That sounds interesting. And it would also more realistic, than if the couplers would just magically appear/extend, when the trams are coupled together. Also K4500 isn't the only tram in the Sim with it's couplers being hidden behind the both front and rear bumpers. The KTM trams, HTM Avenio, Toronto Flexity Outlook, TFS trams, and Citadis trams have their couplers hidden behind their bumpers as well. Amsterdam 11G/12G and RET ZGT trams seems to have their couplers hidden below their bumpers (you can actually see an empty space below the bumpers on both of these trams, and on Amsterdam 11G/12G, you can see, that the empty space was made by cutting the front and rear mudguards short).Sjoerd wrote: ↑31 Oct 2023, 13:56 Currently we are looking into some new functions for the simulator, which this tram will be using. So it is on hold for the moment while these modifications are being researched.
Specifically interesting for this tram; with earlier vehicles with a normally hidden coupler, I made it in a way that when you couple, the coupler is opened/extended as you make the connection. Example on the K4500: https://sim.bemined.nl/wiki/File:K4500_Koppeling.jpg
Now, the aim is to program the simulator in a way where you need to manually extend the coupler first (which can be animated. The animation for it is already there; see my last Youtube video), as a requirement to be able to couple two vehicles together. And ofcourse have it already been done automatically if you spawn the vehicles already coupled together.
And If you wanna examples of the IRL trams with their couplers hidden behind their bumpers, in Prague, the Skoda 14T and Skoda 15T trams have a rod couplers, which are hidden behind their bumpers. If one of these trams malfunction and have to be towed to depot for fixing, the bumper is taken off entirely and the coupler is pulled out.
And what about the other Prague trams?
Tatra T3: Both versions of this tram (original and modernized) has it's rod couplers permamently exposed outwards. On modernized version of Tatra T3 those couplers were preserved like this due to fact, there's no free space on the trams chassis, where the coupler could be hidden, and a rod coupler with a joint (like on Alstom Be 8/8 TL) was out of play as well, because the joint could snap in half, if the tram hits a car on the intersection.
Tatra T6A5: These trams have a Sechéron auto-couplers, which function the same way as Sharfenberg couplers, with the ability to transfer the power from the front tram to the rear tram. That explains, if you looked at the picture of the pair of the Prague Tatra T6A5 trams, why the rear tram, has it's panto dropped down. Like with Tatra T3's rod couplers, these Sechéron couplers are also permamently exposed outwards. Although in later years, these Sechéron couplers were replaced with rod couplers on some tram cars. IDK why tho'.
Tatra KT8D5 (and Tatra KT8D5R.N2P): Like with Tatra T3, these trams also has rod couplers permanently exposed outwards. Altough during reconstruction of Tatra KT8D5 to Tatra KT8D5R.N2P, a mudguard has been added below the bumpers, which protects the inner empty space and the attaching mechanism on the "root" of the rod coupler from flying debris, or from the impact, if a tram hits a car on the intersection.
Something tells me, the HTM Regiocitadis and SLT train will be released together in the future.
