This guide is a simple explanation of how to solve the Sand Patch Grade GP38-2 (Two nice big american locos) when they seemingly won’t move unless you have a lot of power and it still feels like the brakes are on even though you have released them all!
If like me you don’t know everything there is to know about trains but still love playing TSW2, then there is every chance that you have run into what appears to be a bug in the game.
You start in the yard at the seat of a GP38-2, for those like me who have no idea what that is, it’s the big american looking that looks like this
Anyway you start in the yard shortly after completing a brief tutorial, you flick the switches you are supposed to, move the handles you are supposed to and finally you add some power and the thing just sits not moving but growling very angrily at you. You recheck your brakes and everything is off! So you add more power! (I mean who wouldn’t just add more power right!)
The engine starts to move but the wheels are screeching and you are only moving slowly and if you reduce power slightly the who thing comes to a complete stop. You check and double check everything in both cabs and still cant figure out what is going on so either force the engine to do the job or like me you rage quit and go do something else.
I trawled forums and various websites looking for an answer and then someone in a chat room said have I flicked the MU-2A valve switch… I’d never heard of the MU-2A switch in question and didn’t even know it existed but sure enough it was right where I was told it would be and sure enough after I flicked it my train ran perfectly fine.
Solution
So here’s how to solve the above problem with the train not wanting to move. If you look down to the left of the engineers seat, under all the brake handles on the side of the console you will see a switch labelled ‘MU-2A valve Trail 6 or 26’ all you need to do is switch the switch to read ‘MU-2A Valve Lead or Dead’ and suddenly everything works fine!
This is a simple yet frustrating thing that was missed out of the tutorials, but that’s how it’s solved!
I done this and still won’t move, do you have to do it in a certain order?
For me it was the generator field…
Here’s my issue with this highly unusual brain fart that someone at Dovetail had. All of the controls were already set in order to get the train to Sand Patch. I see no need to change the MU-2A valve setting. it’s already in Lead or dead. The only thing the train does is roll backwards towards eventual destruction and a game reset. I’ve seen one video where the driver ran all the way back to the rear engines and whipped through a series of changes that in that video at least, it worked. It seems to me that if this were an issue, why wasn’t that step or steps covered at Yoder where the 52 cars were connected. It sounds to me like their intent is over-frustration as a cheap laugh. I historically, don’t invest this kind of time and certainly not my money in episodes of feckless meandering which is what we’ve been presented with here.