Interlocking tower issues

Hi all,

I’ve got a large yard with a total of 56 paths over two towers. For some reason lately all paths out of the loco depot and the platforms will get all signals to green, except the one right in front of the train. If i proceed anyway, then once i reach the first points, all of them suddenly throw back to default position so I either end up on the wrong line or derail.

Anyone know how to fix this?

I had similar issues with ITs/EITs before SP4 was released, but have not tested them since the release of SP4.

Is the tower dynamic ownership option set to static or dynamic? I found that using dynamic solved many of my issues. Try that first.

You might also take a look at this thread https://forums.auran.com/trainz/sho...this-juncton-lever-quot&p=1863036#post1863036 and from post #9 in the same thread.

pware said:

I had similar issues with ITs/EITs before SP4 was released, but have not tested them since the release of SP4.

Is the tower dynamic ownership option set to static or dynamic? I found that using dynamic solved many of my issues. Try that first.

You might also take a look at this thread https://forums.auran.com/trainz/sho...this-juncton-lever-quot&p=1863036#post1863036 and from post #9 in the same thread.

Click to expand...

I've only been using the original interlocking tower (Interlocking Tower - Crowcombe-Heathfield Signal Box), do I need to change them to the EIT box? would I still have to have two of them or can a EIT handle more than 30 paths without issue?

As far as I know there is no problem using both ITs and EITs in the same layout. I preferred EITs because they provide more options and their creator, pguy, has uploaded additional session rules and driver commands that work with the EITs.

I have had an EIT with about 70 paths with no issues. I do not know if there is an upper limit but I suspect that the more paths the more processing load there would be (purely a guess).

Hi.
I confirm that you can mix standard N3V ITs with EITs with no problem ; the interlocking tower manager rule of course will display extended information only for EITs (no access to such information for standard ITs) but will still display all standard information available for ITs.
Take care that standard ITs should be considered as using static ownership : so you cannot have a path object shared between standard ITs and EITs and if you can use an exit signal also as an entry signal, this works only inside the same tower for standard IT (EIT supports exit signal from an EIT tower being an entry signal inside another EIT tower ...).
About performance, performance is not sensitive to the number of paths but to the total number of path objects inside an EIT. And it is globally better to have more paths with less pathobjects than less paths with more pathobjects. With last build 114800, it seems that editing a path consumes more script time, and so my advice is to try to keep an EIT with less than 320 objects (it was more than 600 with previous builds) as I have seen some route/session with timeouts problems at 340 objects ... I am currently working on a new version more optimised to support much more path objects (my target is to support more than 1000 objects ... ) but there are still some work to have this new version available on DLS (probably may be for Christmast ...).

Hope this helps.
Regards.
Pierre.

Hi

I generally get 40 - 50 paths in a tower controlling a yard entry/exit before encountering issues. If I need more paths then I look at the existing ones and see if I can split any of them e.g. instead of creating 20 full paths can you split them into one approach path and then 20 shorter paths into each individual platform/yard track.

I don't know if there are any limits with the Crowcombe - Heathfield towers as I've always used the additional features of the EITs (Mission Codes, Track Circuits etc).

Regards

Brian

I’ve changed the towers at this particular yard to EITs, and so far it’s working as it should be.

Next question I’ve got is before sp4, the towers were always there when editing the route, so I assume they were on a route layer. Since then they are only visible when editing a certain session. Is there a way to change it so they will always be visible, so I don’t need to constantly reprogram any paths I’d need when making a session? I always like to just have all my trains on the route and drive what I want on a whim. I tested quick drive last night, and all signals that would be controlled by the EITs were unprogammed, so wouldn’t go green.

You need to edit the session not edit the route. Keep a base session with the towers and after you open the session you can save with a different session name. Make your new session from that saved one.