The main new feature in this release is the ability to become a follow-on service at a different location and a different time to that specified in the timetable. This is common proctice in the real world and normally used to turn a service round before the scheduled turnaround location when trains are running very late. It extends the ‘skip timetabled events’ feature introduced in v2.11.0, which is used to skip events within a single service, by allowing all successive events to be skipped in a service as well as events in the follow-on service up to departure from the current location.
The conditions that need to be met for this option to be available for a train are as follows:
stopped at a location and has power;
has not already skipped events after its departure;
is running in timetable mode (i.e. not under signaller control);
must have a follow-on service (i.e. last entry before any repeats is Fns, Fns-sh, Frh-sh or F-nshs); and
the follow-on service must either stop at or pass the current location.
These should be easily met in most cases.
The option is shown when it’s available by right-clicking the train when it’s at a location, and is ‘Terminate here and become follow-on service xxxx’, where ‘xxxx’ is the service reference of the follow-on service.
The new service will face the opposite direction to the original service, which is mostly what is required. If the direction change is not wanted then it should be changed under signaller control.
Other changes include:
(a) showing the departure direction for new services in the floating window when the mouse is hovered over a train with train information selected. This is useful when a train changes to a new service at a location with platforms specific to different destinations. Knowing the departure direction (indicated by the first location after the current one in the follow-on service timetable) allows the signaller to route the train into the correct platform.
(b) the right-click menu now only shows the options that are available. It was becoming a bit too cluttered so I think this makes it easier to use.
Bug fixes:
An error file was sent in by Cameron on 28/01/22. This was caused by a train braking when exiting at a continuation. I failed to find out why it was braking, as this should never happen, but was able to fix the effect of the error which was in the time-to-act calculation function. That function assumed that trains would never come to a stop on an exit continuation, as indeed they should never do, but this error showed that it was possible. The fix involved allowing for zero speed and ignoring it, which is fine as no time-to-act entry is needed for exiting trains. Thanks to Cameron for notifying me of this error.
I noticed that a train that was stopped because of a train in front had signaller control options to move and step forward still available. Nothing happened if these were clicked but it wasn’t appropriate for them to be available in these circumstances so an additional ‘train-in-front’ check was included to prevent it. Additionally a ‘stop’ option had been offered when a train under signaller control was exiting at a continuation, but it would be ignored in these circumstances so the option has been removed.
Download it here