Melbourne BG SCS Train Timetable 
The Netherlands – August 2011
First up, Amsterdam surprised me... I was expecting somewhat of a metropolis, Amsterdam being the capital and all. Instead it's a beautiful canal city with fantastic architecture, despite some of the houses leaning towards canals or other buildings.
Nederlandse Spoorwegen [aka 'Dutch Railways'] (Official site) is the national railway operator and provided us with all the transport requirements we needed. Multiple trips were taken out to random locations and the trains were always fast and on time.
Amersfoort
Just south-west of Amsterdam, Amersfoort is an interchange station for anyone wanting to head north/north-west. We used this interchange on the way through to Groningen. A modern EMU was caught from Amsterdam Centraal but then the connecting train was a Koploper to Groningen! Checking out this model of EMU was high on my priority list!
The Koploper looks very similar to the JR West Thunderbird (683 Series) and the standard 183/485 EMUs as well, but I'm not too sure who copied who. I also bought a model of this in HO by Lima; I'll post on that at a later date.
Groningen
My grandparents are from this area and it had to be visited... getting here by Koploper was an added bonus. Groningen is known for its high student population and universities. We had lunch in the town square and checked out the shops; there was a better selection there than the capital of Australia :)
Veendam
The Museum Railway S·T·A·R runs from Staadskanaal to Veendam and this wasn't far away from Groningen. We took the DMU from Groningen to Veendam and intercepted the first run of the SL for the morning from Staadskanaal. Note that this service has only just been re-connected to Veendam. The train used to stop one station short until June this year (2011) when they re-extended the service.
The STAR Museum Train had to cross a canal when coming from the south (Stadskanaal); a manually-operated bridge is turned into place when required.
We then took the next DMU back to Groningen and then connected to a return service to Amsterdam.
Venlo
The final day was spent taking the train from Amsterdam Centraal to Bochum, Germany. This was extremely easy and fast. There were three connections in total, all with no issues or delays. Venlo was the last stop before switching to the German railways and was a hub for freight train drivers to change shifts. There happened to be a constant procession of freighters pausing for 5 minutes in the yard, coming in from both directions.
Ruby on Rails – Disturbing Errors
Excuse my efforts in going slightly off topic in an attempt to help out anyone else who may have struck this issue.
I'd been given a good challenge by a friend: mimic an install of ruby on rails on a local VM. I'd never worked with ruby before and google'd for a tutorial. Before I knew it I had Turnkey Linux's Ruby Appliance up and running on Oracle's Virtual Box on 64-Bit Windows 7.
I wont go in to deployment steps here... it's all covered on the web. The basic concepts were to point an apache virtual host at a new directory in /var/www and then browse to the application. To my delight it started, throwing an error. I hadn't even configured a thing yet, so how could I expect it to run?
After configuring the Facebook connector and the database connection the site came up and I could log in and muck around. It wasn't long until I hit the following error. It was only on a specific data class that extended the ActiveRecord interface and only when checking if the data was valid or trying to save it. I could happily create the class and change attributes...
Wrong number of arguments (1 of 0)
What the hell... I hadn't seen ruby exceptions before, so I started to dig. The RAILS_ENV environment variable was set to 'development' and so there was a 'development.log' file sitting in the 'log' directory inside the application. This provided a stack trace and a few other bits and pieces.
After a lot of code commenting and uncommenting I narrowed it down to the 'save' method of the specific data item class. This was inherited from the ActiveRecord::base class and I had no say in what it did or how it did it. I did know that it was expecting no arguments, so that's where the '0' came from in the error, but I was also not passing it any arguments, so where the hell did the '1' come from!?!?!
I then tried the 'valid?' call as well... same result.
I chose to override the 'save' function in the model file by using a pass through... all of a sudden the code continued (after hours of exceptions) and the next related table row creation had a null foreign key for the item that should have been saved. It turns out that by creating a pass through I bypassed the entire 'save' method and therefore didn't attempt to write anything to the db. As soon as I tried to use the base 'save'I got the same error but now in the model file.
I was stuck... so I tried to bring up the debugger via the mini WEBrick server. It, unfortunately, didn't give me any more information than what the development.log file had provided.
Next I tried downgrading and upgrading ruby and rails. I was impressed with the 'gem' system... but nothing helped.
The final step was to google more and more... I had already tried gutting my model implementation (there was extra code in the for other tasks) but none of this changed the inability to call 'save'. All of a sudden one google search came across someone mentioning something about a 'reserved word'.... I google'd further.
Reserved Words
It seems that Ruby has a few words that you MUST NOT GO NEAR if you want your code to work. The main issue is that, when you do, you'll have no idea what you have done as the error message that results has NOTHING TO DO WITH the actual problem. It turns out that after browsing to a post by someone with a similar problem I saw the comment stating that they had used the word 'notify' for a column name.
... so had the original developer of the code I had worked on ...
There was no response to the post that pointed this out in the previous link, so that either means the original author was too ashamed and it was the correct fix, or they found the real fix and never got back to this.
Either way, I corrected my database by changing 'notify' to 'notify_opp' and ... fkn presto ... 10 hours of debugging resulted in a SUCCESS!
Further information on these magical reserved creatures
Ok, the fun part... in hind-sight I've done a little research and there are sites indicating what 'words' are 'reserved' for ruby. Unfortunately, not all of them say that 'notify' is!
- Ruby QuickRef [does not]
- Ruby's reserved words [does not]
- Ruby on Rails - ReservedWords [does]
References:
- [Problem] wrong number of arguments (1 for 0)
- Wrong number of arguments (0 for 1) on notifiy method in Ruby on Rails
I imagine the title should have been '(1 of 0)' ... but it is still the same issue - Problem saving model in Rails
- rails forum: wrong number of arguments error ... same error, different reserved word.
Conclusion
Be bloody careful with errors from ruby that don't make sense and don't spend too long digging in to a dead end.
Be diligent with your google searches too.
I spent a lot of time debugging this and I hope this post helps out others in the same scenario.
New York – August 2011
New York is intense. The city is amazing and, as per any metropolis, perpetually under construction. I happened to be staying in 'serviced apartments' in the Financial District near Fulton St. subway station... but this turned out to be a Jewish synagogue. Pretty bad false-advertising on the website, but survivable. Either way, the place was only to be a bed... there was too much to do outside and no reason to care as long as there was a roof.
As per usual, I'd google-mapped NY prior to coming and new that there wasn't much freight action on the island. I had seen a few yards on the the east coast of Long Island near Brooklyn and had decided that would be a first stop once I had time.
Car floats and empty lots on Long Island
I thought we all called them train ferries or rail ferries, but it turns out they're known as car floats in America. The New York New Jersey Rail, LLC run one from Bay Ridge to New Jersey on-demand. Turns out that when I visited there was no demand whatsoever, to the point where I was actually sure that the whole site had been abandoned. It wasn't until I google'd today that I realised it is the end of the Bay Ridge Branch owned by the Long Island Railroad....
Actually, as I'm writing this I'm seeing conflicting information on Wikipedia as to what carfloat service is actually still in operation...
I then walked north to the other visible yard on google maps but it turns out the photos are old and the yard no longer existed. I turned east to see the subway depot near 9th Ave Station. It was pretty cool, nice diesel maintenance equipment, but I'd failed to take any good photos.
CSX: The Bronx
This was a fun trip... on my last day in NY I decided to venture north to see a yard just across Harlem River. At the time of research I'd neglected to check suburb names and so just went for it, on foot. I found the CSX depot with quite a lot of rolling stock, random Amtrak services shooting through and a track gang working.
I walked the length of the yard south after coming from the intersection at Baretto Street. In the distance there were two CSX locomotives doing some minor shunting. Fortunately I waited around long enough for an Amtrak service to bolt through.
The next part was meant to be a leisurely stroll across to the large junction of the Metro North and Amtrak railway near 149th Street 'Grand Concourse'. As I crossed the streets I started feeling slightly self-conscious... it wasn't until I saw a portable police turret keeping an eye out on an intersection that I realised a tourist should probably not be walking through the district with a large camera hanging around their neck.
Metro North and Amtrak near 149th Street
This area provided a nice amount of action. Around 1 train every 5-10 minutes in both directions and from both Metro North and Amtrak. Although the sun wasn't in the best position, and there were a lot of fences preventing clear shots, it was a good location to just relax in the high 20-degree temperatures + humidity.
Harlem River
I then walked south and crossed Harlem River. There seems to be a lot of freight infrastructure on the northern side, including a low-lying viaduct allowing the trains to traverse the border of the northern shore. The main Metro North rail bridge is also a great backdrop.
Harlem-125th Street Station
This is one of the first stations on the south-side of the line on the bridge shown previously. Therefore it carried the expresses and locals stopping at this station. Fortunately the sun was in the right position for anything heading south. It was a pretty busy location and the foyer of the building was amazing.
And that was it for New York... the next day was Amsterdam...
California – August 2011
Right, here we go... I've been back in Australia for over a week and am only just getting on top of the stack of photos taken from my most recent holiday. This was the not-Japan trip and it began in the USA.
California
The goal was simple... fly the red-eye A380 from Melbourne to LAX, jump in a hire-car and make it to San Francisco the 'scenic way'. A few days would then be spent in San Francisco before returning to LA via the inland route. This would include Yosemite and a few of the larger railroad junctions as seen from Google Maps.
San Luis Obispo
The Pacific Surfliner (I think?) happened to arrive just as we did. There were a few UP Locos stored as well... maybe for banking? The town was great, unfortunately we didn't check out the coffee; there were quite a few lively places around the station to do so though.
The pedestrian bridge at San Luis Obispo was well designed. It provided a great view of the station and yard too.
I had always thought that the Bachmann models of the Amtrak cars were just cheap and didn't include side-frames on the bogies... turns out they're actually like this in reality... not the prettiest view.
Paso Robles
The next stop via Highway 101 was Paso Robles. Not much happening here at all... I nearly expected to see the same Amtrak train coming through, but it seems that we beat it way too easily. The station has a Sushi shop built in, but the prices weren't what we were willing to dish out despite paying the US$.
Quarry Lake (east of Watsonville)
An accidental detour saw us visit a quarry near Quarry Lake. The initial plan was to divert from 101 to check out the seemingly large junction at Watsonville, but the weather and time wasn't on our side.
Caltrain Station, San Francisco
Caltrain is a loco-hauled/control-cab operating passenger service from San Francisco (right next to the baseball stadium) down to San Jose. Turns out there's a few great restaurants next to the station in San Fran and whilst waiting for dinner I had a few minutes with a friends camera to check out the yard. Fortunately the sun was also in my favour.
As you can see, it's a terminus; they'll end up in the water unless the dig or build over to Oakland. Unfortunately I didn't get to see any of the trains in action, nor ride one, but it's something I'll go back again for.
Trams/Trolley buses in San Fran
I was quite impressed to see the trolley bus routes in San Francisco. I had never actually seen any running and the biggest shock was the lack of noise. I'm used to diesel buses here in Australia and the electric versions are bloody quiet. I imagine it could even be a safety issue if no one can hear them coming?
Another impressive feature was that the trams used one of the trolley bus wires where they shared paths. Of course, the bus would not pick up the other polarity from the ground, so they needed two wires in the air. Trams, on the other hand, only used one and so you'd see, at intersections, trolley buses and trams banked up behind each other.
San Francisco Cable Car Museum
This is a must-see for any rail enthusiast. Sure, the they're not exactly 'trams', but the techonology behind the system is awesome. This Museum actually still acts as the motive power source for the cars. The cables are turned here to pull the cars up the gradients. The cars are controlled by levers where the driver can choose to detach from the cable and apply brakes... i.e. allowing them to stop at 'stops'. Hence the cables are perpetually spinning, or during hours of operation anyway.
And then... the Cable Cars...
The world-famous cars that run on the cables are a tourist trap. The ticket price is 4x a standard fare and the queues to ride them are usually large. The cars to move quickly, but I imagine there's a limit to the amount of cars on the cable at once as you'll often see the drivers at the end stops waiting for the other cars to climb the hill. Pretty frustrating as someone in the line waiting.
As for the ride, the gradients are awesome and the passing is pretty dangerous... hang of the side if you dare, but keep your head in!
Oakdale
A random stop through Oakdale on the way to the Yosemite National Park found a random caboose and the Sierra Railroad's Dinner Train. Not much was happening around the yards, so I didn't hang around long.
Fresno
The initial perception of Fresno indicated little railway infrastructure and life... fortunately I was wrong. After a little false navigation following disused lines I came across 'South Railroad Avenue' which followed the main line. It turns out that there's a junction and then the BNSF depot. Finally some real american horsepower. Santa Fe had always been my favourite railroad (first model train, etc...) and it was nice to see them, although in the amalgamated BNSF livery.
The last miles on Interstate 5
After Fresno the countdown was on to get back to LA before midnight. The plane to NY was leaving early the next morning and we needed some time to check out Hollywood. Along the way back there were a few freighters hanging around loading sites, one was from Golden State Feed and Grain and another from Rail America.
And that was it... New York was next.
Melbourne – July 2011
Prior to setting off on a round-the-world tour (expect posts from random countries), I decided to check out Melbourne one last time. Everything listed below was taken on a typically dreary Melbourne day... boy am I looking forward to summer!
Canal Sidings
These sidings form a repair bay for rolling stock in Melbourne. Often on a Saturday morning one will be able to see damaged rolling stock being brought to these sidings or repaired rolling stock being taken away. I've usually only seen grain wagons and flats being repaired.
The main SG line to Southern Cross Station passes directly beside Canal Sidings and the XPT travels along this times a day on it's two trips to Melbourne.
Dynon Fuel Point
The petrol station at Dynon serves all sorts of customers: V/Line, PacNat, El Zorro, etc... today we see a nice line up of PacNat BG freight locomotives with a single V/Line N Class.
V/Line Standard Gauge Passenger Trains
V/Line has only just re-started it's services to and from Albury/Wodonga after converting 3 N Class, 1 P class and two passenger consists to Standard Gauge. Here we see (what happened to be) an empty passenger consist from the yard heading to Southern Cross to do the midday run to Albury. It ended up returning very quickly as it turns out the service was to be bus-tituted. Something to do with a massive ARTC signal fault on the 'NE SG'.
I happened to randomly catch it heading north whilst waiting for the AK cars... The livery really does liven up the photos.
AK Cars in Melbourne
The AK Cars are run by ARTC to inspect the railways under their control across Australia. This week they ventured in and out of Melbourne testing the continuously-changing NE SG.
El Zorro Locomotive Testing
This was a random sighting... supposedly 442s6 was about to see the scrappers torch but instead was rescued by El Zorro. This loco will add a little more colour to their already assorted mish mash of locomotives.
Buying Renfe Train Tickets Online
A few friends and I are heading to Spain over September and we wanted to include a trip or two on their highspeed rail network. After a little google'ing, I had determined the Spanish Rail Company was RENFE and their web site was mildly difficult to navigate and use. The following article lists the notes/issues/warnings that I had gathered from other sites and heeded whilst purchasing online.
Step 1: Create an account
You can do this milliseconds prior to the purchase, but I recommend doing this at the start to raise your chances of a successful purchase. To register your account:
- Browse to the RENFE Website and click the Welcome link.
- Click the Purchase link, top right.
- On the new page, select the Register Me link in the user login window, mid-top right.
You can now start to enter your details. Note that you have to enter a 5-digit postcode (for Australia I just added a zero to the front) and you also have to have at least one symbol and one number in your password. You'll also have to select a fake Spanish Province as it doesn't hide that selection when you choose another country. This doesn't affect your ability to purchase tickets as you do not receive anything in the mail.
Meanwhile, don't be alarmed if the 'Check User' link doesn't work... it didn't work for me, but I continued through and my account was created.
Step 2: Find the timetable
Firstly, visit RENFE's Website and choose the "Welcome" link just below the title image. This link will take you to the 'English' version of the passenger timetables page. From here you can now input your departure/destination stations and a date to travel on. Note that this is for inter-city travel across Spain; you can find suburban stations on the Renfe Cercanías - Communter trains page.
Note: You can only purchase tickets 62 days in advance... be warned though, the site doesn't always have the tickets available. You may have to be 50 days or less in advance before they will appear.
Once you've worked out a good departure time, select the Query and Buy link. This will show an extra table stating the 'off the shelf' prices for each class of travel. Don't be scared by these though, you're about to head into the purchasing system where you'll be presented with the 'web fares'. Click the shopping trolley icon and a new window/tab will open with the purchasing website.
Step 3: Starting the purchase
You'll now be in the purchasing area of the RENFE site. Wait for the initial purchasing page to load; a script will change the departure/destination stations and travel date to what you had previously selected. You can then update this if you want a return journey and can also choose the quantity if you want multiple tickets.
Confirm at this point that you are still actually logged in. The panel in the top-left of the screen should show your full name, as you registered it.
After selecting the relevant details, hit the Search button.
Step 3: Choosing a service
Right, there's quite a few different services offered by RENFE available online. These range from Overnight sleeper "Train Hotels" to the latest and greatest highspeed AVE Trains.
Note that "Estrella" is both a name for the Overnight Trains (if it's in the left-most column) and a 'Travel Class' (if it's in the right-most column) literally translated to "Star Class".
If you see the service you want, but it's marked as "Train Blocked", then don't despair! Chances are RENFE are taking their time with the timetable updates and you are too 'early' (although you may be within the 62 days prior to travel.) I had this for my tickets in September and persistence paid off. The tickets became available around 58 days prior to my travels.
You can find the full list here, but below are the services you'll probably want to purchase:
- AVE (300km/h)
'State of the art' highspeed network in Spain. Currently servicing: Madrid–Barcelona, Madrid–Valladolid, Madrid–Levante, Córdoba–Málaga. - Euromed (220km/h)
The Euromed is a slower train with Turista and Preferente classes. You'll find these services between most major cities and they usually come with very good discounts. - Alaris (200km/h)
Again, a service between most major cities which usually stops at a lot more stations than the Euromed. - Talgo (160-200km/h)
Looking quite like a duck/platypus, these relics have been refurbed for smoother rides. They also travel between most major cities, filling in the stations that the faster trains don't stop at. - Estrella
These trains are the overnighters. NOTE that you cannot purchase a bed online! Of three levels offered, Turista and Preferente are seats and Litera is a cabin with 6 reclining seats (potentially into 'beds', but I wouldn't count on comfort.) Other sites have indicated very little sleep had on these tickets. I imagine you can purchase the sleeper cabins over the phone? - TRENHOTEL
These are the real overnight trains... all classes starting with "cama" indicate that you are purchasing a bed. It's been mentioned that RENFE will not mix strangers in a cabin, so purchasing two tickets for a 4-berth cabin will give you space and privacy.
Step 4: Choosing a class
One note here... I tried to purchase "Preferente" class on a Barcelona to Madrid service and I got the error to the right. I was interested in what I expected to be first class but wanted to get the tickets purchased; instead I opted for "Turista".
- Turista
This seems to be equivalent to 'economy class' or 'coach'. All trains have this and it's the lowest (and cheapest) option available. All trains I checked out still had 2+2 seating though... so it can't be too uncomfortable? - Preferente
Don't quote me on this, but I think these are 1st Class seats with a discount... I wasn't able to purchase any though. - Club
Bloody expensive... seems to be first class with no discount and all the options (drinks, food, etc..) - Butaca Super.
No idea... if anyone can provide information on this then please do! - Cama Turista
No idea... if anyone can provide information on this then please do! - Cama Preferen
No idea... if anyone can provide information on this then please do! - Cama G. Clase
No idea... if anyone can provide information on this then please do!
Step 5: Confirming ticket details
The next screen is one of the most confusing. At the top of the screen you will see the trips you wish to take with the classes you have selected. At this point you can choose to switch to another class type if required. Switching between the types and pressing "Recalculate purchase price" will show you what each of the tickets are worth. Chances are you already chose the ticket type in the previous screen and you don't need to adjust this.
There is also a family discount option ("Descuento F.Numerosa") which allows discounts to parties travelling as a family. I don't know exactly how this applies and don't recommend touching it.
Select your final options (seat selection, meals, etc...) and then choose Continue.
I usually don't bother with seat selection for any tickets that I purchase (on any mode of transport...) ...but... for the purposes of this post I'll show you what happens when you tick that checkbox.
Step 7: Credit Card Details
Ok, the first thing that scared me on this page is the lack of a credit card 'type' selection. You cannot select 'Visa', 'Mastercard, etc... I assume RENFE just knows how to decipher this from the card number you've entered.
You'll notice at the top of the screen that there is a 'Select a card' button... this brings up a blank list (I first expected to select my card type via this.) I freaked out during my first purchase but then realised that it's for storing your credit card details so you don't have to type them in each time. I chose not to do this.
Go through and fill out your details... Skip the 'TEMPO Card' area as that seems to be their loyalty program. You'll need to make sure the number has no spaces, your name is correct and you have the CVV number from the back of your card (it's the last three digits on whatever number exists.) If you don't know any of these details then contact your bank or ask someone who's paid online with a credit card before to help you.
Finally check the 'I agree...' checkbox and hit continue.
Step 8: Seat selection (optional)
If you didn't choose seat selection then you can skip this step; otherwise, choose your seats...
At the top of the page you'll see the entire consist of the train you'll be travelling on. The buffet car is noted and so are the classes of travel. RENFE will select a car for you to travel in by default, but you can choose another as long as it's marked as the class of travel you have chosen.
Once you've chosen a car you can then select a seat on the bottom half of the screen. Note that anything marked 'X' has already been booked by someone else. Work out where the amenities are and choose the required amount of seats simply by clicking on them.
After selecting all required seats, press continue to start the card verification process.
Step 9: Credit Card Verification
Now comes the tricky part... you'll have a few hoops to jump through here depending on your card issuer/bank. If you've ever bought anything online (not via Paypal) and have seen your bank's "verification screen" then you can expect to see it here too. RENFE, at this point, will attempt to contact your bank and will then hand control over to the bank's verification system. My bank here in Australia presented it's verification screen where I was to click a button, receive an SMS and then type in the code given.
NOTE: The first time I did this my bank's verification screen did not appear! Something timed out somewhere and I got a "This website is not responding..." error. I ended up just hitting refresh (as I knew I hadn't verified the initial payment) and everything then just worked. It's always daunting when dealing with your own hard-earned dollars... but be persistent and it should work.
Step 10: Review and print your confirmation
If you've made it this far then you're in! Congratulations, on this screen you'll have a booking number and trip details. You will also receive an email (if you typed the correct one in whilst registering) with all the details too. There's no need to print this screen; print the email instead.
I never tried the SMS option... there's a radio button that you can select... I imagine you then press the "Print Tickets" down below. I didn't even click that button; I was happy with the email as proof of purchase.
There is a link at the top left to view your 'Journeys'. Click this and it'll show you a short list of your confirmed tickets.
Step 11: Travel.
I'll get back to you on this in August/September 2011.
Sydney – June 2011
I happened to be in Sydney on Saturday the 25th of June briefly and managed to catch up with the Metropolitan Goods Railway Line between Canterbury and Sydenham.
I'd known about this line from the forums at Railpage and wanted to see some of the privately operated locomotives.
NOHABs at Canterbury
NOHAB (Nydqvist & Holm AB) was a manufacturing company in Sweden that has since gone bust. Independent Rail of Australia (Originally known as Lachlan Valley Rail Freight) based in Minto, Sydney, imported 16 of their MZ locomotives and continues to refurbish them.
It turns out that they decided to pass me at Canterbury Station not long after I'd gotten there.
They also own 4717, looking quite dirty. I jumped on the next spark back to Marrickville; 4717 paused long enough at the signal for me.
RLs at Marrickville
It turns out there was to be enough action here to keep me entertained. Port botany is a dead-end with no facilities to turn an engine, so all locomotives have to reverse else where. It seems that, for the movements I saw, containers are taken down and then the engines return to their bases.
First up, after 4717 cleared, a set of RLs came through. RL302 was leading and paused just on the other side of the junction to Sydenham. The pair then trotted off downhill.
After the port line was clear, the NOHABs returned. It would've been a good shot if another locomotive was attempting to head east... I've seen it before where someone has caught another train waiting on the line up from Sydenham.
The RLs, with RL301 now closest to me, returned to Marrickville and then bounced back to the port.
81s at Marrickville
A lonesome 81 Class then climbed the grade from Sydenham and wound past Marrickville. I hadn't seen these under steam for quite a long time (Melbourne only really sees them shunting.)
Note that the final container on the train had a piece of cardboard wedged in the handle saying "Don't seal this container."
Central and Surrounds
I then ventured into the city via Central and caught the locals.
That night I also tried a few shots of the trams near Paddy's Markets.
Taking the XPT home
The final part of my journey included a trip home on the XPT; although everyone seemed to think I was crazy for doing it. It was actually a really nice ride and there were little slowdowns. The train arrived 2 minutes early to Southern Cross; but the timetable definitely incorporates the trackwork being undertaken.
Quite a few freight trains were passed, for a Sunday, including a random lash-up on a ballast train south of Cootamundra.
In the end, I'd do the trip again... the trackwork will be completed one day? I think they can knock an hour or two off the running-time when it's done.
Commandos – Behind Enemy Lines Resolution Fix
Unofficial STEAM support:
Scroll to the bottom and find the comment by Tonelotto with instructions on how to get it going.
You can also use this patch to carry out the Locale hack described here.
Skip straight to the bottom of this post if you just want the application!
An Introduction to the game
A friend and I recently stumbled across the Commandos Ammo Pack ('Behind Enemy Lines' and it's expansion pack 'Beyond The Call Of Duty') at Good Old Games.com and we just couldn't resist downloading it. It did cost US$5.99, but that's absolutely chicken feed when compared to the awesomness of this game.
It's an old game, created in 1999, and could handle resolutions up to 1024x768 for single player; but for multiplayer the resolution was fixed at 640x480. I google'd around a little and saw that one person on a forum had created the Mysoft - Commandos Loader v0.8 which seemed to hoist the application in to memory and then hacked around with variables. I wasn't sure this was the best method and had the main Commandos EXE in IDA Free before too long.
I'd read that it used DirectDraw/3D and started searching for the appropriate functions. Before long I had the AdjustWindowRectEx, DirectDrawCreate and other functions under the microscope. I then opened the EXE up in OllyDbg and started slapping breakpoints everywhere. Before long I'd noticed the pattern:
push 10h push 1E0h push 280h
This seemed to be popping up everywhere and co-incidently 280h x 1E0h = 640x480 pixels... the default for the game. I then found code that set the resolution based on those shown in the video settings menu and then the game was doing what I told it.
After a little more google'ing I found that someone else had already gotten to this point. Ferdinand had the hacks there to change the resolutions, but did not have the final piece to ensure that re-loading the game brought the resolution back.
After a little more disassembling I found that the resolution was being loaded at startup from a file on disk... this turned out to be "COMANDOS.CFG" in My Documents. The exact line from the config was:
.SIZE [ .INITSIZE 2 ]
From the config it was obvious that the game was using 'index 2' from the resolution list. Of course, it also meant that it knew how to decipher that '2' to a real resolution from the list in the code. After a little forward and reverse searching from the file loading to the resolution setting I came to the switch statement in the code which had the values hard-coded. I now had 3 points per resolution setting in the code that needed to be changed if I was to write my own utility.
Commandos Resolution Hack Alpha 1
I hadn't liked anything that was already available to do this and so I chose to wrote my own. The application loaded the EXE into memory, read out the resolutions stored, audited that they were all in sync and then allowed the user to select a new resolution per slot. If the resolutions weren't the same then you would get a warning, but this would have been corrected on the next resolution hack.
This worked fine, but I found it pointless to specify four separate resolutions when you only really needed to specify one. I was more in for the challenge of allowing all four to change, rather than the practicality.
Testing and more bugs
So, it all worked... I then closed the game, re-opened it and found that it loaded up at 1024x768 instead of the 1680x1050 resolution I had set. I closed it again and looked at the configuration file; the setting had indeed changed back to '2' instead of '4'... but I hadn't touched it! I then loaded the game again and it was back to 1680x1050... closing and opening brought it back to 1024x768... the flip-flop continued.
So... what did this seem to mean? I had overlooked the storage of the resolution configuration. If the indexed resolution was read from the file, then it would have to be written back as an index. I went back in to the disassembler and searched for anything relating to writing 'SIZE' into the configuration file. The logic in the game was then obvious: it carried out an "if less than X but greater than Y" across the 'stock' resolutions and then stored the relevant index. This complicated my approach and confirmed that I really should only bother adjusting the 'fourth' resolution in the list. There was no point allowing the user to re-order the resolutions as this code then wouldn't work. The fourth resolution would need to be the only one customisable and the value must be greater than the third resolution at 800x600.
Commandos Resolution Hack Alpha 2
So, with this in mind, I wound the application down to just editing one resolution that had to be higher than 800x600. This meant that the internal configuration saving would work and the user would just have to select the final resolution in the list. Note that this only affected single player... the multi player resolution would still be a separate setting.
Everything was now working great... except the drawing issues above 1024 resolutions...
Drawing bugs
So, the game obviously wasn't meant to be played with a horizontal resolution greater than 1024 pixels; rendering artifacts started appearing when higher resolutions were used. Fortunately, the game is quite dynamic when it comes to rendering the screen and menus. Trawling through the code I could see that it was trying to find a BMP that matched the resolution, even using the resolution as the file name. Ferdinand had also worked this out and even has a list of assets downloadable for higher resolutions.
Commandos stores all of its graphical assets in a file named 'WARGAME.DIR' and references this when the game loads. I started looking into modifying this file via my program but realised it would be wuite a task to decipher and re-pack. Fortunately, some clever fellows across the world have created the necessary tools to extract these files. DirExtractor allows us to expand the DIR files and, once in the Commandos directory, the game itself will actually use the extracted versions if you remove the WARGAME.DIR file. This then meant that I could use my app to call DirExtractor, extract the files and then modify them where required to ease the majority of graphical glitches.
Required Graphical Modifications
- A single change to the fourth resolution string in DATOS\MISIONES\GLOBAL.STR to whatever the custom resolution has been set to. This can be found by searching for the token OVI4 and then replacing the string following.
- The creation of the menu background. This has to be a Bitmap file named MENU####.BMP where the #### is the horizontal resolution of the screen.
- Build a WAD file for the game-play interface. This WAD is named via the resolution (i.e. 1024X768.WAD) and contains values that tell the game how to render the interface. I created a one-size-fits-all file that ensures that the graphics are wide/long enough for the screen resolutions (max 1920x1920) and the application simply renames the file and ensures that it is available to the game.
A final glitch
There was only one drawing issue remaining after this... any resolution over 1400 meant that maps thinner than the overall monitor width would not re-draw the areas that they could not cover. You can see this in the following screen shots.
Fortunately you can press '+' and '-' in-game to zoom in and out. What this meant was that the user could stop the map from clipping by adjusting the zoom. I took this as a suitable workaround at the time.
Smeared resolution?
It seems that some laptop resolutions are a little out-of-whack. I previously had a Samsung Ultranote with resolution of 1366x768, but windows reported that it could also run at a resolution of 1360x768.
It turns out that if you choose the wrong one (although it may seem the right one if that's your current windows resolution) that you'll get the following display:
Simple fix: Try another resolution... it'll work eventually!
And you thought it was going to be this easy?
So, I had the app working great for the modification of the GOG version of the EXE. It turns out that there are many more versions in the wild. It also gets worse as there is another patch here that fixes up a whole lot of other issues in the game. Fortunately it seems that the EXE from the above link is the exact same as the EXE from GOG? Either way, I've tested it and my hack works on it perfectly.
Due to the above, I started a list of EXEs for the game and then began deciphering them (as I knew the basic items to change) to allow my application to work with them.
Items in bold are those that come from GOG.com.
| Game | Version | File Size | Supported |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commandos - BEL Demo | 2,452,992 bytes | Works.. | |
| Commandos - BEL German | v1.0 | 2,469,376 bytes | Works, Asks for CD (Language issues, I'd imagine) |
| Commandos - BEL Spanish | v1.0 | 2,469,376 bytes | Works? |
| Commandos - BEL Spanish | v1.05 | 2,469,888 bytes | Works? |
| Commandos - BTCOD Spanish | ? | 2,696,600 bytes | Works? |
| 'Sold Out' | v1.1 | 2,479,104 bytes | Works fine. Speed issues with game (known issue) |
| GOG.com Ammo Pack | v1.1 | 3,715,072 bytes | Works perfectly! |
| Commandos Ultimate Fix | v1.1 | 3,715,072 bytes | Works perfectly! |
| Commandos - Beyond the call of duty | ? | 3,133,440 bytes | Works perfectly! |
| Commandos - BEL Russian | ? | 2,470,400 bytes | Works fine. Speed issues with game (known issue) |
| Commandos - BTCOD Russian | ? | 2,968,576 bytes | Works fine. Speed issues with game (known issue) |
| Commandos - SINP | v2.3 | 2,482,688 bytes | Works perfectly. |
| Commandos - SINP Chinese | v2.3 | 2,313,216 bytes | Does not write out chosen resolution to configuration file. You should only change the resolution via this hack! |
My application was then built to determine the EXE via file size (of course, this isn't fool-proof) and then hack appropriately.
Commandos - Beyond The Call Of Duty
So, this was just an update to the main game... turns out the code was slightly different, but still workable with my current program structure. After about 6 hours debugging all was working! Enjoy!
Commandos Hack v1.2
The final release contains the following features:
- Support for all versions known above. (Note that the Demo and German versions don't actually save their configs to disk; we therefore hack the initial startup resolution.)
- Resolution list options based on monitor capabilities.
- Both EXE and WARGAME.DIR are backed up.
- A one-size-fits-all menu background has been included.
- German file encoding is preserved when the text is changed.
- Resolution menu text shows the selected resolution.
- Compatibility mode now checked to allow proper resolution and disable scaling.
- The Locale hack from here has also been added.
Download the application here.
And you can also download the .NET source code here.
Meanwhile, if you got a lot out of this app, then feel free to donate!
And that's a wrap... go use every pixel your monitor can produce and play the game!
Creating two more MAME Controllers
I've since realised that, after building the original two MAME Arcade Controllers, I've needed two more to really re-live the old classic games. I suppose one more would've been OK for games like Rampage, but TMNT, Simpsons Arcade and Sunset Riders need all four players... so... the following lists the relevant information to build controllers 3 and 4.
Sunset Riders
It turns out F12 saves snapshots of MAME games... so I couldn't resist...
Key Mapping
Below lists the mapping for the two new controllers to be created. I went ahead and used the default keys from MAME plus whatever else was free...
NOTE: Out-of-the-box MAME does not specify buttons 4,5,6 for Players 3 and 4! You can set these very easily in the 'default' config by using the basic MAME GUI (run mame.exe without any command line options)...
| Button | Player 3 | Pins | Player 4 | Pins |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joy UP | I | 6, 22 | Numpad 8 | 8, 22 |
| Joy LEFT | J | 7, 21 | Numpad 4 | 4, 23 |
| Joy DOWN | K | 6, 21 | Numpad 2 | 8, 21 |
| Joy RIGHT | L | 5, 21 | Numpad 6 | 14, 23 |
| Button 1 | R-CTRL | 13, 20 | Numpad 0 | 8, 24 |
| Button 2 | R-SHIFT | 10, 20 | Numpad . | 14, 24 |
| Button 3 | ENTER | 1, 20 | Numpad ENTER | 12, 21 |
| Button 4 | / | 3, 26 | Numpad + | 12, 22 |
| Button 5 | . | 5, 20 | Numpad - | 12, 26 |
| Button 6 | , | 6, 20 | Numpad * | 12, 20 |
| Player Button | 3 | 16, 19 | 4 | 11, 19 |
| Insert Coin | 7 | 7, 19 | 8 | 6, 19 |
Building the other two controllers
I bought cheaper controls for these two... but to no real benefit. I did save AUD$10, but I don't really like the button microswitches. The buttons aren't as tall and they do look cheaper. They're also a lot less 'clickier'. On the positive side: the short-stick joysticks feel nicer during game-play and are a lot more sensitive.
The build of these two followed the exact same path as the previous two (see the previous post) using cheap Microsoft Keyboards. It turns out that they were now a different colour (White vs. Black) and I decided to replace my current keyboards on other computers with the new ones. I therefore used a standard black MS Keyboard for Player 3 and a 'Microsoft Comfort Curve' for Player 4.
The MS Comfort Curve had a completely different matrix and the circuit board inside was much easier to solder to. Either way, the process was still the same in determining the pins and then wiring everything up. Testing was made a lot easier as well as I found the below testing applications to work out exactly what I'd messed up :)
After running out of solder and then later butane I got them together and we gave them a go. All went well until Players 1 and 4 hit magical key combinations... It seems that, although the keyboards are separate devices, you can still produce an ALT-ENTER or CTRL-ALT-DEL by having each player pressing each of the keys separately. This has since been remedied in the final section of this post!
Testing your new creation
I found out that Windows 7 (and possibly Windows Vista?) but not Windows XP has the mskey.exe keyboard test application (I have since found out that you can Download the Intellisense Software here which contains this application.) It came in very handy until I plugged 12v into a USB hub and cooked the HDD in my TV-pc (luckily only the HD, the PSU managed to protect everything else!) and lost my Windows 7 install. For Windows XP systems (of which all my computers are now back to) I downloaded and used the PassMark KeyboardTest application. At first, the Google search result made the application look like a typing tutor, but after downloading I realised it was exactly what I needed.
MAME Configuration
So, as previously mentioned, MAME doesn't specify Buttons 4,5,6 for Players 3 and 4 by default. I suppose there aren't many games that have more than 3 buttons for all four players? I can't think of any... but my memory is quite hazy as to what 4-player games Combat Zone had back at Tuggeranong Hyperdome.
Either way, we've specified them above and we also need to make sure they map to the correct player/keys in MAME. Here's a snippet for Player 4 in my default.cfg:
<input> <port type="P4_JOYSTICKRIGHT_UP"> <newseq type="standard">KEYCODE_6PAD KEYCODE_8PAD</newseq> </port> <port type="P4_JOYSTICKRIGHT_DOWN"> <newseq type="standard">KEYCODE_2PAD KEYCODE_6PAD</newseq> </port> <port type="P4_JOYSTICKLEFT_UP"> <newseq type="standard">KEYCODE_4PAD KEYCODE_8PAD</newseq> </port> <port type="P4_JOYSTICKLEFT_DOWN"> <newseq type="standard">KEYCODE_2PAD KEYCODE_4PAD</newseq> </port> <port type="P4_BUTTON4"> <newseq type="standard">KEYCODE_PLUSPAD</newseq> </port> <port type="P4_BUTTON5"> <newseq type="standard">KEYCODE_MINUSPAD</newseq> </port> <port type="P4_BUTTON6"> <newseq type="standard">KEYCODE_ASTERISK</newseq> </port> </input>
As you can see, the default.cfg only adds in controls we have overridden... the others must be hard-coded into mame.exe. Drop the configuration file in to your mame/cfg directory (note that you may want to check your file first as you could have other customisations!) and then you'll have the appropriate settings ready to go!
Diagonals and 4-Way Joysticks
Right, I couldn't work out why I couldn't get 'Steve' in 'Sunset Riders' to shoot on the diagonal... usually this was carried out by holding down the Up and Left (or Right) keys on the Keyboard, but it wasn't working. I scoured the internet and initially thought it was an issue with the way I'd wired up the joysticks.
It turns out that MAME has added in the ability to assign a separate key for the diagonal movements. This is great if you have an 8-way Joystick with actual individual microswitches on the diagonals, but I have a 4-way and I cannot, without logic circuits, wire up another key to activate when two of the direction microswitches are closed. I did actually start thinking of logical OR/AND gates to fire the specific keys when the direction goes diagonal, but this would require re-work on the sealed controllers. :)
So, I went in to MAME and then mashed the keyboard on the configuration screen. It turns out that you can assign multiple keys to a direction. This then made life easy... I would make Player 1's "Up/Left" key 'Up' + 'Left' instead of the 'I' key on the keyboard.
After testing this new configuration I realised it wasn't actually MAME that was the problem! It turns out that there was an actual physical issue with the initial two joysticks I bought when compared to the second two...
Arcade Joystick differences
So, the diagonals worked on the new joysticks I bought... they seemed to be a lot happier at pressing two directions at once. Unfortunately, the original joysticks only really wanted to go one way at once... After a little investigation it turns out that the plastic spacer/washer that slides onto the joystick stem was not wide enough (circumference-wise) to actually activate two microswitches at once. I'd also misplaced the original 'extra' components from the intial build and therefore didn't know if wider spacers existed? Either way, I had to make the spacers fatter to ensure that diagonal movements could be easily made.
In the end I cheated and used duct tape around the spacer at the bottom of the stick to make it's circumference wider. This meant it was more keen to press two microswitches at once and the world was a happier place!
The sticky-tape-fix was then tested for Player 1 and worked. I then did the same for Player 2 but had the controller back open in seconds after playing Bomberman as it turns out it was now too happy to go diagonal instead of 4-Way. Removing just over one layer of tape from the spacer on the joystick balanced out the circumference vs. microswitch equation and made the joystick much more responsive. Your mileage will vary with how much tape is required based on the sensitivity of the microswitches and how much travel/space you have between them and the center stick.
The verdict: Windows short-cut keys kill gameplay
The next step was to reconfigure any keys on the controllers to not use any modifier key (CTRL,ALT,SHIFT,ENTER) so as to not activate shortcuts during gameplay. When Player 1 and Player 4 pressed certain buttons (specifically ALT-ENTER) the MAME window would restore and, of course, it was possible that all four players could do a perfectly orchestrated CTRL-ALT-DEL and throw Windows XP to the Task Manager.
To do this I had to re-solder buttons on Controllers 1, 2, 3 and 4 to the nearest free keyboard button. Fortunately the Numpad had more than enough nearby keys free and there are still letters of the alphabet unused near Player 1's keys. The layout of buttons on the keyboard did not have to make sense to a human user and so any free buttons were used if the wiring was easier.
The Final Re-Mapping
So, in the end I re-mapped the modifier keys and also removed the duplicates between Players 2 and 3. Edits are in bold... NOTE: You must UNMAP 'T' from the 'Other Controls' area otherwise when Player 1 hits Button 2 you may receive a 'Tilt' message and game restart.
| Button | Player 1 | Pins | Player 2 | Pins |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joy UP | UP | 12, 24 | R | 11, 22 |
| Joy LEFT | LEFT | 12, 26 | D | 16, 21 |
| Joy DOWN | DOWN | 4, 26 | F | 11, 21 |
| Joy RIGHT | RIGHT | 8, 26 | G | 11, 24 |
| Button 1 | E | 16, 22 | A | 18, 21 |
| Button 2 | T | 11, 23 | S | 17, 24 |
| Button 3 | C | 16, 20 | Q | 18, 22 |
| Button 4 | V | 11, 20 | W | 17, 23 |
| Button 5 | Z | 18, 20 | U | 7, 22 |
| Button 6 | X | 17, 20 | O | 5, 22 |
| Player Button | 1 | 18, 19 | 2 | 17, 19 |
| Insert Coin | 5 | 11, 25 | 6 | 7, 25 |
| Button | Player 3 | Pins | Player 4 | Pins |
| Joy UP | I | 6, 22 | Numpad 8 | 8, 22 |
| Joy LEFT | K | 6, 21 | Numpad 4 | 4, 23 |
| Joy DOWN | J | 7, 21 | Numpad 2 | 8, 21 |
| Joy RIGHT | L | 5, 21 | Numpad 6 | 14, 23 |
| Button 1 | B | 11, 26 | Numpad 0 | 8, 24 |
| Button 2 | N | 7, 26 | Numpad . | 14, 24 |
| Button 3 | M | 7, 20 | Numpad / | 8, 20 |
| Button 4 | / | 3, 26 | Numpad + | 12, 22 |
| Button 5 | . | 5, 20 | Numpad - | 12, 26 |
| Button 6 | , | 6, 20 | Numpad * | 12, 20 |
| Player Button | 3 | 16, 19 | 4 | 11, 19 |
| Insert Coin | 7 | 7, 19 | 8 | 6, 19 |
Download the configuration file here.This configuration overwrites the diagonals for Player 1 and adds/corrects all of the other mappings listed above.
And this is now to be tested in gameplay... I've done the re-wiring and have tested individually but have done no actual thrashing with MAME.
The End
And that's that... it was enough fun playing with Player 1 and 4 making sure not to mash the same buttons at the same time... but it should be a lot better now once I organise the beer and the people to play... will see how we go!
Usual suspects: DERM58
May 7th saw the Diesel Electric Rail Motor Preservation Association of Victoria Inc run another tour with their prized DERM58. This time it was out on the freight BG to Seymour with a return trip via the passenger line through Essendon. I woke up at sparrows-fart on Saturday to see it on the viaduct over the Maribyrnong river near McIntyre Loop.
The weather, as per Melbourne, was playing hard-to-get and it was bloody freezing before the sun came up. There was a lovely pink sunrise which I tried to capture before realising I'd remembered the XPT arrival times wrong... I heard it coming and just managed to get a dodgy shot.
The next train wasn't for an hour... so I entertained myself by finding a good location where I could use the tele-lens and the available sunlight. It turns out that on the high-way side there is a nice incline where you can get above track-level with a great view of the viaduct. You can also see the signals in both directions to know when something is approaching.
After being entertained by quite a few noisy birds...
...I was greeted by howling NRs on a superfreighter heading north...
The XPT was to return next... it did and it wasn't hanging around. Fortunately the sun came out to ensure I could match a shutter speed with the train's speed.
It was then about a 40minute wait for the DERM to arrive... during this time there were multiple acts of stupidity by various forms of wildlife.
And then the DERM arrived...
The next train was to be a southbound superfreighter in an hour. I decided that the weather wasn't getting any better and so started making my way back to the car. Of course, if anyone had looked in the long shots of the DERM58, you'd have seen that the southbound signal was at clear... these things are completely hard to trust, but it turns out that if you see a green in this area then you should hang around.
I'd made it half-way back to the car when I heard a very nice howl from the north... as I turned around QR came hurtling across the bridge with an awesome lashup of LDP-009 + 6005 + 6002 + LDP-008.
Supposedly it held pace all the way into Sunshine and scared a track gang working around the corner... I'm not surprised.
I headed to Kensington in the afternoon to see the DERM return via the passenger lines. There's a nice spot near the Allied Mills where you can see the lines off to the West as well.
And that was that... it was cold and wet and any further chasing would have been futile. I'm still learning the correct approach with photographing under low light conditions, but am pretty happy with how the above shots came out.
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