Q Stops Train
Nancie Fazzari
Hello,
When playing with trains, you tend to spend a lot of time building train stops. In my latest playtesting, I noticed a few annoyances and pain points, which we will go in to today, along with some other improvements for 2.0.
The Train stop GUI got a new lick of paint for the 2.0 update. Generally this was to make it conform to the typical layout of the entity GUIs, but I also took the opportunity to add a feature we were missing a little bit, that is the 'Trains on the way' tab.
Its a mistake that you only make a few times, but even the process of setting the limit and color each time are a bit of a hassle. You could always copy-paste an existing stop, or use a blueprint, however these options are not always that convenient.
While thinking about it, and while doing it over and over again (Build stop -> set limit -> set color -> set name), I came up with a solution that minimizes the risks and at the same time makes it more convenient: "When I set the name of a stop, I want it to copy the limit and color from an existing stop with that name".
- What if there are multiple stops? - The safest way is to pick the existing stop with the lowest train limit.
- What if I set the limit before naming the stop? - The limit is only changed if there is no current limit set.
Generally to keep clutter to a minimum, I play with the train stop names not shown on the map. However very often I want to see what a specific stop is. So I made a simple change, when you hover a stop it will show the name regardless of the map view setting.
Another small missing thing was a quick indication of where an incoming train was, and how long it would take to arrive. So this was another easy simple feature, when you hover a train stop, it will show the paths of the incoming trains, so you can track their progress.
Train stations are normally big, it is convenient to navigate them from the map, so it was always a pain needing to zoom-in to copy-paste to them. So Tobias made it possible to copy-paste them from the map view.
You've spent 500 hours in-game, copy pasting and naming your stations all consistently. But you made a small typo and named all your orange resource stations 'Cooper drop', and now you're stuck with it...
But we are not so cruel as to make you rename them all one-by-one. Now if you hold 'CONTROL' when confirming the change in the Train stop GUI, it will rename all stops with that name to the new name.
With the new elevated rails, we had a new elevated rails problem: What if the train you're riding ran out of fuel while over some water? We don't want the player to get stuck with no way to escape.
Often times, trains can get themselves into tricky situations, and need some manual intervention to get them unstuck. However if you're off on some other planet having a great time, it would be a massive inconvenience to have to travel home just to fix one deadlock.
Last year we visited Paris and used the trains for the first time. We are very familiar with train travel in the UK, but were initially hesitant about doing the same sort of travel in France. Having now discovered that France train travel in general is a non issue, we are planning another trip.
What we have in mind is flying into Paris and at some point taking the train to Nice, from where we would fly out.. As this is something like a 5 1/2 hour train trip we thought we might break up the trip into several segments by stopping overnight at various small towns along the way.
Which brings me to the actual question, does anyone have suggestions for what stops, along the main train routes might be interesting ? Our major interest is photography, which means old quaint villages, ruins, cathedrals, castles, that sort of thing. Not big on museums, reenacted jousting tournaments, or that sort of production. We customarily walk long quite a bit during our sightseeing so that is not a problem.
The reason it's only about six hours is because the first three hours the train is going at a high speed. Some stop in Dijon, Lyon, Avignon--but none of those are quaint towns. The high-speed trains stop only in major cities. The train from Marseille to Nice is at "traditional" speed because the tracks aren't configured for high speed. At that point, the train stops along the coast more frequently.
So, if you want t0 stop in smaller places before Marseille, you'll need to take the local trains called TER. These still stop in the largest of the towns in the rural areas, for example: Sens, Auxerre, Joigny, Macon, Valence, Vienne, Orange, Aix, and more along your route. From these stations you can reserve taxis to take you to the smaller towns and villages. It's recommended to find the taxi on line and reserve beforehand in these towns. Unfortunately, train stops in villages have been curtailed greatly over the past twenty years. The scheme for the SNCF to pay taxis to replace the eliminated trains fizzled due to the meager reimbursement. We have to pay the taxis ourselves.
BJ, Here is the Regional Train website in English.
It's divided into regions, so you can use this to string destinations together. You need to have your own detailed map to do it, however. Neither a map, nor a visual of the train lines appear on the website.
Depending on how many days you have you could stop in Lyon, Avignon, or Arles. Rick Steves Provence guide book is a great resource. We are traveling from Paris to Avignon to Cassis in May. RS has info on this website that may also be helpful. here.
We use Captain train to purchase our train tickets. But we will also be renting a car for day trips.
Where do you want to go? Amtrak Cascades allows you to explore the small towns and exciting cities of the Pacific Northwest. From the train, view the Cascade and Olympic Mountain ranges, Puget Sound, and the Columbia River. Be moved by the sight of a snow-capped Mount Hood rising skyward near Portland. Or be awed by the twinkling lights of Seattle's Space Needle.
The Wolverine also departs from Chicago with stops in New Buffalo, Jackson, and Ann Arbor near the University of Michigan, and intermediate stations in and around metro Detroit where you can visit the Motor City," relive the famous Motown sound or catch a Detroit Lions or Red Wings game.
With more than 30 train routes throughout the United States, and some in Canada, Amtrak travels to over 500 destinations in 46 states, giving you the best views North America has to offer. Whether you want to visit big cities, small towns or places you can only see by rail, Amtrak can take you there.
Part of a railway signalling system, a train stop, trip stop or tripcock (sometimes called a tripper) is a train protection device that automatically stops a train if it attempts to pass a signal when the signal aspect and operating rules prohibit such movement, or (in some applications) if it attempts to pass at an excessive speed.
The train stop system comprises two basic components. One is the trip arm mechanism, mounted on the ground adjacent to the rail, which essentially consists of a spring-loaded arm connected to an electric motor (or pneumatic cylinder in electro-pneumatic systems). The other is the train-mounted trip cock, which is connected either directly or electrically to the train's braking system.
The trip arm is raised automatically whenever a train should be brought to a halt. When the signalling system determines it is safe for the train to proceed, the motor drives the trip arm down to the lowered position. The spring ensures that the trip arm is raised in all other situations, which is an essential fail-safe provision in case of failure of the electric or pneumatic power supply or of the motor driving the trip arm. If a train attempts to pass the signal with the trip arm in the raised position, the trip arm makes mechanical contact with the trip cock on the train, causing the train's brakes to be automatically applied, thereby bringing the train to a halt.
The mechanical train stops have been found to be relatively safe with their historic models from the 19th century to be still in use in the 21st century. Because of the quadratic force increments in relation to speed these mechanical systems are restricted to low speed applications. Their continued usage can be found in urban rapid transit systems with trains making no more than 100 km/h. Whereas later contactless train stops require a working receiver on the train to initiate the emergency stop (as for PCCS or Indusi) the mechanical stops have initially been kicking the brakes directly.
Because the trip arm may hit the brake lever directly, there have been installations where every wagon of a train has a separate trip cock on each bogie that has brakes. Hence in some installations the trip arm will be folded back to the safe position only a few seconds after a signal has turned red in order to reduce wear (which is an actual security risk as shown in the 1995 Russell Hill subway accident). Because of wear the trip arms for the opposite direction on the same rail will be actuated along with the trip arm for the nominal direction.
Like many early systems a mechanical train stop does not inherently control speed. There were accidents where trains had overrun the overlap due to excessive speed. In order to externally control the speed of a train the operation of timed train stops has been deployed as it is widely used on the New York City Subway, where a second trip arm at a distance is folded down only a few seconds after a train has passed a check point. These expensive speed control systems are generally phased out in favour of a cab control computer that can continuously check a braking curve while approaching a signal.
The trip arm is raised whenever the signal is not displaying a proceed aspect. If a train tries to pass the signal, the trip cock on the train strikes the raised trip arm and the train is brought to a halt. When the signal indicates it is safe to proceed (clear or caution), the trip arm is lowered, and a train is able to proceed without further hindrance. In some cases, the trip arm will not be lowered when the signal to which it applies is exhibiting a proceed indication, e.g. when subsidiary signals are cleared, forcing a train to trip before proceeding, thus ensuring that movements are conducted at safe speeds.
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