Activity creation - hints and tips

Creating MSTS activity paths in an early version of the Activity Editor.

The pointers on this page to help you create your own activities were originally written up in the June 2006 line news. The only additions on this page are a couple of scans and explanation of some samples from web•TrainSim's written collection of paths/services.

There are some tips from web•TrainSim written a couple of years ago when he wasn't as experienced as now - one example is Creating some paths in the Activity Editor.

Tips part I

• Find a map of the area where the route travels. The route's author may have included a schematic in the download or another trainsimmer may have contributed one to one of the MSTS download sites such as Train-sim.com or UKTrainsim.com. Another option is to use Local Live (local.live.com) and if the route is in an area covered by bird's eye view, you'll get more detail than just what's available in Road view. The Wupper Express route, for example, is good because it's modelled on an actual rail system so you can refer to the maps at the VRR site, as well as the Graphics15 map (an edited version of one of VRR's original maps). If none of these options is available, you'll have to resort to the old-fashioned method: pen and paper when you get to loading the route in the Activity Editor.
• Familiarise yourself with town names and other locations. Start thinking about abbreviations for these names (two or three letter abbreviations if possible; the path pane in the Activity Editor doesn't allow for very long path names and you want to be able to denote the path's starting and ending points and still be able to read it in the path and services panes).
• Load the Activity Editor - we're not going to make an activity at this stage. No, we're going to have much more fun - this session (and others to follow most likely) will be devoted to looking at possibilies for driver (player) and traffic paths and then creating some. So choose the route and when asked for an activity, enter something like junk (the only things that are going to be saved in this session are the paths you create).
• Have a browse through AE's help - it's not bad and gives some good clues about using right-click menus and panning and zooming in/out. As well, go to the View menu and turn off Station name, Siding names, and make sure Mileposts aren't shown (otherwise you'll be waiting all day when you pan or zoom in/out).
• Pan about the route looking for sidings where you can start or end traffic. You'll want to turn on and off Siding names so you know your location. Remember that traffic whooshes into existence and whooshes out of existence so you don't want to be driving along and suddenly see a traffic train appear from nowhere (so to speak) when it starts its path or disappear into thin air when it's finished its path.
• Any traffic path you create cannot, repeat cannot, cross other paths otherwise you're leaving yourself open for the possibility (99.98% probablility) of a stand-off in an activity (this situation more often than not happens when you're driving on your route, well away from the actual lcation of the standoff, and can't see what's actually going on). That implies that some of the sidings you find may not be suitable for paths. Keep looking, making sure you've zoomed in to see sufficient detail. Bear in mind the length of a siding, too - that 100-wagon coal train or ten carriage express may not fit.
• Paper and pen time. Have some smallish pieces of paper (e.g., A4 scrap paper cut into quarters) on which you can jot down possible paths - you might only have the starting location so right-click to place a start point and see where the the Activity Editor thinks the path should go (this seems to depend on the signalling file that the route's builder has written).

Tips part II

• <24-Jun-2006>: Here's the second part of web•TrainSim's hints for creating your own activities:

• Before going any further, let's try to get around the Activity Editor's archaic alphabetic sorting in drop-down lists. web•TrainSim has finally settled on the following method to name paths and services:
• the name is preceded with wDTS so he knows which paths and services are his (and you know who to blame for problems in activities) - so we've got wDTS- thus far.
• to help AE better sort names, he next inserts trf or frgt or ICE into the name for those three types of traffic paths and services - so now we've got wDTS-trf, for example.
• for driver/player paths (using Wupper Express as an example), web•TrainSim uses the service designation as per the official timetables - for example, we'd have wDTS-RE5- thus far.
• the next bit is the starting point of the path. Please note, for you own sanity, you must be specific, yes, specific, about both the starting and ending points of your paths. So the driver path for the RE5 service from Koln to Oberhausen begins at platform (Gleis) 4 at Koln and terminates at platform (Gleis) 1 at Oberhausen. So thus far the driver path name is wDTS-RE5-KOg4-OBg1.
• because this is a driver path, web•TrainSim finishes off the name with plyr - so the complete path name is now wDTS-RE5-KOg4-OBg1-plyr. This is written on the small sheets cut for the purpose (see the last point in tips Part I).
• traffic path names are a bit shorter - here are a couple of examples from web•TrainSim's long list: wDTS-trf-W-OBg1-BotEoL (W-Oberbarmen platform 1 to the end-of-line at Bottrop) and wDTS-SGasg2-D-FLg2 (SG-Ohligs siding 2 to the D-Flughafen terminal platform 2).
• until you're familiar with all your abbreviations for town names, etc., you may have to write down the full names for the start and end points on your sheet for each path.
• once you've sorted out meaningful names for your paths, naming your services is simple - use the same name since path files are saved with the pat file extension and service files are saved with the srv file extension.
• web•TrainSim uses the same name for the file name and the display name for both paths and services. Tips for creating services are below so be patient.
• Remember that you create all your paths in an activity named junk or something similar. Don't bother trying to create paths as part of an activity - you'll only frustrate yourself not being able to clearly see where it's going.
• So you've created all the paths you can see at the moment - yes, believe it or not, you'll see some other opportunites for paths when creating an activity (make a note of them and create them later) - and you want to begin creating an activity. This is how web•TrainSim now names his activities:
• AE asks you for a display name for the activity when you first click New and web•TrainSim uses the service code, departure and destination names and time of departure. Thus the RE5 service from Koln to Oberhausen departing Koln at 2132 is entered as wDTS-RE5-Koln-Oberhausen-2132. Including the departure time in the name enables web•TrainSim to create another RE5 Koln to Oberhausen activity with a different departure time (say early in the morning) in the future.
• Before you can save your activity you'll need to enter some text into the Activity Description and Activity Briefing text boxes - do that and then save your activity using the same name as for the Activity display name above (web•TrainSim has to use all lower case because of the server he uploads to).
• Now the first job is to make a Player service for this activity. When the Player service pane opens, find the player path for this service in the drop-down list. Now re-type this name into the Service display name box, highlight this name and copy and paste it into the Service file name box. Choose your consist and tick the stations at which your train is going to stop (if stations are present). web•TrainSim uses the VRR timetables to determine the stations to be stopped at for the driver train.
• Now it's time to make a traffic list for this particular activity. web•TrainSim uses the same name as the activity, for example wDTS-RE5-Koln-Oberhausen-2132. This is ok because the traffic file has file extension trf and naming it in this manner enables a different RE5 activity to be created later by changing the departure time. Now it's time to begin creating traffic services - the good news is that they only need to be created once and then they're always there to be re-used (more than once in the same activity and in other activities).
• A service consists of a path, particular rolling stock consist and, possibly, stations to stop at. You can have different services using the same path but changing the consist and stations stopped at. Because a service principally depends on the path, web•TrainSim names them the same as the path and jots down the consist on his small pieces of paper (which now is starting to hold a fair bit of info).
• Thus each time he's creating a traffic file for an activity (and he's made the services), it's a simple job to pick those he wants from the complete list (just about 300, the same number as the number of paths).
• When you've saved the service, insert it into the traffic list but, just for the moment, give it a starting time well away from the actual time your activity is running - for example, give it a start time of 0100. Now click its entry to bring up the times this service will be arriving and departing at various stations along its path - jot down on that sheet the times of arrival and departure at key locations. For example, for a traffic service running from K-Nippes to Oberhausen, web•TrainSim would want to know when it's at Koln, K-Muelheim (close to where services come from SG-Ohligs), D-Reisholz (other traffic starts/ends here), Dusseldorf (main station and other traffic comes from Neuss, etc), and so on.
• But what about a freight service? In your service definition, tick some stations for it to stop at, jot down arrival/departure times and then clear all the stations to give yourself some idea of times to help scheduling. No stations along the path (e.g. a section of Marias Pass)? Obviously you'll know the starting time but will your driver train see that service before it finishes (i.e., whooshes into thin air?). You can get some info from using the Play mode but don't depend on it. For these situations we have to test our activities and it can be a lengthy process.
• Once you've got your paths and services, you can make use of them over and over in different activities (where all you need is a new player path and service) - all that's required is you bring your scheduling skills to the fore. But all good schedulers will tell you (a former school timetabler is talking now), it's in the preparation where you must have definite, precise information on which to build. If you have precise information about where your service (i.e., path) starts and ends, building up a traffic schedule in an activity is greatly simplified. All that remaains then is a test and some fine tuning of timings for the traffic.

Here are a couple of scans of some of web•TrainSim's records of player and traffic paths and services:

Sample driver/player path and service info.

The three paths/services above are driver/player services (web•TrainSim found some green coloured scrap paper). On the left is the first step in the recording process: neither the path or service has yet been created (no ticks near the P or S). The driver consist will go into the square brackets.

The second driver service has some more info, namely departure and arrival times according to the VRR timetable for the RE1 service.

The third example is a complete record for the RE5 service (and web•TrainSim just noticed he hasn't ticked the S to tell him he's created the service - ugh!). Down at the bottom right you'll notice he's made a record of which platforms the driver will pass through and where he's crossing onto other tracks (just in case there's a stand-off with signals). In red he's recorded the arrival times that the Activity Editor has calculated.

Sample traffic path and service info.

A different colour paper for traffic paths and services. Because the first two services start on adjacent sidings, they are nearly the same. There are a couple of points under the Via section (so we can avoid any possibility of a stand-off at signals, and, if there is, we have some info to start with). Timings are key locations are recorded at the bottom.

The second sample shows that web•TrainSim needed to jot down the full names of the starting and ending locations.

The third sample is a typical traffic path and service record with notes again about which platforms are passed through. At the bottom is timings, calculated by the AE, at particular locations, especially at DO (Dortmund), to help time traffic into Dortmund, for example, when a driver train is departing Dortmund.

Ignore the multiple ticks for P and S - web•TrainSim had made some of these paths and services for Wupper Express 9 and they had to be re-created fot Wupper Express 10 so they got another tick.

Tips part III

This instalment gives you some ideas of when you need to make hard decisions about which tracks your traffic is going to run on (rather than letting the Activity Editor think it knows better than you).

However, before getting into some murky stuff, web•TrainSim should have mentioned in Part I and Part II that it's best practice to keep your paths as short as possible - MSTS seems to get bored looking after traffic. So don't expect things to run smoothly by having a traffic path for a service to run, say from Shelby to Whitefish on Marias Pass or Washington to Philadelphia on the NEC. The longer that MSTS has to keep running a traffic service the more erratic the timing becomes and the more erratic the speed. Back to today's topic.

Most of the situations about which you'll need to make decisions relate to multi-track running, e.g. three or four tracks carrying slow and fast traffic. From memory, the first time web•TrainSim had to sit down and allocate certain tracks to different types of trains was on James Hunt's Modern England route where two tracks expanded out to three and then four tracks. The goal is to avoid the chance of a standoff between traffic and the only option is to bring out pen and paper, sketch different sections of track and allocate which tracks are to be used for slow traffic and which for the fast traffic.

• Firstly web•TrainSim has used a simple rule when creating paths on single-track: wherever there's a passing loop, keep to the left or right as per left- or right-hand running. For example, if you come to a loop that's on your right and your train system uses right-hand running, then your path goes through the loop. If all is well with the signalling script file, MSTS will obey the signalling and hold your driver train in the loop to clear any oncoming traffic.
• In multi-track situations, you have to find out (or decide for yourself) what lines are for the "fasts" (e.g. express passenger trains) and what lines to use for the "slows" (e.g. stopping passenger services, perhaps freight). For example, by referring to the VRR timetables, it's easy to work out the lines used by the S-Bahn stopping services on Wupper Express. With respect to paths it doesn't really matter whether it's "fast" or "slow" - it does however help to know so you can create services with the most appropriate rolling stock.
• The following are some of the jobs that web•TrainSim has carried out in relation to Wupper Express, having learnt from creating activities on other routes (note that scans of the sketches mentioned below are on the Activity creation - hints and tips page, along with the same text and a couple of extra comments):
• Travelling east from Oberhausen towards Gelsenkirchen there are four tracks: fast-fast-slow-slow. Near Altenessen these four tracks converge to two tracks. So web•TrainSim's sketch shows he's decided that he'll rarely, if ever, run a fast service from Oberhausen since there's a good chance of this service having a standoff against a fast service travelling from the Gelsenkirchen direction.

A simple case of where a standoff could occur between "fasts" (near Altenessen).

• At major stations, to make clear what travels where web•TrainSim sketches the platforms and which paths travel through them. You may remember that which platform at a major station a service uses is one of our pieces of information on each of our path/service record sheets. As an example, the pic shows web•TrainSim's sketch of which paths/services go through which platforms at Koln Hbf. He's also got ones for Oberhausen, Essen, Dortmund, Monchengladbach, Neuss, Dusseldorf and Duisberg. This type of info is useful when a choosing a platform at which to begin a driver service.

Where everything can go at Koln Hbf.

• web•TrainSim woke up to a tricky situation on the Gelsenkirchen - Wanne-Eickel - Herne section on Wupper Express after wondering why his traffic wasn't working properly. From Dortmund the tracks are fast-fast-slow-slow until Herne where they change over to slow-fast-fast-slow (it's more difficult to see what's going on if you come from the Gelsenkirchen direction and that's why web•TrainSim at first didn't catch on to the change in tracks). So he's got sketches to remind himself of how he constructed his paths for slow and fast traffic. Note that a slow traffic service from the Gelsenkirchen direction doesn't pass through a Herne platform (the driver of a player train won't know we've had to fudge to ensure MSTS doesn't cause any problems).

We specify where "fast" and "slows" cross west of Herne to get ready to change from slow-fast-fast-slow to fast-fast-slow-slow (as seen when travelling toward Dortmund).

This is where "fasts" and "slows" cross east of Herne to change from fast-fast-slow-slow to fast-slow-slow-fast. Looking at the top right corner of this sketch, when travelling from Dortmund (from the right), slows (pink) have to cross fast train paths (green) travelling from the Gelsenkirchen direction (from the left). Slows then share the track with the fasts until they pass through platform 1 at Herne and diverge onto their own track. Remember this was worked out first, and then the sketch for west of Herne was easily sorted out.

• The situation above won't apply to all routes but can be used for freight yards (e.g., web•TrainSim made a sketch of the yards at Wanne-Eickel as an aid to create traffic paths for freight traffic from Wanne-Eickel to Herne and DO-Mengede).