latest news!

[kujuSabrina]

Hi all,

It's very, very, busy round here at the moment! But I've managed to squeeze another news article out to you that highlights another feature available in Rail Simulator, before we unleash the demo at Leipzig!

Please visit www.railsimulator.com

[jfinney]

That's one feature i know i am going to like!
john
http://forums.flightsim.com/vbts/up1/87778.gif
Gone but not forgotten!

[OTTODAD]

Well done, Sabrina !

I remember mentioning something like that in one of the KRS forums:

http://forums.flightsim.com/vbts/up1/109490.jpg

But if you give us too much of that to start with, what are you going to do for an encore in future releases ? ;-)

O t t o

[X995]

This sounds interesting for an old TRS user. Now we just need some "surveyor like" way to create our own routes.

[BNSF4723]

One of the features I always thought Trainz got down well and hoped MSTS could have it. Should make for awesome playability. I know I had fun with it in TRS2004.

[Nscale1700]

As I read that article, I was very impressed by the idea and how clearly it was described. I began to think that some people would complain about how containers don't vanish in the real world, but I thought up a way to satisfy the super-prototypical folks out there: stack more static containers in front of the "vanishing point" for the actual loads!

On a different note, I would like to ask two questions:

1. Will the container loading work for North American Double-Stack trains? Flatbed container shipping and double-stack intermodal are two different ballgames.

2. Will the loading/unloading of bulk loads (let's use coal for an example) work for old bottom-unloading cars as well as modern rotary-dump cars?


I'm glad to see that the KRS crews really are working hard to please a large audience in Rail Simulator! Keep up the GREAT work!

[mrmgp]

I'm just waiting for someone to start bitching about this feature...

[cbq311]

OK, I will.

Other than for loading and unloading of unit coal trains and passenger trains, the operating crew is very seldom there when a train is loaded. And for loading unit trains, they have special controls that do most of the work, all they do is keep the units in a specific run setting. Oh, joy, imagine sitting for 6 or more hours and advancing 1 mile. I'd rather watch grass grow. And in the PRB, there are crews that that is all they do. Run the trains through the loadouts.

For instance, Otto shows loading a train right off the boat. Doesn't happen, but, IIRC, only on 1 dock in the US. They are rubber tired out to the ready tracks and then loaded on on the well car, etc. By the time the engines are attached to a stack train, it is already loaded and yard air has been used to charge the brake system. I'll check after I get off of work. I have a bit of info handy I can check and verify that.

Eye candy. Adds nothing to it, kinda like adding a lifelike or Bachman tipple to your train set.

[brooksy]

Maybe not nowadays, but there was a time. I can see some great potential for this feature provided we have ready access to altering the base concept.
Cheers

[mrmgp]

I can see this as an ambience eye candy feature, for example, when picking up or dropping off cars at an industry, you see other freight cars being loaded or unloaded. But as far as real-world operation, you are right. Unless you are running a unit coal train, you as the engineer won't be sitting there waiting for your cars to be loaded or unloaded. Not an activity I forsee even the most avid simulators of real world railroading wanting to run.

But this could be an interesting behind the scenes feature. If KRS has a save activity feature, you could set up an activity where you drop off freight cars and then have to come back a day or so later and pick them up again after they have been loaded or unloaded.

[OTTODAD]

I think that this "Containers" feature is part of a general set of loading / unloading functions to cover other animated activities, involving drivers having to move the trains as required, like loading coal or ore from a stationary chute into hoppers.

This could be done similar to filling a diesel loco with fuel. Drive an empty hopper into the correct position under a chute, press a key and it will be filled. Move the train somewhere else, position a hopper in the right place and pressing another key will empty it into whatever storage area, with a provision that a hopper can not be filled or emptied unless it is in the correct place ! ;-)

Here is a WUPPER-10 animated containers crane which, moving from one end of it's tracks to the other, picks up a container and then lowers it again:

http://forums.flightsim.com/vbts/up1/109496.jpg

Mind you, they could have placed the containers on the ground facing the same way as they lowered one ! ;-)

http://forums.flightsim.com/vbts/up1/109497.jpg

Would be great if these and other cranes can actually be operated with keyboard keys to do their job, switching to their cabs like will be possible between trains and their cabs.

In the latter case a freight train can be assembled by a shunter, the shunter uncoupled from the train and stored in a siding, the driver then switching to a 4-locos set to couple onto the train and then take it into the mountains. Or leave the cab of an AMTRAK trainset arriving at Phili station, have a break and then take another one back to Washington ! ;-)

http://forums.flightsim.com/vbts/up1/109498.jpg

Would it also not be fun to forinstance drive cars onto a UK-Chunnel train before entering and after leaving the cross-channel tunnel ? ;-)

I am, sure that we are going to see more of this in future versions of KRS, depending on how the original release is going to be received !

O t t o

[kujuSabrina]

>As I read that article, I was very impressed by the idea and
>how clearly it was described. I began to think that some
>people would complain about how containers don't vanish in the
>real world, but I thought up a way to satisfy the
>super-prototypical folks out there: stack more static
>containers in front of the "vanishing point" for the actual
>loads!
>
>On a different note, I would like to ask two questions:
>
>1. Will the container loading work for North American
>Double-Stack trains? Flatbed container shipping and
>double-stack intermodal are two different ballgames.
>
>2. Will the loading/unloading of bulk loads (let's use coal
>for an example) work for old bottom-unloading cars as well as
>modern rotary-dump cars?
>
>
>I'm glad to see that the KRS crews really are working hard to
>please a large audience in Rail Simulator! Keep up the GREAT
>work!


Hey,

We are implementing Bottom Unloading for now, we look forward to what the community can do with Rotary and tipper loading J As for double stacking, unless they come already stacked on top of each other, this is a further development that we can not prioritise for this version of Rail Simulator.

[TrainFanAmtrak]

Wow more Realism this game is getting better and better. Cant wait to play this game.

[ragtimer]

The most boring thing about driving trains is sitting at the terminal whilst your train is either loaded or unloaded.

[OTTODAD]

The most boring thing about driving trains is sitting at the terminal whilst your train is either loaded or unloaded.

Now if you could switch from your driver cab into a crane's cab and load or unload your train then that could help you pass the time in a sim ? ;-)

But getting hoppers loaded from a stationery chute, do you not have to move your train wagon by wagon to get them filled, or is a local shunter doing that ?

O t t o

[ragtimer]

Hi Otto,No we drive the train there,move it wagon by wagon as it is loaded/unloaded by grab or bottom discharge or top fill then take it back to wherever.One can get very bored as the rule book forbids any kind of radio/TV etc and there are only so many sudoku puzzles to solve!.Anyway,I thought this is supposed to be a Train simulator,not a crane simulator.

[OTTODAD]

Anyway,I thought this is supposed to be a Train simulator, not a crane simulator.

:7 :7 :7 :7

Look at it this way, Peter !

Loading passengers, freight, cars, etc, onto trains is part of what trains are for and the more hands on simulated activities are provided the more fun users will have. ;-)

Just imagine if you could forinstance use track laying equipment to create routes like in reality instead of doing so in a Route or World Editor. It would be the ultimate in Train Simulations ! :7

O t t o

[Rich P]

I like the idea of working engineers trains. It would give me an excuse to use the vast fleet of grey and yellow 47s I always accumulate anyway! :)

On a serious note, I am glad that KRS is going to be more 'interactive' than MSTS or BVE. One problem I have always had with MSTS and MSFS is that I often feel like something of a 'taxi driver'. No offense intended, but this especially true running unit trains on some US routes, where all you do is move the throttle for four hours or more. At least now, I will be able to interact with the environment. It also helps to provide something more of a 'story' for the run, which to me at least has always been an important part of the sim experience, in any context.

[SurvivorSean]

This is something that I think is at least an improvement if configurable properly. One thing that actually turned me off of Trainz was the eye candy bring your car up to an industry and see it load and unload. As already mentioned cars just don't load or unload the minute they reach the industry.

If I read this right it will only be for bottom load/unload in this version. Could be OK but time compression will be interesting. For instance I'm sure some will want to take the loads and unloads right away ala trains. Realistically it takes hours to do. I just hope were not left with the inbetween time frame and stuck to say having it take 5 to 10 minutes and it's done. Hopefully this is configurable as I'd have it load and unload prototypically and as suggested switch over to something else. It would definately be neet to be running a through train by an industry that is loading woodchips.

On a side note some realistic things get very mundain and boring. I operated a yard for FYM at Sterling Heights, MI that I found was just that. 7 tracks of loading platforms that could hold 4 cars each and taking the string of 28 and cutting them down back and forth 7 times for each track seems like work too much for me. So hopefully the switch to something else feature will let me try out the boring job for a bit, but still allow me to have some fun somewhere else when I'm bored. I just hope that corners aren't cut and the time is compressed to make it enjoyable as then it becomes a toy.

Thanks

Sean