Sometimes, Line protection can be as simple as signals along a stretch of line http://www.cbrd.co.uk/international/newzealand/img/29.jpg.
othertimes, the signaling system can be as complex as http://www.corbisimages.com/images/67/477DAAEB-D65D-4DF3-AFFF-3F435CBBE352/42-15537265.jpg
But, I have a complex problem.
The problem involves this layout
The Problem with this station is is that there's an unsignalled high speed line (the light blue line), many crossovers (similer to the crossover that crosses over the light blue line (that extends 1 and a quarter miles) when heading west that crosses over the light blue line), there's also crossover lines that are mainly unsignalled for the blue line.
So, practically, you're looking at the station business end of the Lowfell Station and yard.
So, what job opperations are performed at the astation?
The opperations that go on at the yard, are pretty simple and straightforward, but are generally hard and wreakless things to do on the railway.
Platform 1 opperations
So, Platform 1 (the terminal platform) handles terminating loco and MU trains.
Immidiately, you see platform 1 is a terminus, so, a DMu can head in from the west and crossover into the platform, reverse direction via the driver walking to the other cab, and driving back out of the terminal platform and back onto the platform.
But, I said it can handle both locomotives and a rake of coaches.
This is possibly the most dangerous and wreakless things you can do on the mainline.
The reason is is because some passenger trains don't have a cab car nessessirly placed in the optimum position for best results (At the front of the train, behind the locomotive), thus they would have to follow these steps to get the train into the platform.
As I said eartlier, there's many crossovers, not many signals, so the signalbox must be able to opperate signals for up to and beyond 1.25 miles down the track to keep the trains safe.
Platform 2 Opperations
Platform 2's opperations are rather quite simple, but can be easier said then done, since this is a through platform.
platform 2 is designated to West bound trains only, so the train arrives in platofmr 2, it has to wait for the signal to clear, then the train can set off.
The problem here is again, the signal is protecting the trains from mainline trains, so again, if any trains are on that main center line, the signals would have to be red to allow the mainline trains to proceed to the next signal interupted.
The signal is also protecting the crossover, which allows the trains going to platoform 1 to enter without trains going to platform 2 chrashing into it.
But, there's another signal protecting the exit line from platform 1.
Platform 3 opperations
We move to platform 3.
Platform 3 is again, a through platform, but again, there's opperation delays with this one as well.
Platform 3 is designated to east-bound trains comming from the west.
the only opperation difficulties involved here, are the ones that head into the station, this is comming from the west enterance.
the train speeds past the runaround, but towards the end, is a signal.
This signal protects Eastbound trains from chrashing into platform 1 bound trains.
This signal also serves as a pourpose for when DMUs bound for platform 1 crashing into departing platform 2 trains.
There is another reason for this line we will talk about in a moment.
Platform 4 Opperations
platform 4 is different, again, it serves as a terminal for East-going trains which wish to go west.
But, as you can see on the plan, platform 4 is a lot longer then platform 1.
This is so that longer trains can service here, and the shorter trains filter into the platform 1.
Platform 4 can also be served as an extra through platform since it links up with platform 3's line after the station.
As always, DMUs can always have the simpler rules.
the DMU can enter the station, no problem, the driver can walk to the other end of the train no problem, and head out of the platform no problem, but only if the traick heading from the west enterance into platform 3 is clear (this is delt with by the station signal on platform 4.)
heading over to the West Exit is another problem altogether, If the tracks are cleared, the DMU must pass over the east-bound train's track.
But, it also has to get over the platform 1 train's (this is the line heading from the runaround into platform 1) track to get there, so both the runaround protection signal and the platform 3's track signals will have to go red to protect the line.
But, that's not all of the signals that has to go green, platform 2's signal, the mainline enterance signal will have to go red as well as platform 1's exit signal would have to go to danger or the signal protecting last junction before the exit will have to red.
But, with every DMU, there always has to be a locomotive to make things more complex for a signalman.
The mainline is the most awkward to play about with, as I said before, the track is 1.25 miles long (so, it extends the said distence east from the station)
This would make it difficult because there's literally no signals along the line for 1.25 miles down the track, so if there was something bad that was about to hapen, you would ahve to set the signal 1.25 miles away to stop the train.
The mainline handles express freight opperations to pass freely through the station.
The mainline is also bi-directional, that means trains can enter from both ends of the network.
This means that if I was to put signals there, they could ahve to have a chrash.
Another thing to mention is that there's 2 crossovers half way between (one of them are on the diagram) that are signaled only on the cross line, so for an express to travel non-stop, the cross,line signals would have to be turned red, unfortunutely, one of these crossovers is a diverging junction, whcih means that if a train was trying to reach platform 2, and not planning to take a trip to the mines, the train could come to an abrupt hault for no real cause, however, if you remove the feature, there might be a dreadful chrash with a fast train.
Coal Mine Operations
yes, this is the final stage.
The coal mine is up in the hills north of the city (north is the bottom since the map is upside down).
The coal Mine supplies nice coal to the powerstation east of the station, but it takes oil from the west and so it has to watch for platform 4 locos on that branch.
Since empty coal trains comming from the west are west-bound have to cross over 2 lines, one bi-directional, another has trains east-bound, there could be potentional head-on collisions, but there are signals protecting the local outside line from collisions with passenger trains.
Empty Oil trains comming from the mines have to cross over platform 3's line, the curve involved with this is very tight curves measuring up to 100 meter radius (restricted to 15MPH speed limits).
the oil trains has to cross over the mainline ontot hew right side of the lkine to pass the station, which means there could be potentional collicions wityh platfdorm 3 and platform 4 trains, but there are signals to stop this happening.
Well... It does sound complex in theroy because of all of the movments, but will it work correctly with AI opperations?
I figured that the noly way to make this work at least feezible, is if all of the 1.5 miles of danger track involeved with these opperations is controlled by one signal box.
Problem is is that there's no single asset that's advanced enough to do the work alone without it taking over the entire session and forming a senareo out of it, making multiplayer or Iportal capability not feezible.
So, I got the mainline part working correctly, details are explained in this post: http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showpost.php?p=720664&postcount=6
othertimes, the signaling system can be as complex as http://www.corbisimages.com/images/67/477DAAEB-D65D-4DF3-AFFF-3F435CBBE352/42-15537265.jpg
But, I have a complex problem.
The problem involves this layout
The Problem with this station is is that there's an unsignalled high speed line (the light blue line), many crossovers (similer to the crossover that crosses over the light blue line (that extends 1 and a quarter miles) when heading west that crosses over the light blue line), there's also crossover lines that are mainly unsignalled for the blue line.
So, practically, you're looking at the station business end of the Lowfell Station and yard.
So, what job opperations are performed at the astation?
The opperations that go on at the yard, are pretty simple and straightforward, but are generally hard and wreakless things to do on the railway.
Platform 1 opperations
So, Platform 1 (the terminal platform) handles terminating loco and MU trains.
Immidiately, you see platform 1 is a terminus, so, a DMu can head in from the west and crossover into the platform, reverse direction via the driver walking to the other cab, and driving back out of the terminal platform and back onto the platform.
But, I said it can handle both locomotives and a rake of coaches.
This is possibly the most dangerous and wreakless things you can do on the mainline.
The reason is is because some passenger trains don't have a cab car nessessirly placed in the optimum position for best results (At the front of the train, behind the locomotive), thus they would have to follow these steps to get the train into the platform.
- Drive the train into the west runaround loop beside the yard (loco is at the front of the train, piloting it).
- Uncouple the train and head round the train, avoiding the mainline as much as possible (the track configureation makes this possible).
- Couple the locomotive at the rear of the train.
- Push the train accross two mainline tracks into the platform (the mainline would be busy with all sorts of trains, the driver would have a restricted field of view from the back of the train and may not be able to see the 2 mainlines).
- The train arrives in the platform safe and sound.
- The train can depart after unloading and depart the platform safe and sound.
As I said eartlier, there's many crossovers, not many signals, so the signalbox must be able to opperate signals for up to and beyond 1.25 miles down the track to keep the trains safe.
Platform 2 Opperations
Platform 2's opperations are rather quite simple, but can be easier said then done, since this is a through platform.
platform 2 is designated to West bound trains only, so the train arrives in platofmr 2, it has to wait for the signal to clear, then the train can set off.
The problem here is again, the signal is protecting the trains from mainline trains, so again, if any trains are on that main center line, the signals would have to be red to allow the mainline trains to proceed to the next signal interupted.
The signal is also protecting the crossover, which allows the trains going to platoform 1 to enter without trains going to platform 2 chrashing into it.
But, there's another signal protecting the exit line from platform 1.
Platform 3 opperations
We move to platform 3.
Platform 3 is again, a through platform, but again, there's opperation delays with this one as well.
Platform 3 is designated to east-bound trains comming from the west.
the only opperation difficulties involved here, are the ones that head into the station, this is comming from the west enterance.
the train speeds past the runaround, but towards the end, is a signal.
This signal protects Eastbound trains from chrashing into platform 1 bound trains.
This signal also serves as a pourpose for when DMUs bound for platform 1 crashing into departing platform 2 trains.
There is another reason for this line we will talk about in a moment.
Platform 4 Opperations
platform 4 is different, again, it serves as a terminal for East-going trains which wish to go west.
But, as you can see on the plan, platform 4 is a lot longer then platform 1.
This is so that longer trains can service here, and the shorter trains filter into the platform 1.
Platform 4 can also be served as an extra through platform since it links up with platform 3's line after the station.
As always, DMUs can always have the simpler rules.
the DMU can enter the station, no problem, the driver can walk to the other end of the train no problem, and head out of the platform no problem, but only if the traick heading from the west enterance into platform 3 is clear (this is delt with by the station signal on platform 4.)
heading over to the West Exit is another problem altogether, If the tracks are cleared, the DMU must pass over the east-bound train's track.
But, it also has to get over the platform 1 train's (this is the line heading from the runaround into platform 1) track to get there, so both the runaround protection signal and the platform 3's track signals will have to go red to protect the line.
But, that's not all of the signals that has to go green, platform 2's signal, the mainline enterance signal will have to go red as well as platform 1's exit signal would have to go to danger or the signal protecting last junction before the exit will have to red.
But, with every DMU, there always has to be a locomotive to make things more complex for a signalman.
- So, the locomotive pulls into platform 1 with its rake of coaches.
- The locomotive loads up.
- The locomotive had run runaround its train for its journy back west, since there is not enough room to ahve a headrunaround at that end of the yard, it has to go off to the coal mine branchline (this branch loops off to the left of the mainline and curls abck on its self and heads west to a coal mine in the hills) and have that as a headrunaround for the locomotives.
- It then has to head back to platform 4 andaround its train without going into platform 3 (the track layout also amkes this acieveable), because it has to go past platform 4 on a runaround track, it has to go the wrong way down the line for a distence unti. it reaches a junction which allows the locomotive to pass its coaches witohut interfearing the other trains much.
- The locomotive then can back up to its coaches safely and couple within the yard parimeters.
The mainline is the most awkward to play about with, as I said before, the track is 1.25 miles long (so, it extends the said distence east from the station)
This would make it difficult because there's literally no signals along the line for 1.25 miles down the track, so if there was something bad that was about to hapen, you would ahve to set the signal 1.25 miles away to stop the train.
The mainline handles express freight opperations to pass freely through the station.
The mainline is also bi-directional, that means trains can enter from both ends of the network.
This means that if I was to put signals there, they could ahve to have a chrash.
Another thing to mention is that there's 2 crossovers half way between (one of them are on the diagram) that are signaled only on the cross line, so for an express to travel non-stop, the cross,line signals would have to be turned red, unfortunutely, one of these crossovers is a diverging junction, whcih means that if a train was trying to reach platform 2, and not planning to take a trip to the mines, the train could come to an abrupt hault for no real cause, however, if you remove the feature, there might be a dreadful chrash with a fast train.
Coal Mine Operations
yes, this is the final stage.
The coal mine is up in the hills north of the city (north is the bottom since the map is upside down).
The coal Mine supplies nice coal to the powerstation east of the station, but it takes oil from the west and so it has to watch for platform 4 locos on that branch.
Since empty coal trains comming from the west are west-bound have to cross over 2 lines, one bi-directional, another has trains east-bound, there could be potentional head-on collisions, but there are signals protecting the local outside line from collisions with passenger trains.
Empty Oil trains comming from the mines have to cross over platform 3's line, the curve involved with this is very tight curves measuring up to 100 meter radius (restricted to 15MPH speed limits).
the oil trains has to cross over the mainline ontot hew right side of the lkine to pass the station, which means there could be potentional collicions wityh platfdorm 3 and platform 4 trains, but there are signals to stop this happening.
Well... It does sound complex in theroy because of all of the movments, but will it work correctly with AI opperations?
I figured that the noly way to make this work at least feezible, is if all of the 1.5 miles of danger track involeved with these opperations is controlled by one signal box.
Problem is is that there's no single asset that's advanced enough to do the work alone without it taking over the entire session and forming a senareo out of it, making multiplayer or Iportal capability not feezible.
So, I got the mainline part working correctly, details are explained in this post: http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showpost.php?p=720664&postcount=6
