Torturous turntable trouble - Qualvolle Probleme mit dem Plattenspieler (Looses something in translation)

[simonjackson1964]

A steam train pulls into a bay platform, and stops. The carriages it is hauling are uncoupled. another engine is sitting in a connected siding and reverses onto the train. This new locomotive is coupled up, and as soon as all the passengers are aboard, it sets off on its way back to where the train came from.

As soon as the departing train is clear, the locomotive that pulled the train in reverses back out into the siding the second engine was sat in, and from there makes its way to the turntable, reversing on due to the way the sidings are connected. Once on, the table swings around through 180° and the locomotive reverses off, now heading back the way it came, and parks up in the siding to await the return of the coaches.

Seems fairly straight forward? In fact pretty standard practice in the age of steam, if no run-around track was available (In fact, before electrification, they did the same with diesel locomotives).

And I have managed to automate the entire process except for one really annoying bit! The locomotive simply refuses to leave the turntable unless I manually set a speed for it.

I've tried everything! This is the current event (of many different variations) The loco leaves the track that connects to the turn table. First I check if it's actually on the turntable, because if it's going back the other way I don't want to do any of this.

The boolean "Just Turn Around" is telling the event that this locomotive is not heading for the loco shed or the coaling line. So far I'm not doing anything else but I believe in forward planning.

So first action, stop the loco. The previous event that heads it in this direction sets the speed to -20 so it stops on the table. I set the variable that pulled me in to this option false, just in case that was somehow bouncing back in and setting the speed to zero - I put that there when I was using a track contact to trigger the event.

Wait 2 seconds for the loco to get stopped, then swing the turntable around I only have settings 0 to 7, so 4 is a 180° turn. The boolean "Loco Turning.Turning" tells the track contact just beyound the next set of points to toggle them and send the loco back the way it came in. Two second delay for things to stop moving, and then set the trigger locomotive's speed to -30 so it reverses back out the way it reversed in.

 

Everything works fine, except that last action. I've tried it with two different locos, I've tried it without the time delays, I've even tried putting an event in to check if the loco stops and restarting it. That was interesting because the event triggered and must have attempted to do the restart, because it reset a variable designed to stop it restarting the train any other time... But the locomotive stubornly refused to move. There is something somewhere that is setting it's speed to zero repeatedly. And it has got to be in that event, because  when I give in and set the loco's speed manually , Off it goes, and as I said the rest of the events work fine, bouncing the loco from one to the next as it hits the track contacts.

[Dad3353]

Is the turntable connecting correctly to the exit track..? It sounds as if the loco thinks it's at the end of the line (or broken track...), so speed goes to 0.

Ist die Drehscheibe korrekt mit dem Ausfahrtgleis verbunden? Es klingt so, als ob die Lok denkt, sie sei am Ende der Linie (oder des unterbrochenen Gleises...), also geht die Geschwindigkeit auf 0.

[Goetz]

vor 4 Stunden schrieb Dad3353:

Is the turntable connecting correctly to the exit track..?

Must be, because Simons says it leaves the turntable when he sets it in motion manually.
And yet, you may still be right. Because if the 2 seconds delay is too short, the track isn't connected yet, when the speed command is issued.

 

vor 5 Stunden schrieb simonjackson1964:

I've tried it without the time delays ...

Have you tried a longer delay too?
Remember that the delay begins after you issued the turn command, not after the turntable reached it's destination.

 

vor 5 Stunden schrieb simonjackson1964:

Looses something in translation

in a funnier way than you may have realised, because a "Plattenspieler" is a record player.

Your original title is hilarious 

Bearbeitet 13. November 2020 von Goetz

[simonjackson1964]

Ahah... Yes. I just loaded a v5 layout that does the same thing in a simpler way, and that worked fine at v6. The delay is 10 seconds...

In truth, the reason for the short delay is because the loco has to cross the same double slip to get to the siding as the returning shuttle train uses to get from the main line to the bay platform, and on my initial manual attempts the mainline wasn't as long as it is now, and I ended up with a crash. So time being of the essence the deferrals are as short as I could make them... But that does make sense! I might slow the loco down a bit more on entry too. or use the "Set Current Speed" to stop it, because I think the TT is turning before the loco has stopped!

Thanks for the help guys!

 

Ahah ... Ja. Ich habe gerade ein v5-Layout geladen, das auf einfachere Weise dasselbe macht und das in v6 gut funktioniert hat. Die Verzögerung beträgt 10 Sekunden ...

In Wahrheit liegt der Grund für die kurze Verspätung darin, dass die Lok den gleichen Doppelschlupf überqueren muss, um zum Abstellgleis zu gelangen, den der zurückkehrende Shuttle-Zug verwendet, um von der Hauptstrecke zum Bahnsteig zu gelangen, und bei meinen ersten manuellen Versuchen versucht die Hauptstrecke war nicht so lange wie jetzt und ich endete mit einem Absturz. Die Verschiebungen sind also vorerst so kurz, wie ich sie machen könnte ... Aber das macht Sinn! Ich könnte die Lok auch beim Einfahren etwas langsamer machen. oder verwenden Sie die "Aktuelle Geschwindigkeit einstellen", um sie zu stoppen, da sich der TT meiner Meinung nach dreht, bevor die Lok angehalten hat!

Danke für die Hilfe Jungs!

[Goetz]

vor 8 Minuten schrieb simonjackson1964:

I might slow the loco down a bit more on entry too. or use the "Set Current Speed" to stop it,

You may also use the "Animation has come to a halt" event to respond to the turntable reaching it's destination.

Split the event in two, handle each part separately.

Better still: three events

1. send train to turntable
2. turntable entered - send it around
3. turntable destination reached - send off whoever occupies turntable

 

[simonjackson1964]

I timed the TT rotation at about 6 seconds, set the delay to 7, and away it goes. Hmm, I never thought of using that, I always assumed it was for cranes and barn doors and the like. Anyway, it's working now, thanks.

Now for the next bit.