US shunt engines?

[Toldrabald]

I need some advice for a scenario I'm planning:
I want to do something for the Ohio Steel route, a freight run over the length of the route and afterwards sorting the cars in the yard and maybe bringing them in small groups of 2 or 3 to a nearby factory. For the long run I wanted to use the Dash 9 or maybe an SD40-2 - not sure yet how much payware I want to insert - but these huge engines somehow seem wrong to me to do all the sorting work. There is that smaller engine on Phorum Peninsula a SW1500 (?) would that do the job or would it be ok to do it with the big one?
Also: which company is operating there? Want to get the right colors, even though the scenario itself will be purely fictional.

Thanks for your help, still learning about the US stuff.

[harryadkins]

Dick Cowan's SW1200 would be a good choice or Justin Cornell's GP38. I live in South Carolina and have seen SD40-2's switching in a number of yards. I have also seen ES44's and Dash-9's on a lot of local freights. The rule of thumb today seems to be "use whatever is available."

I use Conrail, Norfolk Southern, and CSX trains on the Dover Division, but you could also go back and use New York Central/Penn Central or B&O/C&O. All have trackage in Ohio.

[Toripony]

I've only seen two pictures of a true switcher engine painted with a C&O name, but then I live in the sticks (rural area). What I have always seen is that as engines get outdated and/or just too old/worn to be trusted on the mainline, they are relegated to switching duty. In the small yard here, when GP38 and 40's came along, GP7's and 9's became switchers (also called "yard engines" here). Now-a-days, I see pics of GP40's and SD40's being used in the yards around CSX.

Forgive me for having fun at your expense but the first thing I saw on the forum this morning was "US Shunt Engine" ..... sorry but somehow that really cracked me up. I don't know that I've ever seen those letters/words written together. ..... but then I remembered you are from Germany so it made sense. Thanks for the giggle.

Tori

[Toldrabald]

Forgive me for having fun at your expense but the first thing I saw on the forum this morning was "US Shunt Engine" ..... sorry but somehow that really cracked me up. I don't know that I've ever seen those letters/words written together. ..... but then I remembered you are from Germany so it made sense. Thanks for the giggle.

Tori

My pleasure, hope you saw the questionmark behind the magic words It's just the way we do it here in the "old countries": big engines pulling consists from town to town and small ones to do the sorting work. But okay, if there aren't any smaller engines - I believe everything in the US must be bigger than everywhere else - makes it even easier for me to build the scenario as planned. To go for a second loco would have ment to split it in two halfs, when staying inside the player engine there is no need to do so.
Now I'll start with reading about the weight of the cars I want to use and then think about what power I'll need in front of them.

[micaelcorleone]

Everything's Bigger in America! (especially in Texas, I love Texas )

[Toldrabald]

Uhm, I ran into a problem... I have some nice european wagons I want to use for that scenario, but the editor is either crashing or just doing nothing when I try to couple them to some US wagons or locos. Now I modified the bin files of the wagon to use US couplers, but this does not really work out too. First time I ran it from menu it also crashed, from the editor it still loads fine, but when I pull the train away it only takes half of the consist with it and after a couple of meters all the wagons jump through the air like crazy

Now I don't know if I should pile that scenario into the bin to my other failed attempts or if I just put a german loco in front of it... I don't like both options but there does not seem to be a way in the middle.

[micaelcorleone]

There is a option in the menu where you can check a box and then you can couple stock with different couplers together.

[Toldrabald]

Wow indeed there is, would be nice if it was working too. Everytime I check it and leave the options menu it disappears again. All the other options stay marked (or not) when I click them. But for coupling override it does not save it...

[thecanadianrail]

there are many switchers (shunters lol) for this game already. they are the GP7, GP9, GP30, GP38-2, SW900, SW1200, SW1500, NW5, RS3 for diesels. for steam there are the shays, vulcan, 2-8-0, 4-4-0, and the 4-4-2. the SD40's work ok for modern switchers, after all they are called road switchers.

[micaelcorleone]

Wow indeed there is, would be nice if it was working too. Everytime I check it and leave the options menu it disappears again. All the other options stay marked (or not) when I click them. But for coupling override it does not save it...

For me it works. Very strange.

[Toldrabald]

You need to have automatic couplers ticked for the override setting to work. However, I get an AI derailment even though there still is no AI train anywhere in the scenario. Happens after 2 or 3 minutes of driving and I have absolutely no clue why, but I relate it to the different wagons. So I'll give up on this scenario, as nice as it would have been it is too much trouble to do.
Started a passenger run for Tori's route instead.

[Toripony]

That's disappointing to hear, since I was about to do something similar myself with a US loco and some UK sand hoppers. I was thinking I did that successfully a long time ago, but now I'll have to try it and see if I get the same error.

Tor

[Trainguy76]

Hi Toldrabald,

Are you sure the cars are not overlapping?

[Toldrabald]

Hey, yes I am. After that behaviour I put all the wagons seperately so that the player would have to couple them and it still happens. I didn't check the other consists though, might be worth a try.