Jens Vesterdahl

Hello everyone Some time ago someone at the Railway division at my work signed the company up as a member of the Danish Railway Club, so the club magazine is in office circulation like any other mag. The april issue featured an article about the Prignitzer Kleinbahnmuseum Lindenberg (aka "Pollo"), which is a small museum and a very short vintage railway on the remains of one of the old narrow gauge lines in the German state of Brandenburg. The 750mm gauge lines have all been dismantled in the 60s, but a group of enthusiasts have started the museum which has evolved into a vintage railway on the old right-of-way. Normally the trains are pulled by small combustion engine locos, but each year around Ascension Day there's steam action on the line. They simply borrow (or whatever) a steam locomotive, this year from the narrow gauge lines in Saxony, class 99 608. Several days the trains are open to the public, but Friday they were running an all-day photo freight for enthusiasts. Actiually it was more a mixed train than a freight, but there was no complaints. 99 608 is a Saxon class IV K which is not a Mallet, but a so called Günther-Meyer design. It's a compound engine with four driven axles arranged in two swiveling trucks. The low pressure cylinders are on the front truck and the high pressure cylinders are on the rear truck. The museum and railway line is located between Berlin and Rostock, one and a half hour drive from the ferry between Denmark and Germany, i.e. easily within my reach on a short trip. On arrival Thursday evening I caught 99 608 with the last of the passenger train of the day. Here's a video with some of the sights and sounds. Enjoy. Best regards Jens

Hello all. Last year when I visited the Harz, steam was cancelled on the Selketal line, so I promised myself I'd be back this year. Which I did Below is a video from four full days along the Selketalbahn plus some odd hours the following days. I got a new mic that's not sensible to wind noise, but I don't yet have total control of the sound levels. It's audible in certain scenes that the sound level maxes out ... Anyway, here's my video. What the Selketalbahn may not have in oomph and huffing and puffing, it makes up for in sheer charm. The normal Selketal engine 99 6001 was not available for whatever reason, so 99 7240 was on duty during my stay. Enjoy. Jens

On the Mac, I suggest using Railmodeller Pro - hands down. Jens

I just learned that the HSB has begun construction of a new steam engine workshop at Westerntor in Wernigerode. In addition to allowing the HSB to perform major overhauls in-house, eliminating the need to ship engines to Meiningen, the new shop will be accessible to the public, to the extent that Wernigerode will be given a tourist attraction. The new shops are expected to be operational in 2022. More info on the HSB web site (in German), scroll down to October 4th post. Jens

The only campsite I know of is just below Schierke, but it's not lineside … as in "line of sight". It's a lovely location though, a great hiking area, and it's close to Drei Annen Hohne and of course Schierke. Jens

It seemed to be a daily occurrence ... the last steam train out of Wernigerode had a railcar attached every day of my stay. Jens

Hello all. I haven't posted here in a long time, but this summer I was on an eight day trackside vacation in the Harz, and I thought I'd show the videos I got. Steam was cancelled in Selketal while I was there, so I stayed around the Harzquerbahn and Brockenbahn. Enjoy, Jens

Now that Karl and Mike have introduced themselves, it's time for me to withdraw from any further public statements regarding TouchCab. I believe that TouchCab has found the best home possible, and I wish you gentlemen the best of luck and godspeed with all further development. To all the users and friends on this site, I'll say thank you for the time that passed and all the fun and trouble we've had along the way. I'll probably drop in now and again, but when I do, it will be as myself, talking about my N scale home layout and my gauge 1 trains. Signing off ... Jens

Hi all. I'm pleased to announce that TouchCab has found a new home and will return to the App Store. More news in due time Best regards Jens

Yes sir. It's the STOP command affecting the sound. I shall refrain from commenting why anyone would want to design a decoder like that, but there it is. In TouchCab, go to the options pane and enable "brake before reversing" or whatever I've called it. This way the stop command is not issued before the reverse command and you can use the stop button if you want an immediate stop. Jens. PS: TouchCab is still in my heart, which is why I've decided not to give it away when plan A failed. I still have a layout and I still need to control that, but for personal reasons I can not continue the development right now. PPS: Here's a glimpse of my layout. N scale (1:160). Southwest USA in the late 1950's.

Hi all. News on the site. The fat lady is singing. Sorry. http://www.touchcab.com Happy new year and thanks for the support through the years. Jens

No reason for speculation, gents - the decision has nothing to with any other product. I still think that in terms of usability TouchCab is far superior to anything else out there and I'm not afraid of the competition. I just don't have the time to keep up and now was the right moment. But as I said earlier ... stay tuned.

As I understand it, even if an app is removed from the App Store front, it will still be on the servers and it will still be available for download for those who have already bought it. That matches Paul's experience in post #89 above.

I know I've said that I wanted to start the next update, but while I do have ideas about what I'd like to do with the app, the decision to close has in fact been looming for a while. This time it stuck and I don't regret it. However, the fat lady may not be singing just yet. Stay tuned. Jens

For the record, the apparently freezing screen is caused by having two locos with the same address while connected to a Lenz system. Only one of those same-address locos will respond, and if that is not selected, the UI will appear frozen. Workaround: Only one loco can have any given address at a time. Use configurations if e.g. you need to switch between time periods or layouts. Thanks to kevpeo for help sorting this one out Trying to nail the F13 issue now ... Jens

Yes, it's been fixed, and version 1.8.3 is out. Now remains to be seen how much damage 1.8.2 has done. This one was a real killer, and it caught me completely by surprise. Had I seen a data-losing bug in the lab, I would of course not have sent the software on the market in the first place. The fix was easy once the cause was found, though, and the feedback for 1.8.3 so far has been positive, so here's hoping ... Jens

As some of you have said, TouchCab can't be used for CV programming, and that's on purpose. I wanted to make an app - for operations - that sets the reference for user experience. Wether or not I have succeeded is your call. Taste and opinions differ, but I can tell you that usability does not come cheap. It's hard work and hard rework - over and over again. Add a new feature, and the old screen layout breaks completely, as I learned with version 1.8. Personally I'm very happy with what I've got today. But then I should be, or I should change it, shouldn't I? Looking forward, I'm on the threshold of a complete rebuild of the software. I've learned a lot along the way, and many optimizations have been deferred until the rewrite. I have huge to-do list and an equally long optional to-do list, so there is a lot of work ... um ... to do. One of the things I want to prepare for is in-app purchasing. For example, you could buy the ability to show track plans or do CV programming for a small fee. Any thoughts on this? Best regards Jens

Yes, it has to be the 23151. You can't go backwards through a PC and then the 23150.

@Bob: you're operating TouchCab in offline mode. Doubleheading and consisting requires sending commands to the command station, so you need to be connected. Edit: Internally, TouchCab considers offline mode just another command station that responds to touches on the user interface the way any other command station would. The user interface does not know what happens behind the scenes, but it does ask the 'command station' about its abilities. Offline mode replies that it does not support doubleheaders and consists, so you don't get the option to make any of those while in offline mode. Hence, you need a real connection to a Lenz system. Jens

Transferring configurations is a feature in the full version, and you did say you had the free version on the iPhone, right? Isn't it cool? Advanced consisting is almost as easy.

Thanks, Kev. Sounds like there is a quick bugfix release on the horizon. I'll keep monitoring the web for a little while and see what people are struggling with ...

Yep - 1.8 is out. And so am I, by the way. I'm in Berlin on a shaky wifi connection, so I haven't had time to post anything on the web site about the new release. But have fun with it, and remember to let me know if anything breaks as you go. Jens

TouchCab 1.8 was submitted to iTunes for approval two days ago. Any day now ...

Development of TouchCab 1.8 is now complete. While I'm waiting for translations, I'll see if I can add one more 'luxury' feature to the CS2 part. It's not critical, though, so if it doesn't work, I'll just skip it.

Just for the record - TouchCab Free version 1.7.9 with CS2 support has been released The full version is on the way. One-drive accessories are good, dual-drive accessories are causing some head-scratching, but I'm getting there. Then a bit of spit and polish and I'm done. Best regards Jens