Creating consists

[sniper297]

Bit of confusion on this, in railsim you don't drive a "consist", you drive a "service", to make a service see this;

http://forums.flightsim.com/vbts/showthread.php?t=268225

So what's the point of a consist? If you're creating scenarios and want to duplicate the same or similar trains, you make up a train once, save it as a consist, and then you can use consists to place whole trains.

http://forums.flightsim.com/vbts/attachment.php?attachmentid=1817&stc=1&d=1203992941

First thing is to make a train, place an engine (optional, a consist can also be just cars) and add cars behind, sliding the cars back & forth to make sure they're coupled together and there are no overlaps.

http://forums.flightsim.com/vbts/attachment.php?attachmentid=1818&stc=1&d=1203992948

Next is to select the engine or one of the cars, then click the "consist" button in the top left flyout. This should really be labeled the "consist creation" button since it's the one you use to create a consist. Where a lot of confusion comes in, that button doesn't do anything unless you have an engine or car selected, if you do have something selected you get gray boxes above all the cars in the train when you click the consist button.

http://forums.flightsim.com/vbts/attachment.php?attachmentid=1819&stc=1&d=1203992957

Click on any of the gray cubes, and a little tab appears on the right. Move your cursor over there to pull out the right side flyout, type in whatever name you want to describe the consist.

http://forums.flightsim.com/vbts/attachment.php?attachmentid=1820&stc=1&d=1203992963

So now to use it, the middle flyout has a "consists" button (S, plural rather than singular), should be labeled the "consists PLACEMENT" button. Select one of the saved consists and place on the tracks, add a driver icon if desired, or edit the consist to remove the engine and add or subtract cars.

http://forums.flightsim.com/vbts/attachment.php?attachmentid=1821&stc=1&d=1203992970

Saved consists can also be used on other routes, here I changed the engine and added a driver icon after placing the C&NW Grain consist.

There's another "Use Consists" button in the bottom left flyout, that's primarily for keeping coupled trains together when you move them around. To replace or delete one car in a train turn the "use consists" button off, to move an entire train from one yard track to another turn the "Use consists" button on.

[OwainGlyndwr]

Anyone into Trainz will already be familiar with the concept of placing and saving consists in the editor.

It`s only the MSTS luddites that seem to find it hard to grasp. :D

Nice tutorial Jim. 9/10. :)

cheers,
Mike.

[Bill Hobbs]

Sniper,
I have the UK version of your PO&N. Kickstart shows a great number of loose consists associated with that. The same list of loose consists shows up when I look at other routes and scenarios using KickStart. Yet when playing with the consist locator feature, I can find only the one or two consists that I have made myself. The seem to be saved in the ConsistTemplate.bin file. They do not seem to reside anywhere in the individual route folders.
After writing the above, a thought occured to me and I went back to the shop and tested it on my RS computer. I had assumed that the "Loose Consists" shown in Kickstart in some way corresponded to consists that I might have access to to place on my routes. But his meaning is simply a listing of groups of cars and locos. So to make use of your "consists", I will need to go through the process of using the process you describe above to get them seaved in my ConsistTemplate.bin file so that I can use them.
I've put in some time learning to efficiently clone free roam scenarios, locate services at various points along the line, and place consists in the various yards so that I can grab a train, run to point A, change locos if I desire, and run a different train or shunt cars, etc. With Kickstart, I can save both the train scenario that arrives at A and any different loco that I pick up at A. It becomes somewhat like operating a number of different trains serially on my layout, changing back and forth as I see fit. This is about the limits of my operational interests.
Bill

[sniper297]

Mike, you said the "T" word! :eek: Yeah, you could also save consists in the MSTS activity editor consist editor, I often deleted all the default .con files and made my own so it wouldn't take so long to scroll thru the lists when populating yards. Very similar here, except a consist isn't drivable until you attach a driver icon to it. Major difference is you have to make up a consist from individual cars first, then use the "consist" (should be labeled "create consist") in order to save it AS a consist. And of course the same confusion applies with "loose consists", which in MSTS were saved in the .act file rather than the .con files. This is a bit different, with MSTS you took a "GP38_10 car mixed freight.con" consist and if you placed that as a loose consist it was saved in the .act file so the end user didn't need the "GP38_10 car mixed freight.con" file, if you used that as a service then the activity would crash unless that "GP38_10 car mixed freight.con" was in the consists folder on the end user's system. KRS don't have that dependency, whatever custom consists you create don't need to go along with the route or scenario.

What Bill is talking about is stealing (stop thief!) existing "consists", actually a train of loose cars coupled together.

http://forums.flightsim.com/vbts/attachment.php?attachmentid=2275&stc=1&d=1205215089

Too lazy to make up my own consists, I'm gonna steal these from that PO&N bum, so I click the consist (create consist) icon;

http://forums.flightsim.com/vbts/attachment.php?attachmentid=2276&stc=1&d=1205215097

As before, click any gray cube in a train of cars and all the cars coupled to that one go along with it. Type a name in the right flyout to save;

http://forums.flightsim.com/vbts/attachment.php?attachmentid=2277&stc=1&d=1205215107

And whatever consists you make that way can be used in any route. Note the single orange arrow thingy above the tanker, once the consist is placed it's just another train of cars, and can be added to or rearranged or delete some cars or move some cars to another track, a "consist" is merely a bunch of cars.

http://forums.flightsim.com/vbts/attachment.php?attachmentid=2278&stc=1&d=1205215113

You can, however, click on the "use consists" button in the bottom left flyout to select and move or reverse an entire string of cars keeping the whole thing coupled together. After reversing or moving uncheck the "use consists" button to go back to manipulating individual cars.

Again, couple things missing, all cars in consists are unloaded, so if you want logs on flatcars or whatever they have to be reloaded one at a time, if you save a string of loaded coal hoppers you have a string of empty coal hoppers. :mad: And of course saving a drivable consist with an engine you get an undrivable consist with an engine until you attach a driver icon after placing. Not perfect, but it does save a little time. :cool:

[Bill Hobbs]

Sniper,
It is easier and faster to use your strings of cars to generate some fast consists to populate my free roam scenarios. The flexibility of the KRS free roam scenario is a quantum leap beyond the old MSTS which did not allow the use of consists in the Explore route activity.
Relative to my comments about locating drivable services at various points on the route, I should call attention to something I noticed (and posted on the RS forum) a week or so back. There is a limit to the number of times one can change from one service to another within a given session. I found 2 changes, with the initial selection not counting. After that the brake-pipe line disappeared from the HUD and other problems showed up randomly. Must be some issue with the way the loco info is stored for retreival when moving between locos. In any case, it is easy to eliminate the problem: simply save the scenario, exit and renter the saved scenario and the issue seems to disappear.
So one can use a switch engine to assemble a train at point A, attach a road engine, drive to point B. change to another loco located at point B and drive on with a different train from there. Keeps things interesting with little effort.
Bill

[OCTheEagle]

Thanks for the tutorial! I figured the consist thing out a few days ago, but it's still great that there's a tutorial about it.

One question: If you place a consist, is there a way of changing the whole direction of the consist before placing them on the tracks?

[sniper297]

Place the consist, then click that "Use Consists" (actually manipulate whole strings as consists) in the lower left flyout. Then when you select an engine or car everything coupled to it is also selected, click on the orange arrow marker above it to flip the whole string. You CAN select that "Use Consists" button and just leave it on, but to manipulate individual cars you have to turn it off, just a question of how you're editing at the time.

[OCTheEagle]

Ah I see, I missed that bottom left option, cheers!

[jivebunny]

Place the consist, then click that "Use Consists" (actually manipulate whole strings as consists) in the lower left flyout. Then when you select an engine or car everything coupled to it is also selected, click on the orange arrow marker above it to flip the whole string. You CAN select that "Use Consists" button and just leave it on, but to manipulate individual cars you have to turn it off, just a question of how you're editing at the time.

I would recommend leaving the "Use consists" button unchecked and simply holding SHIFT down as you click a car - this will also select the entire consist and saves you from constantly checking / unchecking the button :)

HTH,

JB

[Bill Hobbs]

Seems that there is a lot of scattered knowledge about this subject out there. It really helps to see it come together. Somewhere down the road someone ought to put together a "RailSimulator for Dummies" type book, although RS would have done themselves a favor by not giving that opportunity away.

Bill