simonjackson1964

If I can do it, anyone can! Just as a matter of purey academic interest, I used a PECO streamline N-Guage dead frog point that happens to be sitting on my desk for no good reason to decide how they were supposed to look!

Hi George, Happy New Year! I think this question was already answered? I don't think it's possible to put the value of a timer onto a display in the layout. But if all you want to do is monitor it to make sure it's working, you can use the Event Analysis tool: Add the timers to the list using the + symbol The only reason I can think of to put a timer display into a layout is if you are releasing trains manually "against the clock"? In this case, I have come up with a rather complex solution that works Create two number variables, Mins and secs. Set each to your start values. Create a timer that expires every second and restarts automatically. When it expires, if secs is 0, then if mins is 0, do whatever you want to do when the full timer expires. If secs is zero but mins is not, subtract 1 from mins and set secs to 59, otherwise subtract 1 from secs. Create three labels: Label-M, Colon and Label-S. Colon, you set to ":", line all three up, and at the end of the the event add actions to set Label-M = Mins and Label-S = Secs. It's not elegant, but it will do what you want

@Herman Wow, that is really useful, thank you. I think this should be added to the Tutorials section! I've saved a copy to my database, so I can reference it when I need to. Thanks again. Simon

I was browsing the other day and came across this: @Herman A very nice little layout. But how do you get the containers off the trucks and back onto the trains? This is one of the two events that does the job: An I figured out that the script at the start is what moves the containers. But the script... Might as well be in Arabic or Ancient Sumerian... I would love a quick tutorial on this? I can see it being so useful for cargoes of all types, or even wagons that need to be reset to their initial configuration after being shunted. Thanks Simon

Thanks, that makes sense.

Here we go. This one has audio commentary, which is the first time I've done anything of the sort, but also it shows the widget so you can see exactly what I'm doing. It would be even better if it showed the mouse pointer but we can't have everything. https://youtu.be/hWsRQUckqNE

Unfortunately the video doesn't show all the detail. I'll try using an external recorder to show it better.

There seems to be something weird with the catenary system. Some times it does it and sometimes it doesn't, but if you try and stretch a catenary, for some reason it will sometimes "snap" back to about 1 scale metre long. The attached video shows the stretch working on one track, but having this weird bug happen on the other. https://youtu.be/RPwOBLtPfK8

Well, we could still be wrong, we'll have to wait for a response from @Jud91 for that.

You can use the event tracer Click the + under timers and variables to add those you want to see.

Hi Pete Have you updated the drivers for your video card and mouse? This can sometimes fix issues like this. Not saying it will - apparently my computer won't load Windows 11, despite being only 6 or so years old. When I tried to install Blender it refused to load, and I was told that I should update my drivers... So I did and it had no effect whatsoever! But it's something to check. heers Simon

True... but it would be nice to have a more elegant way of doing it.

Which is basically what I would have done at V5.

I guess no-one has an answer to this? Everything I've thought of could actually be done better at V5!

Just a small point, but the bus still doesn't stop...

I'm trying think of a way to do something at V7. I'm sure there is an easy way that I'm just not seeing, so I thought I'd ask... In real life, a railway line may have a speed limit of 120 mph (200 kph) but a locomotive towing a long and heavy goods train may well only be capable of 50 mph (80 kph). But then there might be a length of track on which the speed limit is 30 mph (50 kph). What I'm trying to do is put a physical limit on how fast certain trains can go. Same would apply to road vehicles, where the Lambo is capable of 276 km/h (171 mph), while the Trabant can just about get up to 100 km/h (62 mph) downhill with a following wind and two people peddling in the back! We can change the acceleration and break power, but on a straight length of track that's long enough with nothing in the way the heaviest of vehicles will unrealistically accelerate to the track speed. (Incidentally, I'm still trying to decide whether the apparent limits of 80 kph and 50 kph are realistic for German railways and if so whether that says something about the quality of the track, or the quality of the drivers... Given that the French TGV has a top speed of 200 mph, 320 kph, I find it hard to believe that German trains are limited to the speed of a 50cc Moped!) Anyway... What I've tried so far is putting a "Max Speed" integer variable on the locomotive and whenever any track contact triggers, check the vehicles absolute speed against that value and if it is higher set it back down. The problem with that is that as long as the train is on that track contact, the "Automatic Acceleration" property is active, so the speed gets set straight backup again if the contact is on a signal. So, I tried changing the acceleration value on the signal. That worked, it kept the long heavy freight pootling along at 30 kph (18 mph). But there's no way to set it back, because the signal is on a different setting when the train leaves the track contact, and the last thing you want is to set the "accelerate to" value to 120 when the signal is on HP0! About all I can think of is as the train leaves the track contact, set it to clear, change the value, set it to slow, change the value and set it back to off before anyone notices. The program should do it quickly enough that it would be visible as a mere flicker if that. But what I really want is something more elegant: When the speed of the vehicle changes, if the speed is greater than the maximum set it to the maximum. But I cannot find a way of doing that first part. How do I detect that the property "Target Speed(Absolute)" has changed?

Ah, right. I had a feeling it was something like that. Thank you. Ah richtig. Ich hatte das Gefühl, dass es so war. Dankeschön.

On a lot of layouts in the catalogue there is a "floor" - a seemingly infinite layer coloured as a grey-green carpet that sits at about z = -1000 . I've tried to find this in the past with no success and have sneakily copied it from other people's layouts. It actually provides a useful point of reference when one accidentally scrolls the view away from the layout. Does anyone know where I can find this? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Auf vielen Grundrissen im Katalog gibt es einen "Boden" - eine scheinbar unendliche Schicht, die wie ein graugrüner Teppich gefärbt ist und bei etwa z = -1000 liegt. Ich habe in der Vergangenheit erfolglos versucht, dies zu finden und es heimlich aus den Layouts anderer Leute kopiert. Es bietet tatsächlich einen nützlichen Bezugspunkt, wenn man die Ansicht versehentlich vom Layout wegscrollt. Weiß jemand wo ich das finden kann?

@Jud91 Which version are you using? This would be handled differently at V5, V6 and V7. (I don't remember enough about V4 to say). At V5, it's a bit more complex, but you mentioned a deceleration contact - those didn't exist at V5. V6: First store the Object ID of the vehicle, when it arrives at the deceleration contact, in a variable on the associated signal. NB: You will need a variable on the contact with the object ID of the signal: When the signal changes, check to see if there is a stored vehicle. If there is, set its speed according to your track and the signal aspect. And lastly, but MOST important, clear the name of the stored vehicle. Or, use V7. This is all handled for you, and as Goetz said, you just give the signal setting an "accelerate to" value.

Yes! That one! In fact, at V7 it's even easier, you just select the correct route.

I just needed to put the name of the correct extended variable in. If you look closely you'll see that the name of the variable on the signal is the same as the name of the keyword . Which is not what I had set up. This works: Previously it was trying to find the animation on a Keyword!

Okay, forget that. I spotted the error. It works just fine...

You are welcome. When @Goetz first told me what they are and how to use them, I thought, "Meh, can't see them being much use", but now I use them all over the place, to dictate which events run in which circumstances. You can use a single track contact and have a whole raft of keywords on it, that all trigger different events. The important thing is to make sure the events don't conflict with each other! I also use lists and iterations. A track contact at the start of two or more different routes will have a keyword something like "Junction" or "Choose Route", and a list of all the available routes. A locomotive will also have a list of the routes it needs to choose. The event activated by the loco triggering the track contact with that keyword will iterate the available routes and within that iterate the loco's choices, and set the route when it finds a match. If it doesn't find a match it doesn't set a route and the train is stopped at the next signal! (It's possible to reverse the nesting of the iterations, but it really makes little difference). Anyway, have fun! Simon

If you select the locomotive, then click on the three-bar menu icon at the top-right of the tool ribbon (see below) this opens events & Keywords/variables menu Select "Keywords/Variables", and add a keyword: Give the keyword a meaningful name, such as "London in name". You can then add the same keyword to all locomotives with "London"in the name. Then you select the contact that you want to use to affect the speed. Again, if you want it to happen on more than one contact, create a keyword on that contact, that means something to you. Say "London Train Triggered" Then create an event, for when the track contact is triggered. Change the name to something meaningful Then select the name of the track contact at the top, and replace it with "Select (Keyword)". From the drop-down in the pop-up menu, select the keyword you put on the contact. This will activate this event for all contacts with that keyword, and no others. Now create a condition on the event, as below, being careful to change the value of "Trigger" from "Contact" to "Vehicle", otherwise none of it works! (Learned this the hard way!) Finally, put the actions you wish to take - setting the vehicle speed, activating routes (V7) or setting points and signals (V4-6). They will only happen if the keyword "London In Name" is present on the triggering vehicle. And of course you can specify actions to take if it is not. That's the "Janet And John" version. I think when we're so familiar with how things work, we often forget that someone knew to the software might not know something the rest of us take for granted. If you already know most or all of this, please ignore, but Neo's post takes for granted that you know what a keyword is and how to create one. No reflection on Neo, of course, as it's a fairly common assumption, I've noticed! Cheers Simon

Hi folks, I'd appreciate some help on this one, because I'm sure Ive got everything right. DB practice with the 69 type light signals is that when a distant signal is mounted on a main signal post, when the main signal is red (HP0) the distant signal is dark, to avoid possible confusion if the following main signal (that the distant signal is repeating) is green (HP1). So, the game designers have thoughtfully provided an animation on the distant signals to darken them At V6, the following works fine. (It's in my published "Valley Road" layout if you want to see it). However with the same event on V7: I get this: And the signal obstinately remains lit! It worked at V6, it doesn't work at V7.