At this rate it will take ten times as long...

[simonjackson1964]

... To electrify my layout as Network Rail took to electrify the Great Western line!

Seriously, can someone come up with a spline base overhead catenary system please? I just spent two hours trying to put those damn wires in the right places, and every time I move one it decides it wants to turn itself through 180 degrees. I found I had to individually position each component, and manoeuvre it into place millimetre by millimetre. If I tried to drag it, it decided it wanted to be somewhere other than over the piece of track I wanted it over.

In the end I gave up. I'll just use diesels.

[hubert.visschedijk]

hello Simon,

There is this plugin you can use to place the catenaries automatically. Have you tried that one allready ? Its the "oberleitung setzen" plugin.

There is also a videos on youtube on it. No sound, but it might help.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz89Tu4c-7M

But i am sure there will be more response coming, to explain better then i do.

With kind regards,

Hubert

 

 

[Andy]

Hi simon,

Hubert was faster than me. If it needs another little video, I just made one. The things you need for (the catenary from Neo and the SX1-train), see the included MBP.

Andy

p.s. the 'train' should be on one line with the catenary in the beginning, because the catenary will always be placed relative to the train in the initial distance. Being not accurate, that just works fine in the sample because it's a circle.

oberleitung.zip

Bearbeitet 25. Juli 2018 von Andy
p.s.

[simonjackson1964]

Okay, thanks. that looks an awful lot easier...

I guess with junctions, the best thing is to run one way, then reposition the train at the post before the junction and run it the other way...

What about multiple tracks though? I mean obviously with a double track, you just run the catenary down both sides. But what about three or even four tracks...?

Prototype, of course... That's the Midland Mainline

 

But this is what I want to electrify...

I already discovered that the tunnel mouth and signals are too low, I have my work-around for those already. But basically I need a gantry that will span four tracks and two platforms, that I can hang the contact wires from.

Suggestions appreciated? I suppose as an interim I could fit the masts between the tracks...

[Andy]

Hi simon, you could combine masttypes. First use the plugin for the standard ones, then remove some and use the wide ones, like here:

 

[simonjackson1964]

That looks better than I came up with.... I was trying to use those before, they're the animated length ones which is really weird! But I hadn't spotted the "connect" feature. I'll give it a go.

Ah, but they don't have the "Connect" feature... What I came up with may not be elegant, but it works!

Bearbeitet 26. Juli 2018 von simonjackson1964
Add picture

[Andy]

Looks even more accurate than my one, but be prepared, there is a work in progress which will give us another system in the future. Just be patient, there will be anything to be done ever in any way - but that's the plan

Andy

[simonjackson1964]

I keep adding little tweaks to the layout... Like I just put black smoke rising from the power station's chimney, and white steam from the cooling towers!

Does anyone else find that building the layout and getting it all working the way you want is actually more fun that operating it? I find the frustration to be exhilarating, and then the joy of figuring out the solution and getting it working.

Like, when I first started, I had a real problem with railcars. The train has two locomotives, one front and one back. And I found that whenever the rear loco hit a slow section of track, it would take off in the opposite direction... Of course I worked out why fairly quickly. It's going backwards. Give it a speed of +20 and it will start going forwards!

I couldn't figure out a solution and couldn't understand why there are no "dummy" locos, like there are in "real" models. But, my solution to the problem of having a single loco on this layout that doesn't go around the loops but shuttles back and forth between the coal mine and the power station provided the answer. Because this loco needs to go backwards, but needs to be controlled by the same block signalling as all the others, the obvious solution was a couple of local variables giving it's main speed and slow speed, and then two more pairs, for positive and negative values that get set to the "master" pair just before it joins the main line. (Until that point, it will be under user control!) But of course it was obvious that I needed to have the same two variables on all the locos so that they were all controlled the same way... And of course, my trailing locos do NOT have them so no matter how many events they trigger they don't have a value to be set into the block speed variable. Speed remains at zero and the driving loco just drags them along!

I was really pleased when I figured that out...!