Brake help!!

Hi guys,
There is a central line route avaliable, from marble arch to Holborn and back again. You can get it at the London bve weebley website. However I cannot drive the train! It's so so hard! It's like the train is on icy rails and I really really can't get the train to stop. Is there any way I can modify the brakes or do something to the route file. I drive this train (The 1992 stock) on the central line from Ruslip gardens to Perivale and have no trouble, so I'm taking its something to do with the route. Please help!
Many thanks.

Hello there,

I do agree, it is harder to manually brake on the route in question. I must stress however, that the route is an unfinished demo; I was involved in organising it to be released. The only thing I can suggest for the time being is to 'learn' the route a bit and try to apply braking just before the next station marker appears in the top right-hand corner, or if you have a bit of knowledge regarding route coding, add:

Code:

.adhesion 150,

underneath the '0' line in the route file (which is the same as on the Ruislip branch Central line route).

I'd suggest braking early and not accelerating too much. As a guideline, here's the german rules for this case (mind british rules are different, I hope someone can post these. However, as this is dictated by the rather international laws of physics, the difference probably shouldn't be this big)

"Risk of brake distance prolongation due to decreased friction between rail and wheel:
- massive fall of leaves
- beginning precipitation after prolonged drought
- dew, fog and rime
- humidity on track sections with industrial dust
- humidity combined with temperatures around freezing point (<4 deg Celsius)
- severly dirted rails (e.g. rust, darkened, oil slick near refineries)
Sliding of the powered axles during running up or accelerating is an important tip. Observe the traction meter."

"If friction is decreased, you must reduce your train's speed accordingly. If you travel at permitted speed and get an 'expect stop' aspect, you must start braking so as to already have noticeable brake effect by the signal's position. A speed reduction of 10km/h towards the speed permitted at the signal's position counts as a benchmark."

"If you observe decreased friction, you must reduce your train's speed accordingly. You must inform the controller. Your report must contain the following:
- train number
- track from ... to ...
- kilometration
- inclination
- problems observed while braking or while accelerating
- wheather situation
- estimate of brake distance prolongation in metres
- other anomalies"

If the vehicle's sanding device doesn't work, there are further rules, which are 10km/h less if friction is decreased a little and a max. speed of 60km/h by the position of distant signals if friction is decreased massively.

Thank you both of you for your help, I have changed the adhesion and now this has helped the whole route, thank you very much .

In the UK (mainline, I don't know about London Underground) there are no fixed rules regarding how much speed should be reduced by in the event of the Driver experiencing low adhesion. It is the responsibility of the Driver to drive according to the conditions and bring the train to a stand at the proper place.

In low adhesion trains run at full line speed as normal, but brake earlier for stations and signals. Most UK trains are fitted with auto sanders which operate when the brake is in Step 2 or higher and when wheelslip is automatically detected. For this reason the traditional instruction of 'brake earlier and lighter' has generally been replaced by just 'brake earlier'. This is because braking lighter meant braking in Step 1, which meant the automatic sanders didn't work.

On a train fitted with WSP (Wheelslide Protection) if the Driver experiences wheelslide in braking he should increase the brake step. If the train is not WSP fitted and the Driver experiences wheelslide he should release the brake to get the wheels turning again, and then re-apply the brake. Most modern trains are WSP fitted but there are still plenty of trains on the UK rail network which are not.

If a Driver detects low adhesion which he considers exceptional for the section of line upon which he is travelling, he must report this to the signaller. If the low adhesion is not exceptional it should not be reported. e.g. if it is autumn and you are travelling on a section of line through a tree-lined cutting and you experience low adhesion you do not report it, because that is exactly what you would expect to experience.

Well, the german values also aren't really fix rules, it's rather benchmarks, landmarks, take your pick. It is in the driver's responsibility as well.

We do not have auto sanders and I'm quite happy about this; sanding and track circuits, that's two things which shouldn't go together unless you know exactly what you do and what you have to do. I'm sure it will somehow affect the UK as well, as thanks to ERA (European Railway Agency) safety bulletins and accident reports from all over Europe are distributed to all members, and in Germany several accidents and close calls showed sanding can affect signalling dramatically. Thus you must now, if you have sanded below 25km/h, immediately inform the signaller, and if you can't reach him immediately, you have to use the GSM-R emergency connection (which means all drivers in the region will hear it).

However it seems all this can't be ported this easily, I totally forgot you have such strange brake systems... I now remember I read some accident report from the UK, where a train had a SPAD and further slipped into a junction and the investigators found the slipping was due to even brake step 1 being to strong. This couldn't happen here, the smallest brake pipe pressure difference I can effect here (something around 0.15bar) is so low some carriages even won't react, till 0.3bar I can change the pressure stepless, below this there are steps, but they're still small, somewhere between 0.1 and 0.2 bar.

I can't think of any railway vehicle in Germany which wouldn't have at least a rudimentary (mechanical) WSP, besides museal engines of course. If you have the time, you can reduce the brake step to re-catch adhesion, elseway you sand manually, if that's still not enough, you go to EB as this activates brakes which aren't depending on adhesion (magnetic rail brake, eddy current brake).

Reporting low adhesion of course is only done where the loss of adhesion is either unexpected or very high.