Royston Frieght Depot

I don't know what the stock counting parameters have been set to on Royston but it looks like you have exceeded them somehow.

I haven't had a chance to look at this issue yet, but the rolling stock accounting is:

Grain siding: 300/400m.
Sherriff's: 180/250m.
Freight depot: 140/240m.

The first number is the maximum length train that can enter or exit, the second is the overall capacity.

No other locations have capacity control, but of course single sidings have a built-in capacity.

The shunter is a bolshie character who doesn't want to get out of his nice warm hut into the rain and wind. If he can't see a train, he isn't going to stir just because you say there'll be one along later. Similarly, he won't tell you more than the absolute minimum when things go wrong because that involves interrupting his tea and newspaper.

Working through your numbers there should have been no issue with the trains. Was this a fresh run or had you tried things out before in the same run? It's quite possible that you'd taken out more trains than you'd put in during a test. Please try it again with a fresh run of the simulation. Again, if you get the complaint, save the game.

"Shunter claims they can't set the points."

This almost certainly means another train is sticking out of the siding and overhanging the points. This could be Dalgety's or the Freight Depot. To test this hypothesis, save the game, check on F2 if there are any trains in either place, use the "hand of god" to remove them, and see if the problem goes away. If not, again, I need the saved game.

"shunter complains of a lack of train when asked to set the points before train enters the Down loop"

The shunter is a bolshie character who doesn't want to get out of his nice warm hut into the rain and wind. If he can't see a train, he isn't going to stir just because you say there'll be one along later. Similarly, he won't tell you more than the absolute minimum when things go wrong because that involves interrupting his tea and newspaper.

Paths from Sherriff's: eek! I can see the problem. How the hell did that get through testing? Mantis 19766.

clive in post 106034 said:

Working through your numbers there should have been no issue with the trains. Was this a fresh run or had you tried things out before in the same run? It's quite possible that you'd taken out more trains than you'd put in during a test. Please try it again with a fresh run of the simulation. Again, if you get the complaint, save the game.

There should be a save attached in the original post but another, 'clean game' save is attached below (Royston_1985_FD_1.ssg). This time no message generated about insufficient stock but no train entered.

clive in post 106034 said:

"Shunter claims they can't set the points."

This almost certainly means another train is sticking out of the siding and overhanging the points. This could be Dalgety's or the Freight Depot. To test this hypothesis, save the game, check on F2 if there are any trains in either place, use the "hand of god" to remove them, and see if the problem goes away. If not, again, I need the saved game.

Saved game (Down_Loop.ssg) attached - this was a clean game with test train.

Also found that after a train was sent to the sheriff's siding, points were not set for FD, Down Loop or Dalgety sidings, despite Shunter claiming to have done so.

One thing I have noticed is that trains will happily draw straight up to K244 upon entering at the Freight Depot or leaving Dalgety Siding, but will wait till the shunter has set the points before leaving the Down or Grain Sidings.

clive in post 106034 said:

"Shunter claims they can't set the points."

This almost certainly means another train is sticking out of the siding and overhanging the points. This could be Dalgety's or the Freight Depot. To test this hypothesis, save the game, check on F2 if there are any trains in either place, use the "hand of god" to remove them, and see if the problem goes away. If not, again, I need the saved game.

Saved game (Down_Loop.ssg) attached - this was a clean game with test train.

Soton_Speed in post 106046 said:

clive in post 106034 said:

Working through your numbers there should have been no issue with the trains. Was this a fresh run or had you tried things out before in the same run? It's quite possible that you'd taken out more trains than you'd put in during a test. Please try it again with a fresh run of the simulation. Again, if you get the complaint, save the game.

There should be a save attached in the original post but another, 'clean game' save is attached below (Royston_1985_FD_1.ssg). This time no message generated about insufficient stock but no train entered.

When I untick "shunt move" on 0S03 and give it an entry time, it enters. So this is something to do with shunt moves, which is not my area of expertise. According to the saved game you have between 0 and 22 metres of train in the Freight Depot. I haven't worked through your timetable to see what happened (and saved games don't record that).

If you want to investigate for yourself, .ssg files are just zip files containing an XML file. Search the XML for "<TLOC ID="K244F"> and look for the MaxRollingStock and MinRollingStock values (the latter won't appear if it's zero).

Soton_Speed in post 106046 said:

One thing I have noticed is that trains will happily draw straight up to K244 upon entering at the Freight Depot or leaving Dalgety Siding, but will wait till the shunter has set the points before leaving the Down or Grain Sidings.

Giving the shunter permission to let the train enter at Grain, Sheriff's, or Freight Depot is taken as also instructing him to set the route out to 244 or 249 if he can (if he can't, he'll phone you). Dalgety's and the Down Siding work differently, so the trains shouldn't move without permission.

I thought all this was in the manual.

On a new session, shunt moves un-ticked and ordinary trains used with no entry times but governed by rules.

Freight Depot starts off with MaxRollingStock=240 and MinRollingStock=0.

The entry into FD of 17m train does not alter these values.

Thanks Clive. Let me know if you need any further testing done.