Lapping brakes - B-class, S-class locos & similar

For those locos requiring the driver to lap the brakes, web•TrainSim is guessing (i.e., he hasn't tried it) that it may be too difficult to manage with the Raildriver control. As a work-around, install self-lapping brakes as follows:

In the usual manner, run WordPad or your favourite Unicode text editor and navigate your way to the relevant loco sub-folder under the Trainset folder.

Scroll down the file, towards the end, looking for these lines:

    ..............
   Brake_Engine ( 0 1 0.0125 0
NumNotches ( 3
Notch ( 0    0 EngineBrakesControllerReleaseStart )
Notch ( 0.33 0 EngineBrakesControllerHoldStart )
Notch ( 0.66 0 EngineBrakesControllerFullServiceStart )
)
)
   Brake_Train ( 0 1 0.0125 0.25
NumNotches ( 4
Notch ( 0.0  0 TrainBrakesControllerReleaseStart )
Notch ( 0.25 0 TrainBrakesControllerHoldStart )
Notch ( 0.5  0 TrainBrakesControllerFullServiceStart )
Notch ( 0.75 0 TrainBrakesControllerEmergencyStart )
)
) 
    ..............

Replace the above with these lines (taken from 3DTrains' Penn Central F7A):

    ..............
   Brake_Engine ( 0 1 0.0125 0 
     NumNotches ( 1
        Notch( 0  1 Dummy )
     )
   )
   Brake_Train ( 0 1 0.0125 0.75 
     NumNotches ( 5
        Notch( 0    0 TrainBrakesControllerReleaseStart )
        Notch( 0.3  1 TrainBrakesControllerGraduatedSelfLapLimitedHoldingStart )
        Notch( 0.85 0 TrainBrakesControllerSuppressionStart )
        Notch( 0.9  0 TrainBrakesControllerContinuousServiceStart )
        Notch( 0.95 0 TrainBrakesControllerEmergencyStart )
     )
   )
    ..............

Blue XPT

After some reading at David Bromage's XPT site and the NSW Countrylink XPT specs page, web•TrainSim saw that the XPT has an electro-pneumatic braking system. As a trial, web•TrainSim has made the following change to his XPT (blue) power cars. Also noted was the fact that the XPT has a 5-notch throttle; that feature has yet to be tried.

Scroll down until you find the Brake_Train code block:

    ..............
   Brake_Train ( 0 1 0.0125 0.75 
      NumNotches ( 5
         Notch ( 0    0 TrainBrakesControllerReleaseStart )
         Notch ( 0.3  1 TrainBrakesControllerGraduatedSelfLapLimitedHoldingStart )
         Notch ( 0.85 0 TrainBrakesControllerSuppressionStart )
         Notch ( 0.9  0 TrainBrakesControllerContinuousServiceStart )
         Notch ( 0.95 0 TrainBrakesControllerEmergencyStart )
      )
   )
    ..............

Replace the above block with:

   Brake_Train ( 0 1 0.0125 0.75 
      NumNotches ( 4
         Notch( 0    0 TrainBrakesControllerReleaseStart )
         Notch( 0.25 1 TrainBrakesControllerEPApplyStart )
         Notch( 0.85 0 TrainBrakesControllerEPHoldStart )
         Notch( 0.95 0 TrainBrakesControllerEmergencyStart )
      )
   )

MCT NGT8D Trams

These trams use a Combined_Control lever which has the throttle and brakes on the same lever. As with the default Series 7000 trainset, the Raildriver cab control can't cope so a couple of changes are necessary.

There are Blue Line and Green Line MCT NGT8D trams as well as the Route 99 Orbital Link set. Locate their folders and open the respective ENGine files in turn. Look for this line towards the end of each file:

• Combined_Control( 0 1 0.4 0.82 throttle train )

Comment out this line, making sure you remember the bracket at the end of the line:

• Comment ( Combined_Control( 0 1 0.4 0.82 throttle train ) )

Save this file but leave it open for the next step. Before going to the next step, however, for the sake of completeness open WordPad and comment out the Combined_Control line in other NGT8D power cars (middle and end ones).

Now that web•TrainSim has learnt about the Raildriver's own ENG files, stored in C:\Program Files\PIEngineering\RailDriver\engine\, the next step is to give your NGT8D tram its own Raildriver ENG file. Open Explorer, navigate your way to the Raildriver engines folder, copy the pi2000.eng file and paste it back in the same folder. Now rename this new file to pingt8d.eng, or something similar. Note the filename must be preceded by pi.

In WordPad, or your favourite Unicode text editor, open pingt8d.eng. Change the Name to NGT8D or to whatever you named your file. Now copy the BrakesEngineControllers and Brake_Train blocks of code from the MSTS NGT8D ENGine file, e.g. NGT8Dfront_Blue.eng.

Your new pingt8d.eng file should look like this:

   Type ( Electric )
   Name ( "NGT8D" )

   BrakesEngineControllers( "Train" )
      EngineControllers (
         Throttle ( 0 1 0.25 0
           NumNotches ( 5 
            Notch ( 0       0 Dummy )
            Notch ( 0.25    0 Dummy )
            Notch ( 0.50    0 Dummy )
            Notch ( 0.75    0 Dummy )
            Notch ( 1.00    0 Dummy )
           )
         )
         Brake_Train ( 0 1 0.1 0.7
           NumNotches ( 3
            Notch( 0   0 TrainBrakesControllerReleaseStart )
            Notch( 0.2 1 TrainBrakesControllerEPApplyStart )
            Notch( 0.8 0 TrainBrakesControllerEmergencyStart )
           )
         )
      )

Save the files. When you start the RD Manager, you can now choose the NGT8D's own Engine type from the dropdown list.