I just drove a train on that route (specifically, the file NTCT-D2.csv), and I noticed a couple of things that, well, got me taking notes on the things that can be improved.
Graphical ImprovementsWhile the route in general looks great, there are a few cosmetic issues that need to be taken care of. For instance, at the Rockefeller Center station, there are
no diagonal bits connecting the wall and horizontal beams.
Next, at 103rd Street, there's an F train on the uptown express track.
AnnouncementsAt Fordham Road, there's no announcement of the Bx12 Select Bus Service. I don't know for certain how it's treated in the B division, but it's always announced on the A division stations where the line crosses. This is probably due to the automated announcements, but I think the R160s already announce the M15 where it crosses the lines with R160s running on them.
I would suggest updating either the scenery and marker bitmaps or the announcements to be consistent with the period being depicted. "Franken-forties" running on the B and announcements of the availability of the M train on Sixth Avenue? When is this route set, 2009 or 2011?
StationsI noticed that at stations where the platform is on the train's left, the doors on the train's right side opened. I'm sure a conductor would get written up for opening the doors on the wrong side once, but doing it
ten times (at 205, BPB, KB, Fordham, Tremont, 145th, RockCenter, 9th Av, 62nd St, Bay Pkwy)… well, if it happened on a real D train and it
didn't make the news, I would be surprised. There is a fix for this, which I will explain below.
I also noticed that at places where the signal at the departing end of the station is an automatic or other single-headed signal, the signal shows red as the train approaches, but turns green as the train approaches the stopping point. I've seen this bug on many of the other BVE routes depicting the subway system, and there is a fix, which I will also explain.
The fix for these two issues. It all has to do with the Track.sta command. In the file, an example station command is:
.sta 205th Street;5.0130;5.0200;0;1;1;ats;;10;50;D2\205_Dep.wavParsing this command, we get the following:
Name: 205th Street
ArrivalTime: 5.0130
DepartureTime: 5.0200
PassAlarm: NO
Doors:
RIGHTForcedRedSignal:
YESSystem: ATS
ArrivalSound: <NULL>
StopDuration: 10
PassengerRatio: 50
DepartureSound: D2\205_Dep.wav
TimetableIndex: <NULL>
The values in
bold are what need to be fixed. For stations with platforms on the left, change the Doors parameter (the first one bolded in the example above) to
−1. For stations with red signals as you approach the stopping point of stations (practically all of them), change the Stop or ForcedRedSignal parameter to
0. Setting this parameter to 0
will not make the program think the train is not supposed to stop at the station. That effect is done by setting the ArrivalTime parameter to
P.
However, the effect could be retained (with an appropriate tweak to the StopDuration parameter) at stations where the motorman is required to "punch for line-up" (e.g. 36th Street).
As for the schedule, I think it would be nice to see how late or early you are at other stations along the route. This can be achieved by supplying the ArrivalTime parameter for each station, and leaving the DepartureTime blank. You can get this information using
Scott's Transit Playground. While there is no trip leaving 205th Street at 05:02, there is one leaving at 05:04, operating express in Manhattan, local in The Bronx and Brooklyn. Then again, if 5:02
PM is intended, the correct schedule starts at
17:02. Assuming that this is the case, here's the schedule for this trip:
17:02:00 Norwood - 205 St
17:04:00 Bedford Park Blvd
17:07:48 Kingsbridge Rd
17:09:24 Fordham Rd
17:10:54 182 - 183 Sts
17:12:30 Tremont Av
17:14:24 174 - 175 Sts
17:16:30 170 St
17:18:36 167 St
17:21:00 161 St - Yankee Stadium
17:22:30 155 St
17:24:00 145 St
17:27:30 125 St
17:35:30 59 St - Columbus Circle
17:39:06 7 Av
17:41:00 47 - 50 Sts - Rockefeller Ctr
17:42:30 42 St - Bryant Pk
17:44:30 34 St - Herald Sq
17:47:30 W 4 St
17:49:30 Broadway - Lafayette St
17:51:30 Grand St
18:02:30 Atlantic Av - Pacific St
18:08:00 36 St
18:12:00 9 Av
18:14:00 Fort Hamilton Pkwy
18:15:48 50 St
18:17:36 55 St
18:19:30 62 St
18:21:18 71 St
18:23:00 79 St
18:24:36 18 Av
18:26:06 20 Av
18:27:30 Bay Pkwy
18:29:18 25 Av
18:31:30 Bay 50 St
18:35:30 Coney Island - Stillwell AvSignallingFinally, I start with a bit of a story. After crossing the Manhattan Bridge and passing DeKalb, I approach Pacific Street, and to my surprise, I see the train in front of me, with two signals behind it: the one immediately behind showing red, and the one behind that showing yellow. I hit the brakes, waited for the train to go well ahead of me, then proceeded into the station.
This leads me to pose a question: Is there anyone working on the Track.Section + Track.SigF method of placing signals? Because that would be really nice, especially when you consider repeater signals. What's cool about Track.Section is that you can make it so that there can be two blocks of red behind a train.
with track
1435,.section 0;0;2;4,.sigF 3;0;-3;-1Yeah, it only works with OpenBVE, but who still uses older versions of Mackoy's BVE Trainsim? (I suppose that could be a poll question.)
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