RR&Co Get-Together (Canadian West Coast Edition)

[peach james]

With thanks to John Dew, I had a wonderful afternoon watching GWR branch line trains behave in ways that can only be made to happen when guests arrive.

 

John did a bit of walking through how he uses RR&Co Gold, and some of the differences between it and 5.0C, like what I use. A lot more of the differences are due to approach, rather than anything else, as far as I could see, except:

--Gold handles detection vastly differently, and yes, TTG, does NOT require multi detection sections in comparison to 5.0.

 

I'm doubtful that it would be worth me upgrading to Gold at this time, but come the next layout (say, another 10 years or so at my rate of progress...) then it probably would be worth updating.

 

What we were doing was the coupling/uncoupling routines which John has worked very hard on getting to work. They are around 75% repeatable, at least with one train in motion. When we added the 2nd train, mechanical things went ary, and the vital bay switch wouldn't. (worked fine to go to the bay, but that's not where the "B" set were supposed to end up...)

 

In fairness, John said this was the first time in a month or so that he has been running- I am sure that if they were reguarly operated, the little niggles would be fixable fairly quickly. It is very impressive to see the computer run the B set into the station, then run around it, and lastly depart back up the branch. The plan that John has for forward from this is neat, as his execution of trackwork to verify that it is possible. (replacing a train engine with another one).

 

Thank you John for a interesting day off,

 

James Powell

[john dew]

That was a quick response James...............I am glad you enjoyed the day despite all the glitches......I think you were very diplomatic about some of them!........its unbelievable how error builds on error and it will certainly teach me to have operating sessions on a regular basis regardless of construction.

 

On a positive note thank you for helping set up the two double slips on TC.........it would have taken forever on my own.The autotrain shuttle is now working to a time table and the tiresome point is now, naturally, behaving perfectly.

 

It was good to share experiences and hopefully we can do it again................I hope the guys in the UK find their get together just as useful

 

Regards from Vancouver

 

 

 

 

[two tone green]

For me the differences between V5 and V7 are considerable. Having used both and earlier versions, progressing through the upgrade path as they were released, I saw the software go from strength to strength with step changes in some cases with little or no visual improvements in others.

 

But the change from 5.8 to V7 Gold was incredible and allowed the newcomer to gain a quicker understanding of the software and get things running. Block occupancy became easier with only one detector being required to give excellent results when running schedules. Doing away with virtual contacts as they were called was a massive improvement and block management is very easy now.

 

The change from V5.8 was big. From V5 to V7 would be massive.

[two tone green]

Good you had a get together. Hopefully it wont be the last.

 

Its things like this that lets others not so fortunate to benifit from those who have experince of the software and pass on hints an tips and get the most out of the software at the level they are happy with.

 

I hope our meet up's go as well.

[peach james]

--Gold handles detection vastly differently, and yes, TTG, does NOT require multi detection sections in comparison to 5.0.

 

I'm doubtful that it would be worth me upgrading to Gold at this time, but come the next layout (say, another 10 years or so at my rate of progress...) then it probably would be worth updating.

 

 

Just to add to the above, that is mostly because my current layout is wired & sectioned. There are some bits which may require additional sections, but not much more now. (I've already found most of the extra's & added them...) Certainly, I didn't see anything that made me jump out and say that I need to have Gold for what I am doing. (unlike Team Canada...who must have gold...)

 

James