What am I doing wrong on the "Ice and Snow" mission?

[Thorland]

So I'm having problems trying to complete the Ice & Snow scenario, on my first run I figured I bugged the train as I jumped in the wrong locomotive when starting the event. However, since I had to reload saves during this one my game broke and I lost the completion marker. I had to restart it but even when doing things correctly the same thing happens.

After connecting the locomotives to the manifest train I proceed to pull the train out of the yard, I release the breaks check everything and put the train in notch 1. The train will start moving in N1 up to about 2mph at which point in loses all speed and drops to 0mph. From this point I can't get the train to move again unless I slam it in notch 8, and even then it only moves at about 10mph, less going up hill.

On my first playthough I drove the train like this all the way to Rockwood at 10mph up the grade, once I hit Sandpatch and the downgrade section I had to maintain notch 5 down the hill, otherwise the train would grind to a halt without braking.

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong? Are brakes set on this train that I'm unaware of? Is it due to slippage or are there bad traction motors on this one? Or is it bugged?

[jschlen]

I have found that the mission usually (not always) starts with a glitch. You are hauling 3 locos that are basically dead because they have not been set up for MU operation.

To fix this you will need to visit each of the 3 trailing locos and do the following in each cab.
Open the fuse cabinet on the rear bulkhead and turn on the "radio" breaker (top row,far left).
Based on other posts I have seen the following should also be done.
Under the ameter guage are 3 switches; turn them on. Set the reverser to neutral and the auto brake to full service.

BTW after restarting a "save" the glitch might return and you will have to do all that again(again,sometimes, but not always).

If you do a save, it is wise to do it on as little grade as possible, so if you stop, getting rolling again is easier.
Even with all locos working it can still require notch 3 with sanding to get rolling again.
Hope this helps.

[rninrvr]

The only addition to the above is set the auto brake to 'off' which is between full service and emergency and the cut out valve, under the automatic brake handle to the left which is "cut out". Also there is a valve on the control stand bottom on the side facing the rear wall, set it to the '6' position.

[Tark]

Interesting. I read through this subject yesterday, then ran the mission last night. I didn't visit any of the locomotices to set anything except to two end locomotives. I was in whichever one of those I needed to be in to get the cars hooked up.

Once I had everything connected, I brought all the brakes down to zero, put the reverser in Forward, then gave it a three on the throttle. Once it was at about 5 mph I kicked the throttle to six and left it there until I hit speed.

Didn't have a lick of problem. Guess I was one of the lucky ones.

[Thorland]

Well thanks for the help but sadly nothing seems to change anything. After the recent patch I reloaded the old save and I have the marker again which means maybe I can complete it, however, despite being on a 0.06% downgrade I cannot get the train rolling again. I put the train in notch 4 with brakes released, sat at 0.0 mph, I then ran back along the locos checking to see if they're powering. Loco 1 and 3 are reading power (forward locos) but loco 2 & 4 are reading 0 on power (reward facing locos).

Radio's, brakes, everything is set but I just can't get this thing moving even on a downgrade. It's rather frustrating especially since I've spent about 6 hours on this one over the last week.

[jschlen]

HI Thor
First my apology. My first post in this thread was based on other posts I have read and some of my own experimentation. Under those conditions I did manage to finish it.
However now I believe that was more dumb luck than anything else.
Lo and behold there is a manual and it does tell us all the settings to MU the locos.
From the manual:

This is how to set up the trailing units.

Power and Full Brakes

Engine Run: OFF
Generator Field: OFF
Control & Fuel Pump: OFF
Brake Cut-off Valve: CUT-OUT
MU-2A Valve: TRAIL 6 OR 26
In this configuration, we disable the control stand for the power controls which will
allow the lead unit to have full control over the power on this locomotive. As the
lead unit applies throttle positions so the internal electronics of this locomotive’s
stand will do the same. Brakes are also set up to be managed by the lead unit.

BTW the radio breaker is supposed to be needed only if the helper locos are not physically connected to the lead i.e., pushers at the end of the train.

I just ran the mission again. One, the trailing locos were already set to the above settings.
So that's good.

Also keep in mind here that we have all become beta testers.
DTG has already released an update 2 beta, which has already been applied as update 2 and currently there is an update beta 3.
I currently have the update beta 3 installed.

So as I said, I just re-ran part of the mission and encountered the same problems you have.
A train in a .8 down grade doesn't want to move etc.
Bottom line...The physics are squirrley.

Hopefully they will fix it all. I was a beta tester for another trainz sim some years back and I must say that I am encouraged by DTG's post release attitude and effort.
I truely believe this sim has great potential if it is supported thru it's growing pains.

I'm gonna mess around with this some more, because I suspect maybe the manual may be incorrect. Some of those settings seem wierd to me.

[Yerolo]

I wish in some way the manual went into greater detail regarding the Brake Cut Off & MU-2A Valves and what each setting actually means.

I know it shows you what they need to be set at for multiple unit running but it just means I need to research externally to what they actually mean. Same goes for the EOTD.

The tutorial didn't really explain them either IIRC

[dhahn15]

Hey....I was having all the same issues above....I finally stopped the train before the grade and got out and re-started all the engines....you can see from the exterior view that the three helper engines are not operating (no diesel smoke stack). I set the lead engine in full independant brake, switch in neutral reverser, then go back to each engine and re-start them....I go back to the exterior view to verify that you see a smoke stack coming out of each engine....then you know they are operating. when all three are running, then go back to the lead engine and strat rolling. I was holding 25 mph in 5th and having to reduce to 4th from time to time. I know this is a glitch in the game with the engines shutting off....

[dhorton]

Check all the switches mentioned above. All set corectly, I think. Still Stalled out. When starting up the grade 25 MPH Throttle set at Notch 8 only can get it to hold 20 MPH after about 5 minutes. Pulling 1500 AMP all the time. If this was real the Motors would have burned up. After about half way up the grade speed down to 10 MPH and falling. Eventually speed drops to Zero, stalled out. What do you think is the answer for this Scenario?

[Azatoth]

I had trouble getting up the hill as well. After reading some other posts I went and changed the
Headligh Control switches on the 1st 3 engines. It is found on the top right of the panel on the back wall of the cabin. Front and 3rd I set to controlled short, 2nd was set to controlled long. Also in the 2nd train i turn on the generator field switch.

I powered over the hill at 25mph easily with the throttle only set to 4.

[rninrvr]

I completed this scenario without doing any changes. As Azatoth noted once the grade got to 1.5% or so was able to hold 25 mph in run 4 and completed it in 2.25 hours. When it gets down to it, saves are what kills you right now.

[Thorland]

Well I did manage to complete it a few weeks ago. After a patch restored the waypoint I proceeded to try and move out, however, my train as usual was glued to the tracks. I managed to fix it (if you can call it a fix) by going to notch 8 and letting the train move a few feet until it stopped. I'd let off the throttle and the train would "rubberband" back up the grade, but it would move a little bit. I kept slaming the throttle forward and back until the train finally broke free and began moving normally. From there I had no problems riding at 25-40mph all the way down.

[tompallen]

I also drove the entire scenaro without problems (saving and stretching now and then),except for setting a switch incorrectly once, which I will blame on the difficulty of reading the 2D map, or whatever DTG is calling it. Reversing a short distance and resetting the switch fixed that easily.

The OP mentioned starting off by getting into the wrong engine. This really shouldn't be a problem if the distance to objective HUD is open, since this handy gadget shows how far away you are from your destinaton. If you reach a locomotive and this HUD is showing more than a few yards, you obviously have more walking to do.

As for having to enter and manipulate the controls of engines other than the one you're supposed to be driving initially, I just entered the correct loco and followed instructions. No need ever to push the throttle to notch 8, but sanding did come in handy now and then.

[dhorton]

The Key to completing this Scenario is how the Headlight Switches are set on the Back Panel. I dowloaded Rudolf Heijinks Trainsim World Starters Guild at http://www.hollandhiking.nl.trainsimulator/index.php and set these switches as suggested and all four engines then worked. Who would have guessed that this was the solution, really Headlight Control, my my.

[edward.martin59]

Try using the independent brake in bailoff position. Watch the air pressure decress and then applie throttle.

[trev123]

Originally posted by jschlen:

I have found that the mission usually (not always) starts with a glitch. You are hauling 3 locos that are basically dead because they have not been set up for MU operation.

To fix this you will need to visit each of the 3 trailing locos and do the following in each cab.
Open the fuse cabinet on the rear bulkhead and turn on the "radio" breaker (top row,far left).
Based on other posts I have seen the following should also be done.
Under the ameter guage are 3 switches; turn them on. Set the reverser to neutral and the auto brake to full service.

BTW after restarting a "save" the glitch might return and you will have to do all that again(again,sometimes, but not always).

If you do a save, it is wise to do it on as little grade as possible, so if you stop, getting rolling again is easier.
Even with all locos working it can still require notch 3 with sanding to get rolling again.
Hope this helps.

I got all 3 locos running by doing the above in jschien's post.