Thanks for your query. Not a silly question but yes, all the signals are set to "Automatic". Without actually testing the theory I suspect that setting the visible path starting signals to "Clear", while it would solve my problem, would mean that the signal would not correctly show the state of the path ahead at all times. In any case, placing an invisible signal just ahead of a visible one and using it (the invisible signal) as the starting signal is working (so far).
