to time? They could just come to a stand in the middle of nowhere reporting 'engine overheat' or 'mechanical trouble' and stay there for a while before resuming. Or, if the TT writer were to program in a tabled stop or two (depending on the size of the sim), there could be a random chance that the freighter will call up there saying that their replacement crew is nowhere to be found and that they'd be delayed x number of minutes. Any ideas? Log in to reply The following users said thank you: birchy74, Banners88 |
| Freight failures 09/10/2013 at 08:44 #49866 | |
outofsection
149 posts |
... or how about say where hot axlebox detectors are installed (not sure whether the sim can handle these & which if any of the lines have them which our sims control) as hot axleboxes/binding brakes are not unheard of on freight wagons! Then you could have say a brake seizure/loss of brake air pressure failure on say the Saltley panel where on the numerous Saturday mornings I've travelled from Moor St south I've seen a container freight sitting in the up goods siding/loop in Small Heath station waiting for a Voyager or a London-Midland all-stations stopper to pass before heading for Banbury. He's sometimes there for quite a while, so there are quite a few potential problems to occur there. Maybe even vandals "tagging" or vandalising wagons as the train sits in the siding & driver gone to investigate!! Then of course you could always have the (in)famous FM Rail failure... "loco run out of fuel!" Now that could prove interesting to remedy in such a location as Small Heath! Or even one which happened to me last year on a charter... catastrophic wheel failure on a loco due to the parking brake left applied on the second class 67: this caused a severe flat which eventually became so bad that the loco had to be failed at Rugby! It made the ground shake at Watford Junction where we joined the train! Log in to reply |
| Freight failures 09/10/2013 at 12:24 #49870 | |
TomOF
452 posts |
A HABD is easy to add and trigger at Random withe the passing of a train (Carlisle has a dormant one in case the feature is ever put in) but what is hard is what actions to take. The signallers have a set of instructions as to where to send a train in the event of a HABD. Chances are that will be some siding where trains often exit the sim where the train needs to be split to isolate the offending vehicle so that has inherent difficulties.
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| Freight failures 09/10/2013 at 12:55 #49871 | |
jc92
3690 posts 
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" said:Could we bring in a system where freighters could also fail from time to time? They could just come to a stand in the middle of nowhere reporting 'engine overheat' or 'mechanical trouble' and stay there for a while before resuming. you can pause a train via the F11 menu if you are hosting, and tell the player that a train has halted due to XYZ. I have done this a few times. " said:
this already happens. I Suspect another problem with any form of engine trouble or mech failure is that you'd need to TT a rescue loco in. dragging brakes is a reasonable failure, as the train can simply be delayed while the driver/trainman/guard pulls strings and starts blowing up again. "We don't stop camborne wednesdays" Log in to reply |
| Freight failures 09/10/2013 at 13:36 #49874 | |
58050
2659 posts |
Personally I'd say the percentage of freight train failures today is alot less than 10 or 20 years ago. Two reasons for this:- 1. Locos & rolling stock on the freight railway today is more reliable than in days before the arrival of GM & other 'US' style traction units as well as the fact that the braking capabilities of the more modern freight stock has improved over the past 10 years or so. 2. The other point I'd make is the gact that there are less & less freight traffic running on the network today than in the BR days or post BR days. The number of places where there were concentrationa of freight traffic today tend to lie empty with only the weeds frowing over what were once busy freight locations. Toton, Bescot & Doncater to name but a few these days tend to be sparse in traffic compared to years ago. Some could argue that traffic patterns have changed due to the economic climate. Recently on BBC Look North there was a news item where the reporter was standing on the bank over looking the tracks covering Toton Upside or going back to ptr-privatisation Toton New Bank & Toton Old Bank sdgs. The whole place looked very sad as it was no longer in use, but from the camera shots there were more withdrawn & redundant Cl.60 freight locos occupiying the track space where at one time it was full of MGR traffic. I haven't been to Toton since I finished work on the freight side of the railways 8 years ago & to me that news clicp spoke volumes. I spend most of my time these days writing timetables covering the BR era & as the freight scene is nothing like that nowsdays I'd even go so far as to say 'Freight Failures' is there any point? It's something that rarely happens these days, something that I get told about when I speak to friends of mine who drive trains for Freightliner & DB. Log in to reply |
| Freight failures 10/10/2013 at 23:31 #49914 | |
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vontrapp
210 posts |
Of course there are class 4,6,7 and 8 failures but I never had any failures with these classes in the 70's 80's and 90's. I had DMU and loco-hauled passenger-trains fail. I have witnessed, recently, freight-trains fail or have brake problems; this delays passenger-trains!
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| Freight failures 11/10/2013 at 10:12 #49923 | |
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58050
2659 posts |
Freight train failures cover a multitude of sins. Passenger & freight trains both suffer from loco failures as well as brake problems, HABDs etc etc. Freight trains can also be stopped for DGIs (Dangerous Goods Incidents). I've lost count of the number of those I've dealt with during my railway career. When I was Duty Shift Manager at Stratford ROC in 1995/96 you could always be guaranteed that one of the stone trains from the Mendip Quarries over the B&H would activate the HABD at Urchfont, which then resulted in the train going forward at reduced speed into the loops at Woodborough to clear the mainline & wait for RST attention. That was regular as clockwork. Nowsdays there doesn't seem to be as many from the people I still keep in touch with who drive for DB or Freightliner. Whether thats to do with improvements in the wagons used or the fact that there are less freight services running these days.
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