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| Facilitating Diversions 04/04/2014 at 09:47 #58368 | |
kbarber
1711 posts |
Following on from a question in the Birmingham section, it occurred to me there might be some mileage in making it possible to reassign timetables over the phone. This would only apply where there were possible diversionary routes (and not all would necessarily be in-sim). It would also need timetable writers to create the necessary diversionary timetables if it were to work properly. The feature itself is just an additional telephone option when talking to a driver at a signal: 'Run to a diversionary timetable' (pretty much the equivalent of the F2 option to 'Run to another timetable'). That would bring up a dialogue box in which the description for the diversionary timetable needed to be entered. To work it would need the timetable writer to provide some diversion timetables. In Birmingham they might cover Soho to New St via Aston, Soho to Stechford via Aston, Stechford to New St via Aston, Stechford to Soho via Aston, Soho to Stechford via New St and Stechford to Soho via New St. (If you wrote some for a Wolves - Birmingham chain you could add routes to and from Bushbury or Wolverhampton via Walsall. Until Walsall is added to the WM collection, that would depend on rules being able to hand off trains from one sim to another - is that possible?). I imagine intermediate times on a diversionary timetable would all be set to 00:00 so they could be asigned to any train. Might it also be useful to provide a 'diversion timetable' tick box in the WTT entry so the sim knew which timetables would be valid for this procdure? Any thoughts? Log in to reply The following users said thank you: LucasLCC, fsxfaulder, welshdragon |
| Facilitating Diversions 04/04/2014 at 10:44 #58370 | |
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Josie
310 posts |
+1 - sounds like a great idea to me.
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| Facilitating Diversions 04/04/2014 at 11:21 #58372 | |
jc92
3629 posts |
" said:To work it would need the timetable writer to provide some diversion timetables.....I imagine intermediate times on a diversionary timetable would all be set to 00:00 so they could be asigned to any train.there is an "ARS timing pattern for ARS equipped sims, in which you can apply a generic path for trains which can be assigned and guided by ARS, and is more of a template, rather than an individual timetable. maybe some variation of that could be used? "We don't stop camborne wednesdays" Log in to reply |
| Facilitating Diversions 04/04/2014 at 18:14 #58393 | |
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Danny252
1461 posts |
Out of interest, what would this achieve that asking a train to abandon TT doesn't already? I guess you wouldn't have to reinstate later, so you wouldn't get trains rolling through New Street non-stop or similar, but would it rely on the sim creator inputting a set of suitable diversion routes? I'm slightly wary of doing it that way, given that personal preference of the creators has already made wrong route phone calls, engineering scenarios, and acceptable diversion routes very variable between different sims!
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| Facilitating Diversions 04/04/2014 at 23:38 #58406 | |
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maxand
1637 posts |
The mode chosen is as important as the message. For example, at present, we can only set a different timetable or abandon it via the Train List. In practice, what Keith is asking for is different - to set a diversionary timetable, and this seems closer to real life. So in theory there are 3 modes of executing a TT change: over the phone, via the Train List, or directly from the panel, say from the train's berth r-click context menu. To avoid having to refer to the Train List I personally would prefer to be able to issue Timetable changes and Signalling notifications directly from the View panel, as the train that needs it is right there in front of me. I suppose everyone will tell me this can't be done as it is non-prototypical. But then again the Train List is also a fiction. Maybe Keith has the right idea, and in addition to buttons at the bottom of the Telephone Calls window for Answer Call and Place Call there should be ones labelled Timetable and Signal, duplicating if not replacing those on the Train List (there's plenty of room for 2 extra buttons there). After all, we've been told time and time again that there's no way to contact drivers directly unless they phone in - SimSig's sims seem to be set in pre-cab-radio days. So this makes phone calls the best medium in which to execute manoeuvres of this kind. As with other Windows that list items, a single left-click highlights the item and a double left-click executes its instruction. Thus, single-clicking would select the train whose TT or signalling needs special attention, and clicking Timetable or Signal would complete this. Last edited: 04/04/2014 at 23:43 by maxand Log in to reply |
| Facilitating Diversions 05/04/2014 at 00:57 #58411 | |
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Stephen Fulcher
2023 posts 
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There are some circumstances where trains may be diverted without the need to talk to the driver. For instance, when Wrexham and Shropshire were first running there was an instruction that the driver would take whatever route he was given at Leamington Spa in the Down direction (ie via Hatton or Coventry), even though most of their timetables were via Coventry. There were no intermediate stops between Banbury and Tame Bridge Parkway so either route could be taken and the train still call at all stations it was booked at. A good example of this could be Wolverhampton and New Street, where trains not booked to call between the two stations can either go via the Stour or the Grand Lines. The vast majority are booked via the Stours, but in times of disruption it is common place for trains to be diverted via the Grands. Another is CrossCountry services between Birmingham and the South West can be diverted via Galton Junction, Stourbridge, Worcester and regain the booked route at Abbotswood Junction just outside Worcester (Gloucester sim). Again, no intermediate stops are involved and there are a couple of trains booked this way each day for route knowledge. In my last two examples however the train crew would be informed before being sent the diversionary route. I suppose it would not be too difficult for anyone who wrote a timetable to write a "diversionary TT" for any train which could potentially be diverted. For instance, 1A00 could have a 1A00-D or something similar which could have a diversionary route with just passing places and no times entered (appearing in the TT as 00/00 everywhere" then regain his proper TT at the first place he regains his proper route. Once you had decided to divert the train you could simply stop it at a signal, re-allocate the timetable and then when the driver phones in pull off. You wouldn't have to wait for the driver to phone in, but doing so could account for the time it would take to tell him you were going to divert him in real life (although quite often he will have already been told by his Control nowadays, although not always). Downside would be a disproportionate amount of time taken to do it relative to the benefits that might be had, plus if you had a timetable that could be chained to another sim then another schedule would have to be entered on each relevant sim for each relevant train. Log in to reply |
| Facilitating Diversions 05/04/2014 at 00:59 #58413 | |
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Stephen Fulcher
2023 posts
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Just to add to my last post, this could be done by any timetable writer who chose to do so without the need for any sim developer to need to alter the sim, or for any core code alterations. In essence, if anyone can be bothered to write a timetable with large numbers of diversionary paths, the software will allow you to make a useable workaround as it currently is. Log in to reply |
| Facilitating Diversions 05/04/2014 at 07:29 #58425 | |
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kbarber
1711 posts |
Some interesting thoughts. I wasn't thinking of new buttons anywhere, just a new option on the list of incoming phone calls that would allow assignment of a diversionary timetable without having to mess around with F2. (Diversionary TTs would be the TT developer's responsibility, so if there's no diversionary TTs there's no diversions.) Probably an order of magnitude more difficult would be a phone option whereby the signalman could phone a station and pass a message for 'train XAXX to run to diversionary timetable XD00', so the train doesn't need to stop at the signal where the diversion starts. But I suspect Clive & Geoff have quite enough on without adding that particular little one to the pot. Both ideas are offered with the knowledge that this is how it would be done IRL - a real bobby doesn't have an F2 function! Log in to reply |