BNSF Starter Route

This page provides hits and tips on the BNSF Starter Route (Scenic Sub from TrainSimulations). This is for the 2024 version (there also is an older version from 2020).

Cars Derailing on Curves (What Goes Up)

Some of the intermodal (container) cars derail on sharp curves. An example is car 0-11 on the right curve at about MP 1730.4, just east of Skykomish.

Car 0-11 is an empty middle-car (D) of a 5-car articulated set. As such, it is light, and thus derails more easily. But the real problem is that articulated cars are not accurately modelled.

First, they have 4 axles in the .wag file. Thus the weight is divided by 8 weels, resulting in a low vertical force at the wheel.

In the real world, the trucks are shared between adjacent cars. The .wag file should have only two axles (for middle cars, and 3 for end cars).

Second, the distribution of the weight from the two adjacent cars at the shared truck is not simulated. Only the weight of the empty car is applied at the wheel to calculate the derail force.

In the real world, the weight of the adjacent car also rests on the axles on the side of the empty car, and thus the weight at the wheels is higher.

There is no easy fix. Using the proper values for a middle car (eg. NumWheels ( 2 ) or ORTSNumberAxles ( 2 )) reduces the number of derailments, but does not eliminate them. Note that for values less than 6, NumWheels is actually taken as number-of-axles (this is MSTS legacy behaviour).

See also the discussion at TrainSim.com.