What is the difference between a right junction switch and a left one?

I am in the process of changing the ugly default switch and I selected one called "Switch wLamp" and I noted there are two of them, Rt and Lt. I don't get it, what is the difference and which one to choose in a diverging or converging junction?
thanks for your help.

BD1, yes you're right, either shows a red or green lamp, but it doesn't matter which one I choose, both work ok, is there a different functionality? does it change the game play? will it confuse the AI train? still I am confused...

Do the experiment

Hi --

Do this little experiment:

• Place the switchstand "Right" on the left side of the switch.
• Make sure the switch is set for the straight through setting.
• Does the switchstand show red or green?
• Now replace it with switchstand "Left".
• Again make sure the switchstand is on the left side of the switch and the switch is aligned straight through.
• My guess is that the "Left" switchstand shows the opposite colour to the "Right" one.

In my routes I use the convention that a green light on the switchstand indicates that the switch is set for straight through and red for the diverge. It means that the Help, which shows the red / green arrows, is not needed as an indication of the switch setting when in Driver.

I also try to put the stand to the left, but with some track work this is not always possible.

Phil

Quick and dirty, a switch target / lamp is supposed to show green for the through route, red or yellow for the diverge, which side of the switch depends on the track configuration - for Trainz with them honking monster arrows I place them on the outside of double slips so they're not overlapping, easier to select the correct one in map view.



For yard ladders it's best on the side away from the yard tracks, the far one is okay but the near one is showing the correct aspect, green for straight, but it's sitting on the track.



Use the rotation tool to flip to the other side, now it's not in the middle of the track but showing the wrong aspect. So delete it and replace with the other one;



That changes the junction name since it's a "new" junction, but you can always rename it if that's important. Main thing is it's on the correct side of the switch and showing the correct green for straight - red for curved.

Quick tip, I opened the United States region for edit in explorer, edited the config.txt to change that default lever;

defaultjunction <kuid:520526:1501>

So whenever I make a switch I automatically get the Switch wLamp Rt RG,<kuid:520526:1501> instead of a lever. If it's wrong I can do the same delete and replace with the Lt version of that same switch, it's a lot faster than replacing levers one at a time.

BD1 said:

Download them all and experiment.

If you have a mainline switch that has a branchline shooting off to the left or right, try each of these signal levers until the mainline track shows the signal color aspect that you want to use.

AI is fun sometimes, but I prefer STW (Swedish Trainz Works) downloadable drive rule (it AI drives a train, but will not automatically change junction lever positions).

You probably already know how to change junction lever names, how to change the turnout default direction of throw, how to rotate the swich lever to the opposite side of the track, how to delete switch levers and replace them with a switch lever of your choice, and how to turn on/shut off the automatically apply turnout levers in the "Surveyor Options" drop down box in surveyor.

Click to expand...

Thanks! That's just what I was looking for! I wanted to do a dispatcher type scenario but couldn't find a good command.

Say, Sniper, I want to give your tip about swapping out the defaultjunction a try. I think I'm in the right place; United States (home of the mustang etc). I could see the entry in the config file about 8 lines down. It has a different kuid number. I guess this is the right file? I had a look just in case there was a North America or Canada region. Well, of course there's nothing about Canada, what was I thinking!. Jeez, second largest country in the world and nobody even knows we exist!

Thanks, cheers....Rick

Wait, they have PEOPLE in Canada?!

Oh yeah, Dudley Doright, Snidely Whiplash, Terrance and Philip. Yeah, it works for any region, that defaultjunction tag tells it which attachment to use when a switch is created.

sniper297 said:

Oh yeah, Dudley Doright, Snidely Whiplash, Terrance and Philip. Yeah, it works for any region, that defaultjunction tag tells it which attachment to use when a switch is created.

Click to expand...

There's also Julian, Bubbles and Ricky.:hehe:

Hee, hee.........Those Trailer park Boys are locals. The movies were real bad, but the TV series was funny as heck. They started out in real trailer parks, then built one. That set used to be about a 20 minute drive from my house. They did a couple of shows about using a model train to run weed across the boarder. When the TV series ended, they had to lock up the set to keep fans out of there. My brother found a way into the place and gave me an O scale flat car that he "borrowed". Now, I don't want you to think we are all pot smoking morons. Most of us are fine upstanding..............oh, no sense lying about it.

Cheers.....Rick

Whoops, what happened to my famous Canadian politeness? Thanks Sniper!

Let's not forget Red Green, that show was hysterical. :hehe: I joke about "Limeys" and "Canucks" mainly because some of my best times were kicking around with them on NATO exercises. I was in a US Navy heavy helicopter anti submarine squadron, we usually operated from Forrestal or Kitty Hawk class carriers, but on NATO cruises we deployed aboard various HMS or HMCS cruisers and auxilaries. Since the British and Canadian Navies operated the same helicopter (Sikorsky SH3 Sea King) we had no problems working together, and once ashore on liberty in Halifax or Southhampton the British reputation for pompous stuffiness was completely dispelled, those guys were party animals.

Anyway, it look to me like there's no Canada region, but last time I was in Canada you guys drove on the right side of the road, which is the main thing a region affects, road traffic direction. This trick also works for UK, open the config, change;

defaultjunction 101240
to
defaultjunction <kuid:520526:1501>

And you got a lantern switchstand instead of the default lever.

We still got those Sea Kings. I live close to Shearwater, across the harbour from Halifax. They fly around the house all the time. The government keeps putting off buying replacements. It's like Cuba and their 1950's cars up here. If you can keep it running for another day, why replace it. A little duct tape (a la Red Green) and Bob's your uncle! Those darn helicopters must be older than I am! I was in the navy for about 4 years, way back when it was still called RCN. I'm hoping to include a small portion of Shearwater and Shannon Park in my route. They both had "heating plants", I can't remember what you call them, to provide heat to the PMQs. We'd go home covered in coal dust, after playing around in the hoppers. Shannon Park is abandoned now and both of the plants, I believe, were shut down years ago.

Cheers....Rick

sniper297 said:

Quick tip, I opened the United States region for edit in explorer, edited the config.txt to change that default lever;

defaultjunction <kuid:520526:1501>

So whenever I make a switch I automatically get the Switch wLamp Rt RG,<kuid:520526:1501> instead of a lever. If it's wrong I can do the same delete and replace with the Lt version of that same switch, it's a lot faster than replacing levers one at a time.

Click to expand...

Sniper,
I did the change, checked errors and warnings and committed it. I went back to the game and to my disbelieve the next junction has no switch. After the normal what the f.....went back to CM and the config file showed a 0 instead of the kuid I just pasted. I edited again this USA region and this time I checked the config file after committing and again the kuid was replaced with a zero.
Well, I gave up on that change and I keep manually changing those ugly built-in switches :-(

Back to the topic of this thread, I still can't see what is the difference, whether to put the switch to right or to the left. I am trying to stick to the rule of showing the green lamp and set the switch to give preference to the main line. Any spur from the mainline will display the red lamp.
I have no background or knowledge how real rail track is laid down and where the switchs should go, I guess accesibility may be an issue, walking over tracks may not be a good idea, just common sense, I guess.

Lazy man's way to do it is use one or the other, rotate to whichever side shows the green aspect for straight. Exceptions where I replace the right with the left would be examples like in post 6, flipping it to one side of the track has it on the track and the other side shows the wrong aspect. Here's another example where changing it might be desirable;



The original position on the curved side of the switch showed green for straight correctly, but look at the tunnel - the way that curves when you're coming out of that tunnel, the switchstand on the other side wouldn't be visible until much later. That's where playtesting comes in, I run in a window with a notepad text file open and make notes on problems I see as I'm playtesting.

As for the prototype, most likely the main consideration is safety and convenience - got two parallel tracks close together, any manual switch should be on the outside so the guy throwing the switch don't have to stand between the tracks. Line them all up on the outside of yard ladders and he's less likely to trip if he doesn't have to walk across all the tracks in the dark. Obviously not a consideration for virtual trainsimming.

Reset to zero, dunno - Windows 7 UAC? Are you trying this in TS2010 or TS12? Is the region you're hacking one of them with the "no permissions" where you can't commit it?

I am running TS12, the item is United States,<kuid:-1:7804>, I don't see any restriction by looking at the icon in CM, it's MISC item.
I did other change in the config file, I saw a description for other language with a bunch of ???????????????????? and I deleted it.
wait I have CM open...this one...could it cause reversing my kuid to a zero? would be really silly....ok, doesn't matter anymore, I keep changing switches manually

description-ru "?????????? ???? ?????????, ???????????? ? '?????????', ????????? ??????? ??????? ? ??????????? ????????????? ??????????.
????? ???????? ????? ?? ????? ????????? ????? ? ??????? ?????, ????????? ????? ????????? ?????????? ? ??????????? ? ?????? ????????. ?????? - ??????? ????? ? ???????? ?????. ??????????? ????????? ????????? ?? ???? ???? ?? ????? ?? ????? ??????? ? ???-???????."

No, shouldn't be an issue.



I get the warnings after committing it, typical of built in content that you clone or modify since it's moved to a different folder, but it works the same way in TS12 as in TS2010. Only thing I can think of is you're throwing it a curve ball by adding a space or missing a bracket, syntax errors will do weird things every time. Safest way is to edit in explorer, open the config in notepad, click and drag over the
defaultjunction <kuid:-1:100634>
And paste
defaultjunction <kuid:520526:1501>
directly over that, save (NOT save as) and close the notepad and explorer windows, edit, commit, yes I do want to make changes to built in content, thank you for asking have a nice day. Obviously if you have vista or win7 it's possible the UAC is interfering somehow, and of course make sure if you're changing to <kuid:520526:1501> you actually do have that installed and it's not faulty.