220hotwheels

Hi Goetz I have also noticed that due to so much meddling with the Bentley I seem to have a train or two out of position. This has now been corrected. You will also no doubt have numerous large question marks for both 2 trains, their carriages and a couple of cars. If this is any issue I can supply the appropriate file to correct this anomaly. These are The Flying Scotsman, The Mallard, and 2 BMW cars. Kind regards Pete

Having looked into this I can see my mistake, it should be a number and not a keyword. The sole purpose for this TC is to stop vehicles entering the level crossing if the way ahead is not clear, i.e. if the traffic light 'A' Nunthorpe Road is red. I've now made the correction. Many thanks Pete

Thanks Goetz. My trouble is that I tend to get side tracked, have a great idea and then set about implementing it, not always to the best effect. Pete

Thanks Herman, yep I found that too by going back over everything. Kind regards Pete Thank you very much Goetz. That was meant to be the start point for the return of the Bentley to Low Wood but I will remove it for now and rethink at a later date. I am also looking into the event TC4a-additional crossing control. Kind regards Pete

Hi Goetz I do very much appreciate your offer of help. I do think I am beginning to overthink this problem. I have attached the layout along with the outward route shown. When I did a quick run through the Bentley failed to stop at the second junction as well as the traffic lights, but I only went that far before stopping. To start things off just set the speed for the Bentley to -8kph. Apologies for such an incomplete layout, it is very much a work in progress with alterations and improvements taking place all of the time. Kind regards Pete A layout inspired by York station.mbp

Hi Goetz Thank you so much for your solutions. As I'm sure you have already noticed Sualokink has also offered a similar solution and my reply to him is perhaps self explanatory. It never ceases to amaze me just how complex elements of MBS are. Having set the route in 4 parts following the advice from Herman I have found that sometimes it will work OK and on other occasions the section of route set is replaced by a route set for another vehicle. I am wondering if it might be prudent to remove the Bentley Cabrio and replace it with a completely new on to see if this might solve the confusion with the other routes. Anyway, much head scratching is now the order of the day in the hope that those little grey cells will stop dancing about and all line up with the correct, final, solution. Once again many thanks for your help. Kind regards Pete

Hi Sualokink Many thanks for your solution. As you have seen it follows very closely the solutions offered by Goetz and in all 3 cases the car stops on exit well before a car would actually stop under the same circumstances. This is perhaps why I have had so much trouble, I have tried to create as close to reality as possible with the car stopping right at the point where it would in real life. That said I do seem to have got round that to a point, the point at which the route is set seems critical in ensuring the car remains on the left hand side of the road on exit. Another, self inflicted problem is the space in which I am able to set start and end route points. At the moment the car pulls into the drive and heads for the garage on the right. After a short stop it then reverses out, stops before moving forward, opening the gates and then setting the exit route. It stops at the junction with the road before moving off. This now works fine but trying to set the complete route is proving a nightmare. Clearly my understanding of what is required is still not quite there. Herman pointed me in the right direction by using the "set target" element of EV and whilst I have been able to get so far with the route using this method I find that for some unexplained reason the route will suddenly simply disappear. More investigation is required. Anyway once again many thanks for your solution. Best regards Pete

Hi gmd Typical of me, I know what I am trying to say but don't explain it properly for others to understand. Basically the layout that I am working on is designed with right hand drive vehicles. Setting the route for all thus far has been no problem. However I now have to set the route for a Bentley Cabrio to leave the owners property and head into town to visit a friend in her apartment. So far so good. The junction into the property is a standard single lane junction as per the initial screenshot. The issue that I had was that despite setting the route to depart through the gates, do a quick round trip (for experimental purposes only) and then return to the property. However I could not get the Bentley to follow the route set, it simply departed heading across the road and onto the opposite side as if it were a left hand drive vehicle. Since posting my question Herman has come back to me with a solution which works fine, see attached small demo layout, but in trying to apply this to my actual layout it is not working as I had hoped. In fact the Bentley seems to have a mind of it's own and will follow the set route for so long and then it simply goes it's own sweet way and the set route is lost. Other vehicles follow a similar route without issue. To try to explain the problem I have made a short demo. A) uses Herman's method and works perfectly with no rear twitch when arriving back. B) Is the initial standard junction that has given me so many headaches. C) Is my solution to the problem with B but it produces rear end twitch on return. D) Is a modification of C with much reduced rear end twitch. The solution would seem to be to follow the advice offered by Herman and to split the route into sections. My attempt at this has so far been a bit unpredictable which would suggest that I am doing something wrong. Having set the routes as A to B, B to C, C to D I find the route disappears once the Bentley enters C to D. It also ignores traffic lights set at the end of B to C. Clearly I have much more work to do in locating the source of the problem. Many thanks for your interest in this issue. Kind regards Pete Test layout single lane junction.mbp

Hi to all my fellow members I wonder if anyone can give me a valid reason why the vehicle exiting onto this junction will not follow the route designated for said vehicle but simply takes the junction route to the opposite carriageway. Clearly I can solve this issue buy constructing my own junction but should this be necessary? Kind regards Pete

Hi Sualokink This looks like the start of yet another great model from "The model master". Cheeky request, but that's me all over, any chance of a right hand drive version? Best regards Pete

That is brilliant news and once again very many thanks for taking the trouble to produce not only the superb Bentley and it's personnel but also for the right hand drive road junctions. They really do provide greater flexibility in layout design. Best regards Pete

Wow, now I really do feel like a novice. I've only briefly looked at your EV but I'm very impressed. You have certainly given me something to aspire to but it will clearly take me some time to get my head round what I need to do in order to improve my approach to these two elements. I think the phrase that springs to mind in summarising is "less hit and miss more realism and accuracy". I now do fully understand your suggestion to apply 'logic' although the degree of logic depends upon the individuals extent of knowledge. Clearly mine has a way to go yet. Pete

Hi Goetz I began to plan what I needed to do in order to follow your advice and whist doing so had a bit of a eureka moment with regards to the TC that ultimately controlled the release of vehicles to cross the barrier. I've attached a screenshot of the result which does seem to work OK. However I now plan to follow your guidance with another alternative using the switch to see if by doing so I can reduce some of the TC's used. It might also prove useful to provide greater control of the road 'T' junctions. Pete Level crossing and traffic light controlled road junctions demo_2.mbp

Thank you Goetz. That sounds so simple a solution and so obvious. I'll make the changes and hope no other issue ensue. If they do then more work for those little grey cells!!

Having applied, what I consider, a bit more of a logical approach to this problem I feel that I have made steps forward. However there remains one issue that I simply cannot find the solution to. In the attached screenshot the CB is down, the AFS tipper has stopped as has the vehicles on the opposite carriageway. The problem is that once the bus has left the TC at it's rear the TC on which the AFS tipper truck is stopped then changes to 20kph and the truck simply drivers through the barrier, the train etc. Logically the TC on which the tipper truck is stopped needs to be linked to the actual CB stop TC if the barriers are down but once the barrier is open then it needs to revert back to the TC at the back of the bus (as per the screenshot) and despite my best efforts I have not been able to achieve this. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Getting this right will provide greater flexibility under other circumstances. Pete Level crossing and traffic light controlled road junctions demo_2.mbp

Once again thanks for that. I'll take another look at all of this later and see if I can make a more "professional" solution based on your suggestion.

Thanks for that. I'll take another look at that element. The problem seems to be trying to strike a happy balance between the various vehicle sizes. At the moment I have chosen to get everyone to stop until told to proceed. I introduced the second barrier stop to try to ensure that if the barrier was down and a vehicle stopped on the temp stop that it did not begin to move through the closed barrier if the vehicle on the other side moved due to a traffic light change and therefore release the one stopped on the other side temp stop. Yes it can release it but then it must stop at the second barrier stop to await said barrier lifting. I'm still not sure I have this right yet as the temp stop sets a speed to go which I think the second barrier stop might simply ignore but as yet this has not come into play. More monitoring ahead. Kind regards Pete

Hi Phrontistes Having taken your advice I have introduced some TC's to control the traffic on the side affected by the traffic lights. It does seem to work OK but I can't help feeling that my interpretation is just a bit ham fisted. The traffic flows OK but it is a bit stilted. I have played around with the position of the TC's but seems to make much of a difference. Perhaps you know of a more sophisticated way to approach this which will add greater realism. Otherwise I will revise the *.pdf and repost. Kind regards Pete Level crossing and traffic light controlled road junctions demo_1.mbp

Great solution, now why didn't I think of that!!!!!! Perhaps because at this moment in time I'm not sure just how to implement that but a little experimenting will soon find the answer. Many thanks for your advice. Once revised I'll post an amended version. It really is Murphy's law that you had the bus stopped on the crossing with the barrier down. I thought I had adjusted the timings on the lights to take this into account. Just goes to show, the closer you are to something the less you see. Cheers Pete

And I think that is really the difference between us and a computer program. We are taught not to enter any obstacles unless you have a clear exit. In the case of the demo I could perhaps move the counter and close tc's further back up the track to ensure the barriers close sooner and link the flashing barrier lights to the tc too.

True it's not ideal but it does happen more than one might think. There are such crossings within a 9 mile radius of my home. Clearly human beings are somewhat better at coping than a computer program. Anyway many thanks for your view on this. I could have made the layout more sterile I suppose. Cheers Pete

Hi to all my fellow members I realise there was a post in January regarding programming level crossings suitable answered by Goetz. However, I would now like to take this to another level. It would seem that both level crossings and road junction control can present issues for many members, myself included. Several years ago both Goetz and Roter Brummer helped me to resolve these issues, in particular with regard to multiple tracks. Since then I have tried to fine tune both of these elements in order to provide as much realism as possible. Whilst the basic principle remains fairly straightforward, in reality there are several components that come into play when fine tuning, not least of all time and location of each element. Over the years I have been privileged to benefit from both the expertise of other members as well as the extraordinary skill of our model makers and I now think it time to try to give just a little bit back. Model building with Blender is definitely not a possibility. The skill to produce anything within that media is totally beyond me. However, I am a bit of an artist. I enjoy creating large model layouts and finding solutions to operational issues. With that in mind I have prepared a demo layout which incorporates both level crossing and traffic light control. It may not be perfect, it may not be the most sophisticated but it does seem to work OK . One final point I should mention falls into the category of either operator inadequacy, program limitations or simply road rage. I refer of course to the occasional incidents where a vehicle tries to either jump the queue or push through another vehicle that is negotiating a turn. Either way if anyone can provide a solution then I would be most grateful. Everything else included in the layout is just a distraction to fill the space. I have also prepared a short instruction sheet which I hope will help. Have fun. I hope it all works as well for you as it has been for me. Cheers Pete Level crossing and traffic light controlled road junctions demo_1.mbp Level crossing and traffic light controlled junctions.pdf

Hi Sualokink Once again many thanks for taking the trouble to produce the right hand drive versions of your wonderful models, your efforts are greatly appreciated. Best regards Pete

Hi Sualokink It must just be me and something that I had not noticed with other models. It was simply that when viewed from the front a vehicle with it's headlights on shows quite predominant illumination from the area of the lights. However this is not an issue. As for the busses. We have three predominate types of bus. One is similar to IDBCDDB550-3178-4277-ACB6-3B042716F22E, one is similar to IDDF1F3F28-0230-4378-ADD9-261C9A7C69F7 and the final one is similar to ID2A0E0FAF-8506-454E-853B-98426B82C929. Single decker busses have doors that open at the front nearside and double decker's have 2 opening doors as shown. I know the pictures aren't great but I hope they help. Best regards Pete

Hi Sualokink It is absolutely brilliant. I am very grateful for you taking the time to accommodate my request, I think you are perhaps the only model maker that has taken the trouble to produce right hand drive versions of some of your wonderful models. This adds a greater dimension to MBS than might be first realised. You ask if there is anything that I might consider an improvement. My initial thought relates simply to the headlight. In night mode the headlight is on and the effect perfect apart from when the car is viewed from the front the visual effect is not quite realistic enough, or am I being just a tad picky!!! However as we found with Nikolaus II and the Renault Magnum trucks detail is what helps to make your models stand out from many others. My latest layout, a U.K. one has many of your model vehicles included and I think I get away with these being left hand drive through careful placement but for those of real prominence right hand drive is essential, hence my request regarding the busses. I have also asked Neo if he would consider adding right hand drive options to two of his 45 degree road junctions. Whilst the ones in the catalogue still work for right hand drive movements the signage is wrong so by simply removing it I feel it would give greater flexibility. I have begun to construct these junctions separately but they are much messier than the originals. Best regards Pete