Train movements on the South Downs Railway are pretty much all controlled by schedules. The schedules can be activated in several ways - by right clicking them in the dispatcher window; by using "start" and "destination" buttons on the schedule control switchboard; and by pushbuttons on DTM30 panels.

Reasonably often, though, we get an instance of Traincontroller reporting "schedule XXX cannot be started - call Details view for further information". The Details view often says little else. But there's usually a reason. I've written this list as a reminder - mostly to myself - of what to check for.

  1. Is there a train in the srarting block? I'm not sure I've fallen foul of that yet, but one day it will happen.
  2. Is the exit from the starting block locked? If you've blocked TC from being able to send a train out, then it can't go. Some of our blocks are locked by DTM30 pushbuttons (so that the station manager can control access to tracks). The DTM30 track LEDs should be green for access to be allowed.
  3. Is there a route out of the start block to the next block? (After some track editing in Clanfield, I found that trains could get into Clanfield but there was no route out in the schedules. I had to go through the schedules and re-add them back in).
  4. If the train too big for the next block? We have TC gold that can use train length as a restriction on what train can go where. If the block is too short, TC won't try to enter the block.
  5. Is the train in an appropriate train group for the next block? We have the terminus platforms at Clanfield and Petersfield set to accept "push/pull" trains only. That group consists of the DMUs (and will also include small steam trains that can run backwards). So when you buy a new DMU, you need to add it to the push/pull group; if you don't, then TC won't send it there.
  6. Similarly - is the train in an appropriate group for the route to the next block? You can restrict which trains use which routes. I don't know why we'd done it, but we had a restriction on the route into Petersfield platform 1 that was "push/pull" trains only.

So if the schedule won't start - work through the list. No doubt I'll have to extend the list at some point but this describes the common failings we get.