CTA in Train Simulator

[briman94]

Also I'd love to have Mr. CTA, but it'd be too difficult to get all the sound files. I can't just record them from the trains because #1 the audio quality from any microphone I have access to would be too poor and #2 it'd have talking, HVAC, and other noises in the backgrounds. If somebody with "connections" could get me access to those sound files though, that'd be amazing!

I'd love to have support from within the CTA for this project, but the problem is I have no connections to the CTA board and even if I did, I'm not sure if they'd be able or even allowed to provide what I need (which would be a lot more than just sound files eventually). In a perfect world, they'd let me get on a 5000-series up at Skokie and take it to a closed-off track where I could test drive it and take measurements, recordings, etc, but we all know that won't happen  

[briman94]

Good news everyone! I just used the site Kevin mentioned previously and got a real certificate for my website! No more red error pages from Chrome. Now you shouldn't have any issues downloading the project.

[MTRSP1900-CTA3200]

I'll elaborate more on the horns when I get to my computer, but will the installer program work even if you installed the route by yourself? I'm worried that it will interact funny with the stuff I manually installed.

[briman94]

2 minutes ago, MTRSP1900-CTA3200 said:

I'll elaborate more on the horns when I get to my computer, but will the installer program work even if you installed the route by yourself? I'm worried that it will interact funny with the stuff I manually installed.

It'll detect that there's an old version installed and remove it before proceeding with the update. If you made any changes, you might want to back them up (although you'll probably have to edit the new files instead of replacing them with yours, because a lot has changed in a lot of files since the last version).

[MTRSP1900-CTA3200]

28 minutes ago, briman94 said:

It'll detect that there's an old version installed and remove it before proceeding with the update. If you made any changes, you might want to back them up (although you'll probably have to edit the new files instead of replacing them with yours, because a lot has changed in a lot of files since the last version).

Sounds like you did your homework. Thanks.

[briman94]

Just now, MTRSP1900-CTA3200 said:

Sounds like you did your homework. Thanks.

I essentially wrote it to work for my current setup, which I considered an "old version" installed into RailWorks, and made it take that into account before updating. It worked for me, so it should work for anybody else using a similar setup (for Steam version of RailWorks).

[Lost on Belmont]

You finally got wheels! Looks good. But, um, you overshot the berth markers a bit at Belmont and had to reverse. That's a no-no.

[briman94]

2 minutes ago, Lost on Belmont said:

You finally got wheels! Looks good. But, um, you overshot the berth markers a bit at Belmont and had to reverse. That's a no-no.

Yes, yes, I was having problems adjusting the camera and wasn't able to hit the brake on time. Technically that would have been a legal stop on the CTA though, because all the doors were on the platform! The simulator just won't let doors open unless the entire train car is aligned with the platform.

One time I was waiting for a SB train at Rockwell and the driver came FLYING in and then slammed on the emergency brake, grinding the train to a stop with the front door lined up with the edge of the ramp from the platform. Two inches further and it'd be too far to open safely.

[Lost on Belmont]

22 hours ago, briman94 said:

Yes, yes, I was having problems adjusting the camera and wasn't able to hit the brake on time. Technically that would have been a legal stop on the CTA though, because all the doors were on the platform! The simulator just won't let doors open unless the entire train car is aligned with the platform.

One time I was waiting for a SB train at Rockwell and the driver came FLYING in and then slammed on the emergency brake, grinding the train to a stop with the front door lined up with the edge of the ramp from the platform. Two inches further and it'd be too far to open safely.

Back during the rehab on the Brown I was doing a lot of photographing of the old stations before they were gone and so spent a lot of time on the Ravenswod branch. One time we came flying into either Irving Park or Montrose stopped hard and ended up well ahead of the the X. The operator opened the doors then came flying out of the cab to prevent anyone from using the first door. Luckily no one was there.

[briman94]

1 minute ago, Lost on Belmont said:

Back during the rehab on the Brown I was doing a lot of photographing of the old stations before they were gone and so spent a lot of time on the Ravenswod branch. One time we came flying into either Irving Park or Montrose stopped hard and ended up well ahead of the the X. The operator opened the doors then came flying out of the cab to prevent anyone from using the first door. Luckily no one was there.

They should have disabled the front door if it wasn't safe to use...they'd probably be relieved on the spot if a supervisor was watching. As long as all the doors are fully on the platform, however, I think it's fine if the end of the train is past the X a bit.

[Lost on Belmont]

1 minute ago, briman94 said:

They should have disabled the front door if it wasn't safe to use...they'd probably be relieved on the spot if a supervisor was watching. As long as all the doors are fully on the platform, however, I think it's fine if the end of the train is past the X a bit.

Nope. That's what the X denotes. You pass the X, you're in the shit now. (My father used to be in signage/graphics/whatever-the-hell-they-called-it-this-week and did a lot of work with berth markers in his time.)

[briman94]

Just now, Lost on Belmont said:

Nope. That's what the X denotes. You pass the X, you're in the shit now. (My father used to be in signage/graphics/whatever-the-hell-they-called-it-this-week and did a lot of work with berth markers in his time.)

But I think the X is relative to the front door (at least in practice), not the front of the train; that's what I'm saying.

[Lost on Belmont]

1 minute ago, briman94 said:

But I think the X is relative to the front door (at least in practice), not the front of the train; that's what I'm saying.

The X is relative to the front of the train to let the motorman/operator know if the doors are on the platform.

[briman94]

Just now, Lost on Belmont said:

The X is relative to the front of the train to let the motorman/operator know if the doors are on the platform.

My point is that in practice, a supervisor is probably not going to discipline a driver if they are a foot or two past the 'X' but the front door is clearly fully on the platform. It's still safe. They might say something, like "be careful," but I doubt they're going to discipline. Especially with the older cars with their laggy controls, and especially at stations where the "8" and "X" signs are very close, it'd be easy to overshoot it a bit.

[Lost on Belmont]

1 minute ago, briman94 said:

My point is that in practice, a supervisor is probably not going to discipline a driver if they are a foot or two past the 'X' but the front door is clearly fully on the platform. It's still safe. They might say something, like "be careful," but I doubt they're going to discipline. Especially with the older cars with their laggy controls, and especially at stations where the "8" and "X" signs are very close, it'd be easy to overshoot it a bit.

Oh I get what you're saying, but (at least in the "old days") if you're a foot or two past the X the doors aren't on the platform. At all. And that's how it was on the old Ravenswood stations.

[briman94]

10 minutes ago, Lost on Belmont said:

Oh I get what you're saying, but (at least in the "old days") if you're a foot or two past the X the doors aren't on the platform. At all. And that's how it was on the old Ravenswood stations.

True; the old wooden cars had doors at the very end. On modern cars (anything run on the system in the past 10+ years), the front door is still at least a good 5 feet from the front of the car. And some of the stations still have the X past the platform such that there isn't much room to go past it, but most of the stations that have an X (some don't even have it anymore) have it within the platform boundaries (such as Western, brown, westbound platform).

[Lost on Belmont]

17 minutes ago, briman94 said:

True; the old wooden cars had doors at the very end. On modern cars (anything run on the system in the past 10+ years), the front door is still at least a good 5 feet from the front of the car. And some of the stations still have the X past the platform such that there isn't much room to go past it, but most of the stations that have an X (some don't even have it anymore) have it within the platform boundaries (such as Western, brown, westbound platform).

If it's like that at Western, then it's probably different now. Haven't actually seen an X in some time. (Now that I think about it, I haven't seen one since the Rave rebuild.) But the placement of the Xs on the old Ravenswood stations (pre-rebuild) were there for the modern cars, not the wooden ones. If a 3200 (most modern at the time) overshot an X, the doors opened onto a fool catcher or a lot of air as it was in this case.

[MTRSP1900-CTA3200]

Just a friendly reminder...

Spoiler

 

[sw4400]

On ‎4‎/‎14‎/‎2016 at 8:12 PM, briman94 said:

Yes, yes, I was having problems adjusting the camera and wasn't able to hit the brake on time. Technically that would have been a legal stop on the CTA though, because all the doors were on the platform! The simulator just won't let doors open unless the entire train car is aligned with the platform.

One time I was waiting for a SB train at Rockwell and the driver came FLYING in and then slammed on the emergency brake, grinding the train to a stop with the front door lined up with the edge of the ramp from the platform. Two inches further and it'd be too far to open safely.

***BEEP BEEP BEEP*** (Mr. CTA Announcment) "Your Attention Please..... We are being delayed because of a noob operator overshooting the stop on this train. The operator is running through the train to the last car to back it into the station. Please boo him as he passes you to let him know how awesome of a job he's doing. We expect to be moving shortly....."  

 

[sw4400]

On ‎4‎/‎14‎/‎2016 at 8:12 PM, briman94 said:

Yes, yes, I was having problems adjusting the camera and wasn't able to hit the brake on time....

As far as playing with an electronic device instead of paying attention to your stop.... sorry, but it has to be done.... @briman94.....  

 

[Busjack]

24 minutes ago, sw4400 said:

As far as playing with an electronic device instead of paying attention to your stop.... sorry, but it has to be done

Vinnie didn't do it to Brittney Haywood the first time it happened.

[briman94]

Hey, it's not as bad as when some program decides to take focus away from the simulator while ATC is beeping and you get a penalty stop! Or worse than that, while you're stopping at a station and you overrun and end up typing "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" into some program as you try to apply the brakes and then the emergency brakes in panic.

[Busjack]

18 minutes ago, briman94 said:

Hey, it's not as bad as when some program decides to take focus away from the simulator while ATC is beeping and you get a penalty stop! Or worse than that, while you're stopping at a station and you overrun and end up typing "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" into some program as you try to apply the brakes and then the emergency brakes in panic.

You need the promised berthing location system.  At least CTA does.

[briman94]

Just now, Busjack said:

You need the promised berthing location system.  At least CTA does.

The CTA needs to take a lesson from my simulator and add CBTC instead  nothing that'll guarantee stopping the train correctly better than having it stop itself 

[Busjack]

1 hour ago, briman94 said:

The CTA needs to take a lesson from my simulator and add CBTC instead  nothing that'll guarantee stopping the train correctly better than having it stop itself 

That (per Siemens) seems more concerned with maintaining proper service intervals than hitting the correct platform berthing marker.