Blocking theory

There seems to be a lot of questions like "why are my trains stopping on the lift" and such.  Easy answer: blocking.   Consult Dave's blocking thesis for more info. 

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Scott W. Short
mailto:scott@midwestcoastercentral.com
http://www.midwestcoastercentral.com

Yeah, the blocking is top notch. That Raptor track I did blocks just like the real thing (do an E-stop with F12, that's fun ;)).

The one problem I've had though is that I've been toying with Millennium Force, and the final brake run (the one on an down grade) is stopping my train even though it has a 20 mph speed limit. Since the train doesn't roll into the standby brakes uptrack of the unload brakes, it gets crashed. Weird thing is it works fine in the editor, but not in the simulator.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"

I still think something is wrong with the blocking...sometimes a train will go on the lift while another one is on the track preceding it and sometimes it won't. The lift is a seperate block from the track, but sometimes it isn't treated that way.
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http://www.bolliger-mabillard.com

I have times where I have 3 blocks free in front of a coaster and it still stops on the lift.  This only happens in the sim & nto in the editor.

You're sure that the "complete stop" flag is off Jeff?  If you keep having problems send me the track and I'll see if I can figure out what's wrong with it.

-Ride_Op

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Visit the new Ride_Op Coaster Productions! http://rideop.twistedrails.com

I had problems on Demon - I set a brake run before the station (blocking on) slanted downward so it would roll in with gravity. Trouble is, when there is a train in the station, the train before it rolls anyway, as if there were no brakes there.
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Loopscrew.com: Your brand new, and only, editorial based coaster site!
6/8/01

Hmmm....well you definately want to be a little generous with how big you make block brake sections.  Try making it a bit bigger and see if that helps.

-Ride_Op

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If in the end you still have that problem send me the track and I'll take a look.

-Ride_Op

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Visit the new Ride_Op Coaster Productions! http://rideop.twistedrails.com

You were right, I think the problem was that the coaster's nose was actually touching the station, and therefore trying to roll in further. Lengthening the segment and putting the grip a little further back solved the problem.
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Loopscrew.com: Your brand new, and only, editorial based coaster site!
6/8/01

I found if you even have a flat section of brakes right before the station, you can get 2 trains to go at the same time if you set the brake trigger to the very end. This causes the nose of the car to be in the station, so it thinks there is only one train or something like that. Here is a picture I grabbed of it occuring (had me baffled at first).

http://www.bolliger-mabillard.com/broken.jpg

I still have a problem with the train stopping at the top of the lift. The previous train clears the mid-course brakes by a good 10 seconds before it will start up again, which is kind of frustrating. It should be able to enter the block the instant the preceding train exits it.

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http://www.bolliger-mabillard.com

That's because the block boundries are not where they should be.  Instead of being at the downtrack end of the brake, lift, station, etc, it's halfway between two stopping points.  Next time you're in the editor turn on Show Boundries from the View menu and look for the multi-colored crosses.  Those are the block boundries.  This is the biggest problem I've found so far.  Ride_op, any reasons it was done this way??
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Scott W. Short
mailto:scott@midwestcoastercentral.com
http://www.midwestcoastercentral.com

Yeah, I noticed that the next block was occupied for the first half of the ride, after the lift...which stinks, because on one of my coasters, if you don't dispatch before the halfway point of the ride, you'll stack trains for about 15 seconds at the end.  It still saves loading time over 2 trains ( there are 2 trains on the course for more time than not), but it would be better from a capacity standpoint if you could dispatch so the train would cross the midcourse about 4-5 seconds before the next train dropped off the lift.
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Jman
Webmaster: Gravibulb Coasters - Home of Professional Quality Coaster Photos
http://balder.prohosting.com/gravbulb/coasters/

You can slow down the lift. Or add an extra block before the station, like on Jeff's Raptor.

For a smooth 3 train operation it's a better idea to have 5 blocks, not just 4. Think about it in real coaster operation, when Mantis stacks trains, the 3rd train does not stop on the midcourse, right? It stops on the first of 2 blocks before the station. One is in the station, and 2 sit behind it.

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"X" marks the spot in 2001!

I don't know why Ole did it this way.  I had asked him to change it to what would be more accurate to real life, but he may not have had a chance to do so.  It may be something fixed in a later upgrade if enough people want it (I know I do).

-Ride_Op

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Visit the new Ride_Op Coaster Productions! http://rideop.twistedrails.com

Wow, I never looked at the block borders before. I sure hope he fixes that. At least now I know why my coaster isn't working the way it should. I counted my blocks and I do have 5, just like a real B&M...oh well.

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http://www.bolliger-mabillard.com

I agree that the block bounderies should be placed immediately at the downtrack end of the brake, lift, station, etc, just as Scott said.  Having them halfway in between is making it really difficult to create a realistic Magnum which has four blocks if you count the station, lift, main course, and track section from safety brakes to ready breaks.  In normal three train operation, a train will be dispatched when the previous one crests the second hill.  In my recreation, it won't let a train be dispatched until halfway through the pretzal.  I know B&M likes to have an extra block in between each train, but in reality, many coasters are not designed this way and they work perfectly fine.  I'd like to see this issue changed in a future upgrade to make things more realistic.
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-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew

*** This post was edited by MDOmnis on 11/14/2001. ***

To help your Magnum recreation a bit you might want to add the emergency brakes that are on top of hill 3.  Make that a block segment (but with a very high speedlimit) and you should have no problems with dispatching any more.

-Ride_Op

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Yea, I made the trim brakes right before the pretzal a block segment (which they aren't) and that allowed the three trains to run and the dispatch point to be about right.  Now if only I could get my "Soak City Curve" to come out right! :)

 

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-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew