Are my turnouts confused, or is it just me?

[guyprentice]

I'm running 2022 with the original Surveyor. I'm having an issue with turnouts not aligning the way I think they should. Trains keep taking the left-hand track.

I have several areas on a mountainous section where the route goes from single track to double track, and back again. On the double track portion, I have a pair of Searchlight 04 signals facing the turnout. On the single track side, I use a Searchlight 06-LD signal. Set up for US running, I would expect the train traveling from single track to double to take the right-hand track. I have the turnouts aligned for right hand travel when entering the double track portions. In many instances, it doesn't. I have gone so far as to add directional trackmarks to keep the train off the left hand track. As the train approaches, the signal displays a "track has directional block" (or something to that effect) message, but the signal flashes the lower red lamp and proceeds to take the left track when the right-hand track is clear.

It's even more odd (to me) that some of my turnouts/signals have this problem, and others don't, even though I built them all using the same methods.

Any help or suggestion would be greatly appreciated? TIA!!

 

[JCitron]

You are doing things correctly. By default, the AI were programmed for Australian lefthand drive operation. This makes them take the left track instead of the right. To make matters worse, the AI will take the shortest path between two points causing them to switch between right and left sides and to slalom between left and right-facing crossover tracks. The shortest path between two points also makes them take the slowest tracks sometimes by traveling down through a yard instead of taking the faster bypass track.

You can get around this using two methods:

1) Place a track mark somewhere in the middle of both tracks and have your drivers navigate via a track mark. If you want your AI drivers to take the righthand track, have the drivers take that one. Depending upon how many of these passing sidings you have, this can be quite a lot of navigate via/drive via commands. This is useful when there's a faster mainline running alongside some yard tracks. I sometimes use a beginning, middle, end setup if the stretch is really long. This is to ensure the AI doesn't pull a typical AI move and tag one track mark, backup then run down another track only to back into the other end to tag another. With the beginning-middle-end setup, they have to hit all three to pass through.

The alternative is 2).

Use direction markers. These yellow markers, shaped similarly to the red track markers, act as one-way signs. The AI will travel in the direction the yellow marker is pointing to. Put one of each at the entry into your dual track. This is the method I use most of the time and it works quite well and it's also much easier and quicker to set up.

The signal flashing red is an indication to the driver that the red signal has been overridden and he can pass the red signal with permission. Since we don't have actual radio communication with the drivers, we have to pretend that the driver has made a call and received a message back that says he can pass the red signal. When a signal is overridden, its aspects are upgraded to something else. Flashing signals can also be used to indicate an upcoming signal indication such as a flashing yellow being used to indicate the next signal is a solid yellow.

 

[guyprentice]

JCitron - Thanks very much for the detailed explanation. I appreciate your time in explaining how this works (and why it doesn't sometimes.)

I had previously added directional trackmarks, but only on the left-hand side to force the train to the right-hand side. I went back and added directional trackmarks so that both tracks are marked (four directional trackmarks per two-track segment. I did a quick test through about 20 miles of track and the right-hand track was selected. I'm glad I don't have to place "drive via" trackmarks as that would make an end-to-end AI routing look something like a novel. Once again, thanks very much for the help!

 

[1611mac]

I've had some success in past with track priority markers (which is not a "priority" at all.. it is more accurate to call them "track preference" markers as they give no actual priority.) ie: a train with a priority of 1 will tend to stay on track with priority of 1 and a train with priority of 3 will tend to stay on a track with priority 3. Both track and trains default to "2" when placed.

EDIT: Just tested again on Kickstarter. If you leave everything as is trains will take the short path through Gard Family industry tracks but if you give the outside main segments a priority of "3" (before and after station) and the loco a priority of "3" it stays on the outside main and runs by the station.

Or better... leave all main track the default and give your through industry tracks a priority of 3 and trains will stay on the main by default. Priority doesnt affect "Navigate to" so trains should still navigate to industries and stations just fine.

 

[guyprentice]

I've had some success in past with track priority markers (which is not a "priority" at all.. it is more accurate to call them "track preference" markers as they give no actual priority.) ie: a train with a priority of 1 will tend to stay on track with priority of 1 and a train with priority of 3 will tend to stay on a track with priority 3. Both track and trains default to "2" when placed.

EDIT: Just tested again on Kickstarter. If you leave everything as is trains will take the short path through Gard Family industry tracks but if you give the outside main segments a priority of "3" (before and after station) and the loco a priority of "3" it stays on the outside main and runs by the station.

Or better... leave all main track the default and give your through industry tracks a priority of 3 and trains will stay on the main by default. Priority doesnt affect "Navigate to" so trains should still navigate to industries and stations just fine.

1611mac - Thanks very much for the reply. I've had issues with priority markers (being ignored) before, so I'm not a huge fan. If I remember correctly, priority markers are not directional. If that's the case, the only way I could make them work in this instance is make all my eastbound trains one priority and westbound another.

 

[guyprentice]

1611mac - Thanks very much for the reply. I've had issues with priority markers (being ignored) before, so I'm not a huge fan. If I remember correctly, priority markers are not directional. If that's the case, the only way I could make them work in this instance is make all my eastbound trains one priority and westbound another.

 

[1611mac]

Have you tried adding directional markers along with priority? Try both.

 

[guyprentice]

Have you tried adding directional markers along with priority? Try both.

I will give that a try. Thanks!

 

[1611mac]

Report back if things work out or not. I've not done anything "complex" in that regard. Just simple dabbling here and there.

 

[norfolksouthern37]

I'm running 2022 with the original Surveyor. I'm having an issue with turnouts not aligning the way I think they should. Trains keep taking the left-hand track.

I have several areas on a mountainous section where the route goes from single track to double track, and back again. On the double track portion, I have a pair of Searchlight 04 signals facing the turnout. On the single track side, I use a Searchlight 06-LD signal. Set up for US running, I would expect the train traveling from single track to double to take the right-hand track. I have the turnouts aligned for right hand travel when entering the double track portions. In many instances, it doesn't. I have gone so far as to add directional trackmarks to keep the train off the left hand track. As the train approaches, the signal displays a "track has directional block" (or something to that effect) message, but the signal flashes the lower red lamp and proceeds to take the left track when the right-hand track is clear.

It's even more odd (to me) that some of my turnouts/signals have this problem, and others don't, even though I built them all using the same methods.

Any help or suggestion would be greatly appreciated? TIA!!

as a note the 06 signal is purposely set to not block the train when it encounters a direction marker against it but it will eventually let it pass with a restricting indication. This is to keep it from stopping the train entirely.

the being said, the ai is trying to path a certain way, if you cant even get it to path the correct way over a directional track mark i would think there are other problems than the switch or signal.