Accuracy issue on the NS 1200

[exoskye]

Hi,

I just noticed something that's honestly really annoying me.
In reality, when you move the regulator in a DC locomotive such as the NS 1200 (which appears to function similarly to the EM1 and EM2 aka NS 1500), the regulator simply changes the amount of resistors in the circuit. In the EM1's case (and I assume it also applies to the NS 1200), this adds more resistors in parallel for every notch added, lowering the resistance and thus allowing more current, but at the same also increasing the amount of resistors in the circuit, causing each to carry less current individually, reducing the heat produced per resistor.

This also means that, as the locomotive speeds up, the current naturally drops.

In-game, the NS 1200 in expert mode seems to simply have the regulator directly controlling the current going into the motors, with the full-field notch on the series-parallel mode (einde fase 2) drawing exactly 96.9 amps, no matter what you do. This also means that, from what I can tell, it's not possible to get up to the full-field notch on the parallel mode (einde fase 3), since you just draw too much current and the locomotive overloads.

This also happens with the NS 1200 Enhancement Pack, but I don't believe that's supposed to change it anyway.

I don't really know what to do about this, it just feels.. inaccurate, and really breaks the immersion, which is a bit silly for a locomotive with an "expert" mode.

Maybe someone can take a stab at fixing this? I don't know how easy of a fix it'd be, though, given I assume that's something scripted into the locomotive.

EDIT:
Just double checked the expert variant included in the original pack (rather than the one with ATB included in the enhancement pack) and the same behaviour is seen...

Also, to be clear, when I comment on the EM1 and such, I'm talking as someone who's read the original manual for the EM1, which contains detailed schematics of its internal electrics, and shows what controls what in the cab. I haven't been able to find anything like that for the NS 1200, but I would be very surprised if it worked differently.

[Kcalk_04]

As you can see the Dutch Classics loco's are far from perfect. The Enhancement packs are trying to fix some of this, maybe in the future this could be fixed if the 1200 does receive a patch at some point. This information is quite usefull!

[exoskye]

Yeahhh, that's fair. I guess it really is possible to "know too much" when it comes to train simulators :p

I was thinking of making a freight scenario with the NS 1200, but honestly, given that the NS 1500 seems to have far better modelled traction physics, I might use that. Despite the fact that they didn't often see freight work.

If I were to do it with the NS 1200 the annoyance from the inaccurate traction physics would be too much lmao
Maybeee I have OCD.. or care too much :p

[Kcalk_04]

Without OCD this whole hobby wouldn't exist
What scenario did you have in mind? I'm a bit of a 1200 fan so i always like to see a 1200 in action!

When the 1200 EP was made, the initial idea was just to add ATB to it and leave it as is but that scope was quickly altered to fix some bugs in the system but we didn't have the info at hand to know this about the 1200.

[exoskye]

My idea was a heavy loaded oil train heading from Schoonebeek towards Rotterdam, in which you'd be driving the section from Apeldoorn to Utrecht on 't Hart van Nederland route (based on my reading of the railway maps in NL, this seemed like a possible routing). This was somewhat based off of this picture I found: https://flic.kr/p/2rX58GY which shows a working in the opposite direction, taking empty oil wagons towards Schoonebeek.
I initially thought the train would be hard to start in the rain, but it ended up being fairly simple, at which point I was keeping a close eye on the ammeter (as I've learnt to do from driving the EM1 with heavy trains on the Woodhead in Blue route). It was there I noticed the amps inaccuracy and I couldn't unsee it after I noticed it! :p

Part of the reason I love driving these older electric locomotives, and partly why I started to get into dutch content in a big way is just the sheer challenge of driving older DC locomotives, since they truly are quite rudimentary machines, you feel very close to the machine you're driving when you drive them (in my opinion). Obviously that isn't for anyone, and hell, I don't think I've ever seen anyone complete the 8M70 scenario I've put on TrainSimCommunity - I know some have but I haven't seen how well they did it.

[Kcalk_04]

These heavy oil trains would travel with an electric loco from Almelo to Utrecht (via the railway museum at Maliebaan) where they would run around at the small yard of Utrecht Lunetten. Then to continue on Rotterdam via Gouda. So you're roughly correct.

I'm also in love with classical traction. Just something about it, you can check out my scenarios. I mostly build with DC rolling stock nowadays.

[exoskye]

I have played some of your scenarios, and they've been very enjoyable! Recently, I played the two parts of the Autoslaaptrein 9271 that you made.

Glad to hear the routing of my scenario sounds correct, as a brit, as much as I know quite a bit about railways in general, dutch and european railway operations differ fairly significantly from british practices, and due to the heavy preservation culture in the UK, there's a lot more preserved information out there to go off of (and I know where said content is located).

My only real issue with dutch TS content so far has been the language barrier... which is an issue on my end, I am not the kind of person to go "wahhh why are people speaking a different language", I just try to learn what I can and use google translate/deepl etc for other stuff, and if I can't work it out that's a me problem, so I put up and shut up :p

(On that note, I have some dutch friends that I might force convince to help me translate my scenarios when I get around to making/releasing one :p)

[Kcalk_04]

Thanks haha, its my goal to recreate the vibe and trains from days gone by to the best of my ability. If you need any help feel free to hit me up on here or on Discord. Im currently just doing loads of research on historical freight wagons to see if they could be created in TSC.

[Kcalk_04]

Don't forget you could always send a notification to Dutch-Classics about it as it is the developer.

But I wouldn't hold my breath over it that it would receive an update soon.
This is because the NS1300 'rebuild' has been in development for rebuild for 7 years.
His actual last release was almost 7 years ago as well.