Train brake specifics for easy/medium/hard settings in Canadian Mountain Passes (GE ES44AC)?

This is about the train brake subsystem modeled for the GE ES44AC in the Canadian Mountain Passes route for Train Simulator 2015.

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Proceeding from Field to Lake Louise hauling a heavy consist uphill (1.8%), you have to make it first less than half a mile to a signal light and stop after the waypoint but obviously before the wye merge (there's a train coming in the opposite direction). Because of the consist length and hill gradient (and wanting to cover the distance at more than walking speed), I overshoot the way point and end up applying full brake very close to the merge; that is bringing both the EQ reservoir and brake pipe to 0 and having 66 (max) pressure applied to the brake cylinder. I'm looking at the next leg of the route, the other train passes and I completely release the brake (EQ to 90). After 60 seconds, the brake pipe has barely climbed to 3 and I still have full pressure applied to the brake.

^{Got it right this time over.}

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The brake subsystem has three difficulty settings (easy, medium, hard; using ctrl+shift+1 or 2); I have set it to hard. At the easiest setting, it takes some 30 seconds for the pressure to be released, maybe.

1. How long does it take for the pressure to be released from the brake cylinder with the hard setting?
2. What are the exact differences between the easy/medium/hard settings for the train brake subsystem?