SEPTA Newark to Philadelphia

You'll be taking a SEPTA local passenger service from Newark to Philadelphia on the NEC. You'll be test driving an Italian-manufactured ALe426/ALe506 TAF trainset which SEPTA are considering purchasing to replace their aging E60C sets.

A few points about the design of this activity:

• to overcome the problem which the AI dispatcher/controller has with activities lasting more than an hour or so, after a lot of time in testing, web•TrainSim reduced the activity journey to be from Newark to Philadelphia.
• in an attempt to force the AI dispatcher to allow the Acela Express trainsets to run at somewhere near their full speed, beginning paths for the Acelas start on the main NEC track near Perryville (towards Baltimore).
• browsing throught the Amtrak timetable, web•TrainSim noticed Amtrak Metroliner services departing Philadelphia don't make their first stop until Eddystone. Thus Acela Express and Metroliner services run on the middle tracks to/from Philadelphia until the interlock at Claymont. The SEPTA stop-all-stations services thus run on the outer tracks.
• as usual for web•TrainSim, the idea is to throw together a lot of services and let the AI dispatcher/controller do his/her job - with varying levels of success. Vince Cockeram, author of NEC 4, didn't have time to re-script the signalling rules for AI trains, so this situation has to be worked around, thus there's some adjusting of paths required here and there to avoid rear-end collisions caused by following AI trains.
• don't be concerned with keeping with the scheduled timetable - a couple of freights wanting access to sidings have to travel "wrong-way" and you'll be held up a couple of times with reds; the second at MP 5 may hold you for 10-15 minutes, depending on how you're driving. On your first trip while learning the road, you may not get the first red.
• dwell times at stations are fairly long - you could load the route into the Activity Editor and right-click on each platform to gain access to properties to reduce the default number of passengers; otherwise browse the driver's rule-book at stops. Your employer abhors drivers who read the newspaper sports pages or who leave the cab to get a take-away coffee!
• after a couple of runs, you can use the in-cab signalling in the TAF and only have the Track Monitor showing when you need the distance to the next signal.
• while stopped at a red, observe the signals on the inside track to anticipate a train that's going to pass you.

As we're getting our Newark-Philadelphia SEPTA E60C service underway after a stop at Edgemoor, a Philadelphia-bound Acela screams past.

Rolling stock

The driver of the Philadelphia-bound Acela Express looks askance at the ALe426/ALe506 TAF unit under trial by SEPTA as he pulls in at Wilmington.

All the following is available from Train-sim.com, unless otherwise stated.

Because there are no loose consists, you can use ConBuilder to substitute your choice of rolling stock.

• Amtrak F59PHI #451: f59phiv1.zip, 3window.zip
• ALe426-506 TAF double-decker EMU (FS_Ale426-506-TAF.zip from AllFreeNet.it)
• Amtrak E60C #620 (with cab), e60c_42.zip
• CEBX Schnabel: cebx800.zip, cebx8007.zip (updated ACE files)
• CSX Transportation box car #65892: csx_box1.zip
• CSX Transportation 50 foot box car #135070: csxbox33.zip
• CSX Transportation tank car: csx_tank.zip
• CSX SD40-2 #8119: csx8119.zip, CSX SD40-2 #8252: csx8252.zip, csx_ace.zip (updated ACE files)
• Default GP38-2 loco
• Default Metroliner trainset
• MARC HHP-8: marchhp.zip
• Metra "Winnebago" F40PH-2M #161, f40phmmt.zip
• Sounder (Sound Transit) Bombardier bi-level carriages: sndbdier.zip
• Trinity Rail Express trainset (only use the bi-level carriages): tretrain.zip
• SEPTA E60c trainset: septae60.zip (requires e60c_42.zip for cab)
• Boston MBTA Type 6 and Type 7 LRV: type6.zip, type7.zip
• NEC 4 Maps: nec40map.zip
• NEC Guide: necguide.zip