Commenting on flashwaveI’s comment on the comment on flashwave’s post…
Quote: “in a 1:1 scale world, a station stop is easily 10-15 minutes, maybe even longer depended on the railroad, the station, whtether they habe to double stop the platform, wait for them to offload the chickens from the REA car, etc. None of the operating sessions I’ve been to have had crews wait an actual fifteen minutes, so even on an otherwise normal time, the passenger loading time gets sped up. (so the operator isn’t standing in one place doing nothing for 15 minutes.”
I haven’t looked at a current Amtrak timetable in the lasat 2 or 3 years, but what I remember of timetables, 20- 30- 40- 50 years ago. Arrival and departure times are listed on public and employee timetable for a few MAJOR stations, and stations where there is car switching to make through car connections. But for most stations where there is a scheduled or conditional stop, only a departure time is given. The train is not supposed to leave before the scheduled departure time. Two reasons are obvious-
It is not supposed to occupy the main track before that time-- another train is obligated to get out of the way by scheduled time- not to check if the scheduled train may be occupying the track earlier than authorized.
Train should not leave the station before passengers who are expecting to board at the scheduled time.
There are three kinds of passenger stops one could model-
A stop where enroute passenger and connections are involved, resulting in a defined arrival and departure time. In a sequence operation, this could mean waiting a certain numb
Just make it whatever amount your operators can stand.
One other advantage to a fast clock. In real time the smallest unit of time you can put into a schedule is a minute. That’s actually a huge amount of time. With a fast clock you get smaller chucks of time. So when I operate with 4:1 fast clock my smallest chunk of time is fast time minute, which is 15 sec fast clock time. You may say 15 secs is too small and too fast.
Look at a clock or your watch. Now wait 15 secs.
Forever, eh?
With a fast time clock you can make a station stop that shows to be 3 minutes but is actually only 45 sec long. While 45 sec sounds incredibly short, it actually will cause you to wait and will feel like a longer time.
I use a fast clock usually set at 4:1 or 5:1. My crew is typically 9 - 10 people. I model the Santa Fe and all of their freights are run as extras. The only timetable sensitive runs I have are Amtrak Southwest Chiefs numbers 3 and 4. The freights are run sequentially and must clear the mainline for the passenger runs. There is a local turn in the middle of this which makes it interesting for all of the crews and the dispatcher. This turn is usually the most sought after job on my RR. They like working in between trains and watching the rest go by. They get to take several breaks this way and they can work at a relaxed pace. The yard switchers operate under a trainmaster in yard limits and are only involved in the fast clock when the 2 manifest freights roll in for an hour reduce and fill operation. The rest of the time is spent sorting out cars for local deliveries and building trains for the next session. Long story short, the fast clock adds a bit of structure and as a real RR should, the passenger trains run close to on time…