Articulated Stacks

[ricksan]

This this set of articulated well cars is based on the Gunderson/Greenbrier Maxi-Stack I. I uploaded it to the File Library and it should be available soon.



This is a public Beta. Please try it out and post comments in this thread. Once any problems are identified and fixed, I'll upload the final version which will include two other liveries.

This project was something Michael, Jim and I kicked around during the latter stages of our Stevens Pass project. Unfortunately, there was a problem with the train set which I was unable to resolve, and given the impending deadline I yanked it. I revisited it recently, made some improvements, and it seems to work OK now. It's a bit tricky to set up. There are actually nine cars to the set. Each well car has at least one set of invisible trucks and a special two-wheel "car" is used to represent the intermediate trucks. Hope you like it!

[ErikGorbiHamilton]

the Five Packs are Here!

[BillS]

the Five Packs are Here!

+1

[ozinoz]

Hi Rick...

Good to see you still keeping your hand in.....

Look great by teh way

[imnew]

Hi Rick...

Good to see you still keeping your hand in.....

Look great by teh way

I echo ozinoz

[Noel]

Awesome work here Rick! Look forward to running these when they come out!

[ChrisOnline]

WOW! They are excellent!

I am working on creating a PreLoad fragment and 1 set, 2 set and 3 set consists to save having to assemble the whole unit each time (includes a loco in the consist which can be quickly deleted and/or swapped out)

Many thanks for a brilliant - and unique - new item of rolling stock!

Chris

[OpenRailer90]

I'm blown away by these, they look awesome!

As for the PreLoads, they can be quick drive consists using certain engines including Kuju ES44AC (Black and both UP), Sherman Hill ES44AC, SD70M, and BNSF (Marias, Stevens, and standalone) ES44DC, UP SD60M, BN/BNSF SD40-2, SD70 V2 Vol2, UP SD70ACe, NS Heritage engines, UP Heritage SD70ACe, and many others...

[ChrisOnline]

As for the PreLoads, they can be quick drive consists using certain engines including Kuju ES44AC (Black and both UP), Sherman Hill ES44AC, SD70M, and BNSF (Marias, Stevens, and standalone) ES44DC, UP SD60M, BN/BNSF SD40-2, SD70 V2 Vol2, UP SD70ACe, NS Heritage engines, UP Heritage SD70ACe, and many others...

Exactly . . . but my point was that it is not so much to have a pre-built complete consist for QD purposes (though that as well!), but rather a rake of pre-assembled Articulated Stacks which can be selected from the editor flyout menu to insert them into any scenario, instead of having to construct the whole set.

I think the use of assembled rakes of wagons or passenger cars to insert into regular scenarios is often overlooked

[ricksan]

Regarding pre-assembled consists, that sounds like a great idea. It's not that difficult to string the articulateds together, but it'd be even better if all you had to do was select a canned consist.

I can easily add some PreLoads for use in QDs.

But for "normal" scenarios I'm not sure how to go about accomplishing this. On my system, there's a file in the Content folder called ConsistTemplates.bin which contains all the pre-assembled consists I've ever created since, well, I-don't-know-when. I don't want to include such a file this in the final Articulateds package as it would presumably wipe out everyone else's carefully pre-assembled consists. Does anybody know of a tried-and-true workaround?

Even with PreLoads or pre-assembled consists, I suspect the four trailing units in any five-car string would still have to be renumbered. (That is, if you're a purist -- and in this case I hope you are!) A script might work, using consist messaging to call the Get[Set]RVNumber() functions, but conceptually I can think of some issues. So I'll ask again: Is there a tried-and-true script solution? Keep in mind that any number of five-packs could conceivably be incorporated into a larger consist with any power configuration.

Sorry, not interested in exploring suggestions here unless they've been successfully implemented in existing products and are known to work.

Thanks!

[ChrisOnline]

Rick

Can't answer on the scripting etc, to be honest I would only fuss over the numbers (possibly!) for a user consist, not worth it for AI, IMHO.

In a normal scenario, the consist icon in the editor will still pick up any QD consists, as well as "named" consists - that's where I was coming from. I have now created QD consists made up up 1 unit (5 cars), 2 units, and 4 units, so these can be quickly added to a scenario in any combination.

I don't know how to pre-load the wagons in such a consist. I tried <Loaded d:type="cDeltaString">eTrue</Loaded> and <Loaded d:type="bool">1</Loaded>, but neither work and it appears that may not be possible (maybe also with scripting?). It would be nice to have loaded and part-loaded options, but it's not a big job to run down the train and load the cars,with an occasional random unloaded car

I do have one question - is it possible to have a "half load", i.e. a single container rather than double stacked, either by design or random? That is inevitably the case IRL

I love these . . . they seem to have gone under the radar so far

[ricksan]

Thanks for your comments, Chris.

I would only fuss over the numbers for a user consist, not worth it for AI

I feel the same way.

the consist icon in the editor will still pick up any QD consists

I didn't know that. The final release will have three sets of stacks. I'll include Preload blueprints for each of them.

I don't know how to pre-load the wagons in such a consist.

I assume by "pre-load" you mean set out the stacks with their containers "turned on." I don't think it can be done. In anything but a Quick Drive scenario you'll still have to select the car/consist in the scenario editor and "load" it with containers. Unfortunately, this doesn't work in a Quick Drive scenario because consists are not visible in scenario-edit mode -- only the consist gizmos. On a recent project with two large intermodal yards, I wanted to have both loaded and unloaded well cars in the Quick Drive scenarios. I found it necessary to make a special "loaded" version of a double-stack consist in which the containers are an integral part of the railcar geometry, not child objects as is normally the case.

is it possible to have a "half load"

With a little bit of effort, yes. I will include a modification kit in the final release consisting of the two container textures in TGA format, and the container geometry in 3DS format. Anyone who knows their way around a modeling program should be able to import the art files and create additional load configurations. Keep in mind that each well car is tied to a specific container configuration by virtue of the parent-child relationship specified in the car's blueprint. However, as we all know, blueprints can always be edited.

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

Thanks, Ricksan, for these nice cars.

BNSF only at the moment, considering you developed them for Stevens Pass initially?
Were these cars railroad owned generally, or owned by TrailerTrain?

Thanks also for "pop up" EOTD.

[ricksan]

The final release will include the "old BNSF" livery, which is in the Beta, the "swoosh BNSF" and DTTX in yellow and black. The two BNSF sets are finished; haven't started the DTTX one yet.

[ricksan]

In the OP I mentioned there was an unresolved problem that forced us to remove the articulated stacks from the Stevens Pass package. It turns out that problem still exists, though to a lesser extent, and at least it can be avoided.

The problem is this: When operating in reverse you may experience a derailment. You can watch this happen if you zoom in on the first intermediate truck behind the locomotive(s), then hit the throttle. Sometimes it rotates along its longitudinal axis and sometimes it just pops up. I think this may be a rock-and-hard-place phenomenon. There's so much inertia in the heavy, trailing cars that it acts like a solid wall and the intermediate truck, having relatively little mass and being pushed into this "wall" by the locomotive, has nowhere to go. The longer the train, the more power up front, the greater the acceleration rate, the greater is the likelihood of a derailment.

Luckily the problem is for the most part avoidable.

I find that if I initially set the throttle no higher than notch 1, and if I subsequently avoid ramping up the speed too quickly, things work OK. I tried a consist with 8 sets of five-packs, along with one[two] GP38[ES44] locomotive(s). The 8-unit consist is a bit much for a single Geep but it's doable. With two Geeps you'll be OK if you go easy on the throttle. Same goes for a single ES44, but with two ES44s, you could have a problem. You'll have to experiment to see what effect your particular power will have. Also keep in mind that you probably shouldn't be pushing a consist like this in reverse at much more than 10 mph anyway.

And so far I've had no problems running forward.

If you've had similar experiences, please share.