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In the Hungarian route’s custom ruleset, a bug allowed "manual pass at red" if you dropped to 10 km/h and toggled the wiper switch twice. It wasn’t realistic. It wasn’t legal. But it was the only way.
Then, Komárom approach. Final signal: green.
The V43’s electric hum—a flat, looped .wav file—drone-droned as I accelerated past the yard limit. First challenge: the single-track section. The timetable said "clear path." But MSTS had other plans.
I coasted into the receiving yard at 25 km/h. Brake application. Throttle to idle. Stop marker reached: . msts hungary
I’d chosen a night freight: , from Székesfehérvár to Komárom. Locomotive: V43 1133, the Szögletes Kigyó ("Angular Snake"), in its faded blue-and-cream livery. Cargo: twenty-one hoppers of bauxite. A simple run. Sixty-seven kilometers. Two hours at most.
My cab flickered to life. The voltmeter needles twitched. The brake pipe pressure climbed to 5 bar. Outside, the yard was a ghost town of static switchstands and unlit semaphores. I released the independent brake, notched the throttle to 1 (the MSTS default “lowest crawl”), and eased out of the siding.
I closed the editor. Returned to the cab. Checked the map overlay (Ctrl+Tab). The ghost train was exactly 4.2 kilometers ahead, occupying the only passing loop. In the Hungarian route’s custom ruleset, a bug
And somewhere near Bicske, the ghost train still waited, its cab empty, its signal eternally red.
The scenario ended. A score screen popped up: I laughed. The ghost of the Győr signal had won—but I’d delivered the bauxite.
I saved the replay. Outside my window, the real world was just waking up. But in the silent, frozen world of MSTS Hungary, the V43 1133 sat in the siding, engine still humming its low-res hum, waiting for its next engineer. But it was the only way
I slammed the emergency brake. The hoppers clanked against each other like angry dice. I sat in the silent cab, watching the red lens glow. No AI train in sight. No manual switch indication. Just… a red.
As I approached the first distant signal (a Hungarian Előjelző ), it showed green. Good. I passed it. Then, 300 meters later, the main signal— Főjelző —snapped to red.
I reversed 50 meters. The signal stayed red. I crept forward again. Red. This was the old MSTS bug: invisible train ahead . A ghost occupying the block section.
I opened the Activity Editor (Alt+Tab). The track monitor showed a "phantom consist"—a single MAV V43 cab car, ID 0000, stuck at the Bicske station stop marker. It had been there since the scenario loaded. No driver. No schedule. Just a memory leak in the simulation.