In common with a lot of other people I am frustrated with RW's problems with AI shunting.
So here’s a thought. RW doesn’t care what a motive power unit, or rather an object to which a driver can be assigned, looks like It could be any shape or size. So how about a piece of rolling stock to which a driver can be assigned? My thinking is to assign a driver to say, a guards van which is part of a consist, put the consist in a portal. The portal spits out the consist in a siding, the player picks up the consist.
Several things I can see as possibly problematic.
• Does the ‘Object’ need tractive effort to come out of the portal
• What happens when the player tries to occupy the same block
• Once coupled does the player inherit the physics of the ‘object’
Leading on from this, could the object be used to shunt, but be left attached to the consist. Perhaps this could help where track direction etc means the shunting ‘Object’ is at the back of the siding and can’t get out. But that comes back to inherited physics.
Just a thought, is it possible?