Railworks America

I like to use coupling view when coupling... but there is a problem. I only seem to be able to use it for the front coupler of the locomotive that I am driving. It seems odd that I can't get the same view for the back of the train, or even the back of the locomotive, especially since most of my coupling is done at the rear of the train. I fumble around with external world view, and the like, but I find all of that very clunky. I just want to pop into coupling view and watch from above as I approach the car(s) i am coupling to in reverse. I'd be interested to know what others do to make coupling and yard maintenance a more enjoyable task.

Use the up and down arrow keys.

Also, you can use left/rightarrows,
and Ctrl-Up arrowand Ctrl-Down arrow

For the most part I switch from the cab view. However with a few key strokes view 8 is fun to use. When approaching the target area press 8 then use the arrow keys to place your view near the car you are going to couple two. At this point you can use the mouse to watch the engine approach.

Chacal wrote:Use the up and down arrow keys.

Also, you can use left/rightarrows,
and Ctrl-Up arrowand Ctrl-Down arrow

Those work fine in External World view (View 8) but don't do much in coupling view (view 6), except move up and down (closer to, and further from) the front coupler. HOWEVER, in trying the left & right keys out in view 6, I accidentally hit CTRL-Right arrow, and suddenly I was directly over-top of the rear coupler. CTRL-Left arrow took me back to the front coupler view. That is exactly what I was looking for! Thanks for steering me in the right direction.

This has been an enlightening morning. I also figured out that in View 6, I can use the LEFT and RIGHT ARROW keys to give me an extreme close up view of the couplers from the side, and that I can still move from front to rear coupler with the CTRL key combinations. I am surprised I haven't run into these combinations before. I guess I have just been avoiding View 6 because i couldn't figure out how to get it to do what I wanted. Now I do! Thanks for the help.

I would still like to see a 6 View like in MSTS where you can use your mouse to simulate a brakeman riding on the rear of the train as it approaches a cut of cars.

Jay

Yes. The most useful view would be a front and rear brakeman's view.
This is possible: Kali demonstrated it here.
However, Kali's solution is time-intensive, as it has to be applied to each indivisual car.

Another solution might be to change the default coordinates of the rotation point for the camera in "2" and "3" views. Putting the rotation points one car length in front of the loco, or to the back of the last car, instead of at the center of the loco or last car, would possibly achieve the same result without interfering with the current functionality.

In Trainz I saw up to 10 engine's views positions (from cab, head out or outside, easyly changed by hotkey or RailDriver's switch) the best I've seen ever.

I find with the "2" view cam, I can use the arrow keys and fly everywhere around the train. Mouse wheel zooms in and out. I pretty much prefer that way of driving. I get cab fever pretty quick.

Yeah, the windows in the SD40 are awfully small and you can't lean closer to them.

I use the "3" view to couple to the rear of a cut of cars.