New reports
Tony and I have had another busy operating and development weekend 30 Sept - 2 October 2016. Here's what we got through.
Some topics we've looked at are:
- We added the interlocks to the control panels at Portsmouth and Clanfield, so the manual operators there have the ability to reserve track and request schedules. The one in Clanfield is done using routes, rather that reserving blocks.
- We looked into why we'd created "cycle" schedules last time. More here!
- We've develop more schedule sequences so trains can go for a run. There's more detail in a separate article about that.
- We've added trees to the backscene on the run up to Portsmouth. Previously there was an abrupt change in brightness of the backscenes where a rural one joined an industrial one. More to do, but it's a start.
- We've added voice announcements to the end of some schedules, where manual intervention needed. It is done as a scheule operation, so it can't be specific about the train type (ideally you'd say "driver required" only for a passenger or goods train requiring a shunting operation). We haven't yet looked at using a different voice: essentially can the Windows script specify the voice to be used.
- I'd wired up a batch of signals near Petersfield in the last few weeks. We programmed them up using Locoanalyse, and spent quite a while getting the logic right. It does appear that board 4 had the most recent SIGM20 software, but board 5 had older software: it did not properly set when "next signal is red" was programmed. With a chip change it was fine.
- We've found a way to delay a train leaving Petersfield to the left, so that the level crossing barrier has time to come down. It needed operations on each route through the crossing with the required time delays; having the delays in a flagman triggered by the route didn't make the route wait until the operation was completed. Read more.
- We found that trains were still sometimes getting shown a red signal while running through Portsmouth reversing loop. The problem is because the point into the diamond crossing needs to be set back straight, and that should be done by an operation on the release of a route through the crossing. It was on some routes but not others.
- I've added more photos (particularly of Portsmouth) for the website front page. Also Tony has taken a video using a 360 degree video camera: so there could be more views to come.
- I modified a wagon in the small goods train to have a magnetic coupling. That should now be fully usable.
- Petersfield platform 5 had trains stopping instantly when the hit the start sensor. It was as if the stop sensor wasn't there. We deleted the sensors and markers and re-created them - which solved the problem.
We were starting to get some regular activity on the railway in early Summer 2016, with several operating sessions. Then came the new kitchen, and the shed was filled with non railway "stuff" for a couple of months. That's now mostly gone, and we can start to look at the railway again.
I spent this weekend sorting out wiring and block detection in the approach to Portsmouth station. There were two separate issues to address:
- Trains had been exiting Portsmouth driving on the right hand track. I added a unidirectional critical block at the bottom of the hill up to Portsmouth on the approach side, so trans can't depart on that track. This needed one new sensor, and there were two sensors available on a BDL168 that were connected to the same power zone. However, it also turns out that the schedules had allowed that route - I've removed some blocks and routes to make sure there is only one "exit" track.
- Shunting operations in the station throat: the two blocks at the entrance to the station area didn't exactly match how the electrical detection was implemented. The detection made sense from the perspective of setting signals according to train movements; but they didn't match well to permit tracking of trains. A "proper" solution would have needed 3 new detectors. I've reached a workable solution with no new ones, just by reconfiguring. Now the final curved point onwards on the exit road belongs to the beginning of the block running down the hill to Eastleigh junction, rather than belonging to the end of the block in the throat. All the expected shunting operations result in correctly tracked movements. There is still one inconsistency - the point into the container yard is incorrectly placed on the block diagram, but train tracking follows all train movements correctly.
Earlier in the week I made some improvements by editing a couple of schedules, where the full set of required routes weren't included. This was probably the consequence of "copy a working route then edit it" with over-enthusiastic editing. Te result was a schedule sequence where trains got most of the way through a sequence then stopped in the fiddle yard; the reason was because there was a planned exit from one track in the fiddle yard but not the others. The sequence would have worked correctly on that one track.
Schedule sequences, now we've got to the bottom of that problem, do appear to be the way to go. We can create simple "base" schedules for the main components of a train journey, then create specific journeys by chaining them together. We've been able to create longer journeys involving several laps of the railway, for example.
I've been able to get some work done during the week, and things have moved along as a result. I've had a couple of operating sessions with friends from work, and that has provided a different perspective. Progress that we've made includes:
- Portsmouth station now has its control panel installed. All of the pushbuttons and LEDs work as expected, but it's not yet fully handshaked to Traincontroller.
- I've also added a power control panel, with display of PM42 zone and trac power state.
- I've added the uncoupling magnets for the Portsmouth yard.
- The Portsmouth panel pushbuttons for "enable/disable access to this track" are fully connected into Traincontroller. I was able to add an operation to the contact indicator that operated the "pushbutton" element on the schedule controlswitchboard, which in turn set up allow entry/exit to the blocks.
- I finally fixed the schedules for Clanfield (changes to the block diagram had ripped up the routes to/from the platforms). There's an icon on the toolbar of the block diagram window you need to click to allow you to pick tracks from the block diagram.
The last session we had rsulted in very reliable train runs, and quite a few operations to and from Portsmouth. We need the schedules to "catch up" now so that trains go away for a while and come back after a significant run.
Tony and I had another operating weekend in February. The principal purpose this time was to "catch up" on schedules for operating the newer areas of the railway.
I'd completed the engine shed area in preparation, including installing the turntable. Finally we could work out how the "steam excursion" trains would be operated. I've described the details in the "operations" section, but much of the effort was planning how the "train sets" feature of Traincontroller would be used.
If you have rolling stock that is sometimes operated joined to other stock but sometimes on its own, you can use "train sets" to manage them. For example a rake of coaches can be coupled to a locomotive, but the locomotive can also be driven on its own into an engine shed. Traincontroller lets you join and separate elements to create a train, then break it up into its parts when the carriages are put back into a siding for example.
In most cases "joins" are done automatically, using "join by train tracking". This requires detection sections where a loco will enter a block that's occupied by carriages, so that it knows the train has entered the same block. When the loco speed is reduced to zero the two become joined together. At the end of a main line schedule at a terminus, the schedules are programmed to separate the engine; the only steps then needed are those to put the carriages back into the engine shed.
We can now operate a small goods loco to the factory siding at Clanfield. The siding has its own block, and the very end has another small block for a class 08 shunter. We needed to add 4 new detection sections at Clanfield, for which I'd pre-installed a BD4. The point at the entrance to the platform is now a "start" sensor for the platform's block. The factory siding has 3 detectors: one for the majority of its length; one at the very far end where a shunter will sit; and a short one between the shunter and the majority of the length. The latter is so that the shunter entering the siding's block can be detected, so an auto join can happen.
We've also planned for the control panel needed for Portsmouth. there will need to be some pushbuttons for manual separate and join operations - all of which we worked out by testing the sequence of events.
The shops in Clanfield were fitted with LED lights, but I'd never got round to connecting them up. Embarassment finally kicked in.
The lights are controlled by CML Electronics MSC8 scenery decoders. These have a lighting sequence that makes the lights go on and off periodically, so the houses and shops look occupied. I've mounted the MSC8 units into the same bakelite boxes that mains power sockets use: a double wall box fits an MSC8 nicely. The boxes are munted behind the backscene, ie very near where the wires come through from the models.
To get an acceptable brightness I have added 3K9 series resistors at the MSC8 end. As far as I recall there was already a 1K resistor inside each house in series with two white LEDs; put bluntly they were too bright. Now, we get acceptable brightness with an estimated forward current of approx 1.5mA through the two series LEDs.