Alert Alert

[SithMurcielago]

I was wondering the same thing. How do you disable the alerter. It is a pain for me with the P42 & Superliners. I spend most of my time in the PV and I don't hear the alerter go off nor is their a display warning on the RW2 HuD. It might be in the engine script I guess.

[arizonachris]

Does anybody know if the SD40-2 has a functioning alerter. I noticed that it has an alerter reset button ("ATS resert"), but I haven't ever had the alerter go off.

Majority of North American routes don't have the AWS system, so you won't see an alert.

[J_Thom123]

Majority of North American routes don't have the AWS system, so you won't see an alert.

Hmmm... I know that in real life the SD40-2 has a deadman switch style alerter like most US locomotives, is there a way to change the alerter script for the SD40-2 to make it more realistic?

[arizonachris]

True, most North American locomotives have had the dead man switch for a long time. But, as far as I understand it, that is simply run on a timer, not a sensor on the track, which (AFAIK) is what AWS is.

Dead Man's switch: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_man%27s_switch

AWS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Warning_System

Nice reading. I seem to learn more every day. Love this Forum!

As far as changing the scripting, I have no idea. I'm just a driver. Y'all are the innovators here that create the mods.

[johnmckenzie]

Yes, the AWS magnets are placed between the tracks normally 200 yards before a signal. You can see them quite clearly in UK Railworks routes.

[ATSF3814]

I believe most US locos currently have an alerter that will go off if the engineer has not made any inputs on the controls for a set amount of time. The engineer then has to hit a reset button or the alerter will trigger the train's emergency brakes. This is a pretty reliable dead man's brake that is difficult to defeat. In fact, the only instance I know of it failing was the CSX 8888 incident.

The older style switch though was actually a pedal that the engineer had to keep depressed the entire time the train was in motion. The biggest problem with that was many engineers had a hard time keeping their foot on that pedal without getting cramps and what not. So some would simply put a heavy box or other object on the pedal to keep it depressed so they wouldn't have to worry about it. Another problem was if the engineer did become incapacitated, there was no guarantee his foot would come off the pedal. There was at least one case of this happening where the engineer suffered a heart attack but slouched over in such a way that his foot stayed firmly on the pedal. Train brakes never applied, and this lead to a pretty serious accident:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterfall_train_disaster

[arizonachris]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterfall_train_disaster

Like I said many times before, I learn something new here every day. Interesting read, thanks! And as for the CXS 8888, that's the one that Unstoppable is based on, right? IRL, it wasn't as dramatic as the movie was.

[davveb]

I believe most US locos currently have an alerter that will go off if the engineer has not made any inputs on the controls for a set amount of time. The engineer then has to hit a reset button or the alerter will trigger the train's emergency brakes. This is a pretty reliable dead man's brake that is difficult to defeat. In fact, the only instance I know of it failing was the CSX 8888 incident.

The older style switch though was actually a pedal that the engineer had to keep depressed the entire time the train was in motion. The biggest problem with that was many engineers had a hard time keeping their foot on that pedal without getting cramps and what not. So some would simply put a heavy box or other object on the pedal to keep it depressed so they wouldn't have to worry about it. Another problem was if the engineer did become incapacitated, there was no guarantee his foot would come off the pedal. There was at least one case of this happening where the engineer suffered a heart attack but slouched over in such a way that his foot stayed firmly on the pedal. Train brakes never applied, and this lead to a pretty serious accident:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterfall_train_disaster

This is basically the same as UK trains, where the deadman's pedal and time based alerter are combined.