Proper Signal Status through Digital Magic

 Okay, I may be 'overselling' this blog post via the title, but this is something that has annoyed me for a long, long time.  And that's when certain signal aspects appear and when they change, something not easy to model on a railroad that features semaphore signals.  

The photo above shows the Swiss CE6/8 II waiting for the signal to change so it can proceed.  The shorter signal with the orange circle directly in front of the taller one is the advanced signal, which tells the train driver what the next signal 'down the line' is showing, in other words, telling the train driver whether to expect to stop or expect to proceed.  The home signal behind that one protects the track directly ahead of the train, and indicates to the train driver whether they can proceed into that section of track or not.

Mechanical signals, in this case semaphore signals, are operated using long cables (at least two, one for 'halt' and one for 'proceed' for a two-aspect signal) that run from a central location in the station or a small hut out on the railway line to each and every signal.  Pulleys, tensioning mechanisms, and guides are used to guide the cables to their destination, which can be a respectable distance away.  The image below shows a few tensioners, big weights carefully designed to make sure the cables are always taut.  You can see the cables in the image near the ground if you look closely, and a set of cable guides near the bottom left-hand corner of the image.  

When you think about railroading using semaphore signals, you have to imagine the poor guy (or gal) in the signal house / tower having to throw those big heavy levers to change the signal aspect.  It's not like modern light signals that operate automatically or with the push of a button.  Also, the signal operator then needs to let the next signalman up the line know a train is approaching, and also let the 'previous' signalman know that the train has passed, so that signalman knows the track ahead is clear for the next train.  As such, there are some operational effects that I discovered are fairly difficult to mimic in model railroading.  Specifically:

 1) Signals don't automatically switch from 'stop' to 'proceed' as soon as the block (the section of track to the next signal) ahead is clear.  Instead, they switch when the block ahead is clear and a train is expected.  In actuality, the signalman gets the notification (by telegraph or phone) that a train just left the previous station and is headed their way.  That would be their trigger to throw whatever levers were necessary for switches and signals for that train's arrival and/or departure.

2) In most cases, individual levers control advanced signals and home signals.  So they would not move at the same time.  The operator would need to throw one, then the other.

3) Semaphore signals don't necessarily go back to 'Halt' the second the train passes.  The signalman will likely have prioritized cranking the railroad crossing gates back up first, or notifying the switchmen both ahead and behind them of the train's approach and clearing the previous block of track.  

4) Although the advanced signal should not be thrown to 'halt' as soon as the train has departed but only when it reaches the next block, signal operators would generally throw the lever for the advance signal right after throwing the lever for the home signal to 'halt'.  The same goes for the advance signal if the track ahead was clear.  Easier to do them together, I suppose.

Given those conditions, it's pretty hard to make a realistic simulation on a model railroad.  That is, unless you have software that can accommodate, which I do.  The easiest part was to simulate the time it takes for the signal operator to throw one lever, walk over to the other lever, and throw that.  Thanks to having 51 different sensors all being read by the computer and software, I can have the home signal throw to 'halt' a little while after the train has passed, and then have the advance signal throw to 'halt' when the train reaches the next sensor, about another five seconds later.  That takes care of items 2, 3, and 4.  Item 1 is achieved through conditional operation in the software.  Basically you tell the software, "turn the signal green only if a train just entered the previous block (by tripping a sensor) and if the block of track ahead of the signal is clear."  

When I completed the programming for item #1 I began to discover other applications of that kind of logic.  Stay tuned for a future blog where I discover how to use conditional logic to have certain train categories stop in the station and others not, plus automatic station announcements based on train activity...  

Let There Be [Smart] Light...

It has been nearly half a year since I last posted, but work on Carstenbahn One continues!  Since purchasing TrainController I have been spending a lot of time learning the software and creating schedules for my trains.  I have also had to spend a considerable amount of time 'derail-proofing' my trains, as the steep grades and sharp curves are giving me trouble.  

But I've also been playing around with other layout features.  One in particular, lighting, has been on my list for a while.  In a few of the layout pictures I have shared you can see the track lighting and cans that I use to light the layout.  After playing around with the Philips Hue smart bulb technology I ended up buying a half-dozen smart bulbs, replacing the 'regular' lightbulbs in the fixtures above the layout.  Using the Philips Hue app on my phone, I am now able to change the color and brightness of the bulbs, either individually or as a group.  The result?  I can simulate all sorts of lighting 'scenes'.  

Here are a few examples:

I took the photos above with light streaming through the egress window so the colors are a little washed out, but you can imagine what I was going for- evening, morning, and night.  

I then used a third-party app called iConnectHue that allows macros (sequences) to be written using those different lighting 'scenes'.  The result?  I can now run a day-to-night-to-day simulation and trigger it on my cell phone.  I have a couple of 'versions' of this sequence, one that takes about two minutes, and another that takes about six minutes.  It all depends how long I want to stay in the dark 😉.

I went a little overboard, and now have smart bulbs in every light fixture of the basement.  Another macro I wrote will now fade out all the other lights in the basement before the nighttime sequence on the layout begins.

The next challenge will be to have the streetlights on the layout and lights in the buildings come on automatically as 1:32 day turns to 1:32 night...

 

What a great year 2020 was!

"Carsten, you have lost your mind!"  This may be what some of you are thinking as you read the title of this blog entry.  But for the topic of this blog, namely my continued work on my 1-scale layout, 2020 was amazing, at least in terms of the progress I made.  Here's an image from about a year ago:

Yup, that's the lower staging yard (henceforth known as the Lower Schattenbahnhof, or LSB) as it looked in January 2020.  A year later I am done with the benchwork, have all the track laid, and that Schattenbahnhof is now buried three levels deep under other track!

Even though I haven't added entries into the blog since September, work has continued, with a flurry of activity in December.  First, I completed installation of almost all of the reed switches on the layout.  There are a total of 51 of them now installed on the main line, and I will likely install a few more on the freight yard sidings.  

There are four Digikeijs DR4088GND feedback modules connected via CAT6 cables to the Intellibox.  The 51 reed switches around the layout are part of 17 individual blocks, three sensors per block.  The blocks are arranged around the layout like this:

What you are seeing above is an image of the track diagram I created in TrainController software, which I am now using.  LSB is the lower Schattenbahnhof, USB is the upper Schattenbahnhof (staging yard / hidden station).  I know, the terminology is a mix of German and American English, but then so am I!  Note the trains situated in the staging yards and on the layout.  Pretty cool, eh?

Aside from the work with wiring up all those reed switches I have been buried in the manual of TrainController Silver, the package I have purchased.  An upgrade to Gold may be in my future, too.  But for now, Silver does everything I want it to do- assuming I figure it out!  The learning curve is steep, but there is a large online community that has been very helpful.  It has also been lots of fun watching the software follow trains around the layout!

Three trains are ready to depart the Lower Schattenbahnhof (LSB).  With TrainController I suspect I will have between 4 and 6 trains running at any given time, with three more on sidings in the two staging yards.  

Is that a new siding?  Yup, I decided to liven up the south end of the station with a short siding that will be used for loading lumber and other goods onto appropriate freight cars.

Okay, more coming soon as I continue to play around with the software and begin what is hopefully the track ballasting and scenery work!

Happy New Year, all!

- Carsten

 

Let the Fun Begin!

 My wife is an over-the-road trucker, which means she doesn't make it home more often than about every three weeks.  Her visits to the basement are even more infrequent.  However this past weekend she was quite interested in seeing the progress I had made on the layout.  She followed me down to the basement and gasped in astonishment when she saw how much has been accomplished.  I smiled broadly at her admiration.  This she followed up with, "Okay, so?"  "So what?" I retorted.  "So let's see it run!" she demanded.  This was followed by, "And why does the big steam locomotive not have any cars behind it?"

I really hadn't spent a significant amount of time running trains, and certainly there were some trains that had been prone to uncoupling and other maladies, including the afore-mentioned 'big steam locomotive', my KM-1 BR50.  There were plenty of trains on the layout, but mostly for show, and for making the blog entries look like <ahem> everything was running fine.  Well, this was going to be the test.

At some point she left and went back upstairs.  Me?  I was too busy managing the throttles of the Intellibox to notice her departure.  She had opened Pandora's box.  In no time I had four trains running around the layout simultaneously.  Thankfully the trains stayed on the track and remained coupled.  I kept gasping in horror as several times two trains appeared to be ready to collide.  But the truth was, there were no collisions, not even close.  In fact, even with four trains running simultaneously there is enough distance between them thanks to the long main line that, not only did I not have to constantly adjust throttles, but the layout itself didn't seem overloaded.  Until I get used to operating the layout my mind will continue to assume that the small layout space means trains are close to colliding.  But the truth is, the main line would be over 150 feet long if it were laid out straight.  That's a train roughly every forty feet.

Running trains has become a daily occurrence, and I find it to be an amazing stress reliever.  Here are a couple of pictures from today's operating session:

The BR50 is pulling a coal train (well, a string of empties until I create coal inserts) while the V200 and it's FD-Zug wait for the signal to turn green.  The BR50 is headed from the parade section down into the bottom staging yard, while the FD-Zug is going to be entering the station above it as soon as the signal changes to Hp1.

The signal turns green for the FD-Zug 'Gambrinus' just as the last coal car passes the block signal.  The Big diesels in the V200 are roaring to life and the locomotive is about to move...  

Things are coming together...

Well, everyone, I'm happy to report that progress on Carstenbahn One continues.  I added some more benchwork to widen the top station level.  This was done to provide enough room for the Vollmer 'Neuffen' station building.  I also painted the top of the station a light brown.  Here's how it looks with the station in place:

As you can see I also placed the signal tower in a provisional location.  Same goes for the freight depot:

Here is a view from the opposite end of the layout:

There are a few Preiserlings sitting on the loading dock of the freight shed in the station.  They are probably wondering when we might see a train...  

Well, as you can imagine, the answer was "very soon!"

The local passenger train made up of a V100 and three-axle 'Umbauwagen' has been waiting a few minutes for the arrival of the F-Zug, pulled by the beefy V200.  Meanwhile a pair of V36 diesels pulling a freight train wait at the signal at left for permission to ascend the grade up to the station.  

Next I will wire up the switches and remaining reed switches, and begin the programming of the layout... 

Christmas in August

I read back through the blog a ways and must say I find it amazing how much has been accomplished on the layout this year.  What normally would have taken a few years has been completed in a matter of months.  The progress culminated last Saturday when, for the first time ever, I was able to run a train all the way around the layout.  What did I pick to commemorate this historic moment?  My gorgeous BR50 from KM1?  My MBW V200?  Maybe my very first 1-scale locomotive, the class 212 diesel-hydraulic?  Nope.  Without any fanfare, and to give me the best chance of success, it was my diminutive tank locomotive with a Maxi track cleaning car...

And successful it was, until the train approached the station.  I had forgotten that the curved turnouts from Huebner had polarized frogs, and without them being hooked up there was no power to the locomotive, so I had to attach feeder wires to those.  Since I'm only using one station track in each direction in the station right now I could get away without having to keep switching the polarization.  Anyway, after that was taken care of, it wasn't long before more and more trains found their way around the layout.  Not everything went as smooth as hoped.  The grades are very steep, and the F-Zug coaches are routinely ripping the couplers out of the sockets, breaking the tabs holding them in in the process.  I will need to come up with a more permanent coupler solution for those, I think.  But the train makes it up the grade and fits in the station!

By-and-large, the first few days of running have been a success.  I'm very happy to watch the trains traverse the different levels.  I still haven't watched enough to see where and when to expect a trains to appear next, i.e. what level and what track, so running trains is still a bit of a mystery.  

Still, I was able to run two trains at once, and at prototypical speed they take three to four minutes to traverse the layout once.  Here is a video of the parade section:

I think my favorite aspect of the layout is the broad curve of the station tracks on the top level.  It adds quite a bit of realism and elegance to that section, and I hope I can get the tracks lined up without kinks and parallel throughout the curve.  

Oh, and lastly, I figured out the short lead and stub siding to the 'north' end of the station, providing both a scenic element and some operational fun.  

There is still so much to do.  Hopefully I don't get distracted by being able to run trains, now...

Stay tuned!

And... ...We're back!

About a month after the last post I'm back at work on the layout.  Although I still don't have all the track I need to finish the main line I have enough to proceed with at least attempting to figure out the hardest part of the layout- the station.

The little device above will be instrumental in completing the station.  As mentioned in the previous post, I was going to need to bend a bunch of rails into radii that just don't exist.  The solution? Use Marklin's 5998 flex track kit and make them myself.  I had the track kits, but had no clue to what I was doing.  Step one was understanding how the track kits work.  Turns out they are easy to understand and very smart!  The only issue I had with the process was the rather unscientific way Marklin suggests bending the rails.  So instead I went in search of a rail bender, and discovered the beauty you see above, the Rail Ben 250 from Sunset Valley Railroad.  The Rail Ben 250 was designed for, as you can guess, code 250 rail, i.e. G-scale.  It takes a little practice, but the Rail Ben 250 works with Marklin 1-scale rail, which is actually code 200, I believe.  A little practice bending and unbending rails, and I was ready...

Those are the four station tracks at the 'north' end of the layout.  I laid them out provisionally this evening to see how they looked.  They look a little ridiculous going from the tight radii at the far end to the broad radii further down, but I'm hoping the signal tower, station, and a few well-placed trees help hide the tight curve as it comes out of the tunnel (yes, the plan is to have a tunnel at each end of the station).

About two-thirds of the station tracks are made of the gentle flex track.  The other third, towards the bottom, will be straight.  As soon as the remaining curves arrive (looks like I need two more to finish the main line) I can complete the track plan and be ready to finally run trains around the layout. 

More to come, hopefully soon!