Train Dispatcher 3.5

Just how realistic is TD 3.5?

BoilerBob wrote:Just how realistic is TD 3.5?

That depends almost entirely on the particularly territory you're running. The sim itself offers just about everything you could need, like the ability to join/split trains (for helpers), have trains turn into new trains at various points (useful for some pax service), etc.

Anybody else using Track Builder 3.5 to build new territory track files for use with Train Dispatcher 3.5? I am working on modeling the NJT Transit Morris & Essex and the Montclair-Boonton Lines, and having quite some fun doing so. Would like to know if anyone else is working on modeling any of the NJTransit lines. Thanks.

Quite a few simulations are out of date due to double or triple tracking, increased trains, etc. I wonder why authors don't update? I do occasionally, but the company doesn't update as often as it first did.

With the use of Track Builder, there are very few aspects of actual rail operation that can't be duplicated. Yahoo has a group, Dispatch Central, which has several real-life dispatchers among its ranks and occasionally, some additional fatures using the current version are created and posted, as well as downloads of new simulations submitted by the membership.

The biggest items on my personal wish list would be the appearance of occasional multiple sections of scheduled freights, or the occasional "random" extra move an average of one for a certain number of hours simulated. Some sims show these only on particular days of the week, but a more spontaneous form of generation would be more to my liking. Other than that, there's just about everything a wannabe DS could ask for.

I have had fun with TD2. I don't know if the newer versions have the ability to produce a "call-on singal". This is where one can route a train into an occupied block. It only works if the move is in the direction that the block is already lined for. In real life, I can get a restricting signal into an occupied track, behind another train. This is useful for bunching trains for a meet.
I hope the new versions also let one stack commands. This is so the machine will say line train 1 into the siding. Once he is clear, the switch is thrown, and the signal clears for the other direction.

Engineer Spike wrote:I have had fun with TD2. I don't know if the newer versions have the ability to produce a "call-on singal". This is where one can route a train into an occupied block. It only works if the move is in the direction that the block is already lined for. In real life, I can get a restricting signal into an occupied track, behind another train. This is useful for bunching trains for a meet.
I hope the new versions also let one stack commands. This is so the machine will say line train 1 into the siding. Once he is clear, the switch is thrown, and the signal clears for the other direction.

Call-on signals are achieved by selecting a stopped train with the mouse, right-clicking, then selecting "pass next red signal", which they'll do only at 10 MPH.

Stacking is, in fact, a function of TD 3.

i personally liked TD3.5 i was able to get the entire NEC onto the game.....it was fun until Amtrak and the MBTA changed the schedules last month, and put some new track in, and i dont' have to program in order to make these changes, so i haven't played for a while...would any1 be willing to change the schedule on the NEC Rhode Island to South Station to the updated version?