Since converting to RP almost a year ago and enduring the trials of a new control system (RP hasn't been without issues) through a dozen op sessions I can report that yesterdays session was the best my railroad has run in years. Everything clicked especially RP.
The latest RP updates cleared up a lot of issues and the installation of Keep Alive circuits (KA3 and KA4) in the entire fleet (60 plus locos), well, it ran flawless. Much different than last month when my frustration level was at the boiling point.
What changed in a month. I finished installing the rest of the KA, had several long conversations with Tim, and spent considerable time re-thinking my approach to throttle management.
I have a large layout with 14 or 15 operators present for each session (monthly on the 2nd Sat) and have 14 HC's in service. Until yesterday the crews would grab a throttle and go to work which, in the past, has caused some confusion and frustration as they tried to acquire engines and get everything up and running. I decided to assign each throttle to a job and made sure that all the MU assignments were correct and took the time to standardize all the function buttons on each throttle. Also, and this is a big one for me, all the function changes were saved on each throttle. It's very frustrating when that damn message pops up that says the buttons have been changed do you want to save! Unless you know the process you're lost. I can't say how much of an affect all this had on the session but it sure seemed to help.
I do know that MU assignments are transferred from throttle to throttle but with assigned throttles the last 6 assigned locos pop up so they're easy to find. I'm going to stick with the process for now until my crew becomes more familiar with RP and yesterday was a big step in that direction.
I can't say enough about Keep Alive's things ran flawless yesterday absolutely flawless. Yes I know all the arguments about clean track and live frogs and such but I'm of an age where I'll take advantage of technology and run trains not clean track. My track is very clean by the way. I have used CRC 2-26 on the rails for years but have stopped. I spent last week cleaning all the track, far amount of gunk had collected, and used Bill's suggestion of applying a small amount of graphite to the rails seems to work.
I have given Tim a few suggestions I would like to see incorporated on the throttles (HC's):
Put an MU button on the main screen that would bring up the dial select so you could make all the MU assignments then go to the loco control screen. Seems counter intuitive to select an engine then have to select it again in the MU setup (top complaint from my crew).
Place the function buttons vertically along the edge of the screen so you can reach them with your thumb.
Put a Fwd/Rev button in the bottom left and right corners of the screen so you can easily reach it with your thumb either left or right handed or better yet a bar across the bottom.
Need a feature to allow adding or dropping locos to a consist without going through the entire MU process.
I have more but all for now.
I very pleased with RP and happy to be a member of the family.
Thanks for letting me ramble a bit.
Comments are welcome.
Lee Nicholas
Corinne, Utah
