The new Pacific Surfliner Amtrak EMD F59PHI locomotives

[awaken1977]

I found brake release is very slow on F59PHI with 4 cars.
On the contrary, brakes on freight trains released in a second. Shouldn't it be the opposite in real life?
Do Surfliner trainset uses electro-pneumatic brake control?

[arizonachris]

The brakes on this engine have been an issue since release day. if you read from Pg. 1 of this Topic there are quite a few posts about it. Not sure if someone came up with a fix, or we're waiting for Dovetail/ RSC. I just learned to deal with it. Release, brake again, then release again seems to work. The brakes also work differently depending on weather you are using Simple or Expert controls.

[FanRailer]

I found brake release is very slow on F59PHI with 4 cars.
On the contrary, brakes on freight trains released in a second. Shouldn't it be the opposite in real life?
Do Surfliner trainset uses electro-pneumatic brake control?

The issue here is that the brake apply and release command on the locomotive is unrealistically slow for some reason. Take a look at the command text for brake app and release here on the F59:

<MaxReleaseRate d:type="sFloat32" d:alt_encoding="000000C0CCCC0040" d:precision="string">2.1</MaxReleaseRate>
<MaxApplicationRate d:type="sFloat32" d:alt_encoding="000000A09999F93F" d:precision="string">1.6</MaxApplicationRate>
<MaxCylinderPressure d:type="sFloat32" d:alt_encoding="0000000000405040" d:precision="string">65</MaxCylinderPressure>
<PressureForMaxForce d:type="sFloat32" d:alt_encoding="0000000000004A40" d:precision="string">52</PressureForMaxForce>
<MaxSystemPressure d:type="sFloat32" d:alt_encoding="0000000000805B40" d:precision="string">110</MaxSystemPressure>
<MinSystemPressure d:type="sFloat32" d:alt_encoding="0000000000000000" d:precision="string">0</MinSystemPressure>

Then compare it to the brake commands for the AEM-7, which is much better:

<MaxReleaseRate d:type="sFloat32" d:alt_encoding="0000000000002440" d:precision="string">10</MaxReleaseRate>
<MaxApplicationRate d:type="sFloat32" d:alt_encoding="0000000000002E40" d:precision="string">15</MaxApplicationRate>
<MaxCylinderPressure d:type="sFloat32" d:alt_encoding="0000000000405040" d:precision="string">65</MaxCylinderPressure>
<PressureForMaxForce d:type="sFloat32" d:alt_encoding="0000000000405040" d:precision="string">65</PressureForMaxForce>
<MaxSystemPressure d:type="sFloat32" d:alt_encoding="0000000000805640" d:precision="string">90</MaxSystemPressure>
<MinSystemPressure d:type="sFloat32" d:alt_encoding="0000000000005040" d:precision="string">64</MinSystemPressure>

I am going to change the release and app rates on the F59 to what they are on the AEM-7. This should increase brake performance with Amfleet consists. I believe there is another factor to consider when using the F59 with the Surfliner cars that I will address after this fix.

Of course, there are other lines of code that I did change, but did not quote here, just to be sure there are no illusions as to the notion that this is all that needs to be done to correct the braking rates.

[FanRailer]

Current changes: increase brake application and release rates for the engine only to improve performance with all non-Surfliner consists.

[arizonachris]

Looks like you are running Expert controls. Cool, I like it!

[awaken1977]

FainRailer, I tried your suggested fix for train brake, but I see no effect on Surfliner

[arizonachris]

FainRailer, I tried your suggested fix for train brake, but I see no effect on Surfliner

You did read what he wrote here, right? :

"Of course, there are other lines of code that I did change, but did not quote here, just to be sure there are no illusions as to the notion that this is all that needs to be done to correct the braking rates."

He said he would upload the entire fix when it was ready.

[FanRailer]

FainRailer, I tried your suggested fix for train brake, but I see no effect on Surfliner

You did read what he wrote here, right? :

"Of course, there are other lines of code that I did change, but did not quote here, just to be sure there are no illusions as to the notion that this is all that needs to be done to correct the braking rates."

He said he would upload the entire fix when it was ready.

I haven't gotten the Surfliner cars to perform properly while braking with the F59PHi, but I do believe that after some coding changes, they work properly with the P42DC, which is kind of odd.

[luifeldur]

hello
in the future in the surfliner car and the locomotive F59PHI will be updated the interior

[Havner]

I haven't gotten the Surfliner cars to perform properly while braking with the F59PHi, but I do believe that after some coding changes, they work properly with the P42DC, which is kind of odd.

I did a lot of changes to test, check and try to fix this. What I did notice is that F5 values are consistent with cab needles only when you detach the CabCar. F5 values for the brake pipe seem to always be fine (rates not necessarily, but those can be fixed in simulation.bin).
So this might be the reason the consist behaves wrong for you in F59PHi but not in P42DC.
I have no idea what is going on, trying to fix it the whole evening. I've put the brake values from the Coaster's F59PHi (for the whole consist) to the PacificSurfliner version of F59PHi and it's manageable. But with the CabCab the brake pipe needle always jump almost immediately to 65PSI.

[FanRailer]

The Pacific Surfliner Brake Fix by JohnS has been incorporated into the Amtrak California F59PHI Mod Pack. Enjoy guys And many thanks to JohnS for his hard work
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