Working on optimising the ECML route, there are 2 train sets which can be decoupled, initially I thought this would give faster acceleration and quicker braking but this is in fact not true - leaving the second set behind in Doncaster caused the game to break as you approach Peterborough (I imagine because the full train is still loaded in memory) and acceleration is not any better.
I decided to then try detaching as we approach Peterborough to slow down quicker and found 2 things
- Detaching at max speed causes a derailment
- Arriving at Peterborough without the second set of the train allows you to offload passengers, but you don't reach the summary screen which I would treat as a fail condition (all passengers not loaded/unloaded)
It's here that I found the glitch that I'm unsure is going to be within the rules.
Decoupling and Recoupling reduces the train speed by a significant amount, around 20mph each time, and can be repeatedly done until you stop or are close to stopping. This I believe is on the fence as this is probably a bug with the games physics rather than the realistic mechanics of the train.
If you stop when coupled up the scenario completes and you see a valid end summary card - I was able to get a sub-40 time doing this (wasn't recording)
Just wanted to check it would be within the rules before I try and break my WR
Thoughts?