After watching today's German signal and safety systems guide by Matt, I found it very useful and hope we will get more tutorials like that from Matt. Topics: UK safety systems and signals US safety systems and signals How to start a particular trains Procedures on the railway ecetra.
That is a very nice approach and good comms from them ! For once I have to agree that they are starting to do great job!
I need a tutorial like that for US! I love German routes for the signaling and don't play US because I don't get my head around. Maybe YT with timestamps and please share the PowerPoint ;-)
You can find the basic principle behind the North American signals here: http://www.sh1.org/eisenbahn/sac.htm For LIRR (which only uses positions lights, all in yellow) you just have to remember that green = vertical, yellow = diagonal and red = horizontal. The speeds of fast, medium and slow vary from route to route, you just have to get used to that.
Oh I forgot about that stream he did on Saturday, thanks for the reminder, will give it a watch and have an attempt on the route later on.
US signals are not easy to understand and explain perfectly because there are a lot of combinations and could vary for every situations. For the track limits it is similar to uk, but with some changes. UK signals are very easy to understand. Green, double yellow, yellow, red. You can normally run at track speed, after the double yellow decrease until 45/40. After the yellow decrease to 25 and red just stop. For speed board you need to know the route, however you will see the brake board only if there is a great decelleration for exemple from 70 to 30. And they are set at 1 miles before the speed limit change. If you need for more i'm here tu help
You can also find the north american signals explained in the manual for the Peninsula Corridor route, downloadable from steam, and there's this: https://rail.pgengler.net/signals/fixed_norac.html I also have a 150 page manual for north american railroading, I just can't remember where I found it, I'll see if I can find the link tomorrow and post it here. EDIT: Found it, downloadable pdf: https://dms.ntsb.gov/public/58000-58499/58167/585157.pdf
North American signalling does appear very complex at first (and don't get me wrong, it is quite deserving of that title with over 70 different aspects), but once you understand the founding principle of the signals, it becomes much easier. Honestly, having to remember the different prescribed speeds for freight and passenger trains for each signal is harder than reading the signal itself. Firstly, green means that at least two blocks are clear, yellow means that only one block is clear (next signal is red), and red means that the block is not clear. The meanings of the aspects are actually quite simple. If you have a three-semaphored signal, something like this: Each semaphore tells you information about each route. There is a high speed route (top), medium speed route (middle), and a low-speed route (bottom). This can manifest in many ways but one of the simplest examples is a high speed mainline, a medium speed siding, and a low speed yard track. So what does this signal tell us? It tells us that the mainline is clear, the siding is blocked, and the yard track is blocked. So this signal is essentially telling us that we are continuing on the mainline! Now what about this signal (diverging clear)? Here, the mainline route is blocked, the yard track is blocked, but the siding track is clear for at least two blocks. What does this tell us? It tells us that we are not going to continue on the mainline, but we are turning onto the side track. We'd better slow down to the turnout speed (usually 20-40MPH, marked by a sign)! Now what about this one (advance approach)? My, it's like a Christmas tree! Here the signal says that the mainline track is clear for one more block (and then unpassable), that the side track is clear for at least two blocks, and that the yard track is off limits. What does this mean? Well, it means that we are clear through this signal, but we should expect to diverge on to the side track at the next signal (diverging clear [above] would be the next signal you see). So that's all well and good, but then you have to learn about all the speed restrictions for each signal, particularly the speed restrictions for the medium and slow routes, as well as speed information from flashing signals, but hopefully this gives you a rough understanding of the principle behind NA signalling. It's a type of route signalling with certain speed signalling characteristics; a very interesting hybrid. When it comes to stop signals, it can get very intimidating and confusing. Only those bottom eight signals are actually "stop" signals. The rest are only restricting. See if you can figure out why. Cheers
Oh wow thanks Callum B. !!! I'll practise on Peninsula Corridor and some New York route when I'm fed up with Aachen-Köln ;-)
Now that the team have had a chance to play with the Scenario Planner I'd appreciate a full tutorial on setting up a scenario. Hopefully covering how to avoid any snags like AI not working as expected, being stuck at a red light etc. I've tried a few times to have an eastbound AI service starting at 12.05 at Falmer while my own train sets off from Brighton at 12.00. I wanted to try getting held up by caution lights in its wake but sometimes I got a permanent red light just beyond Moulsecoomb, which is way before the occupied sector, and other times there is no sign at all of the AI train on the map. All very confusing.
Keep in mind Caltrain has their own "speed signalling" rules active for part of the Peninsula Corridor. There is a section of track that follows traditional GCOR rules, but most of it is speed signalling. It only tells you what speeds to drive at rather than what route you're taking. There is a bit of correlation between the two so you could get away with following my guide up there, but here are the rules: https://signals.jovet.net/rules/Caltrain Signal Rules.pdf As for the NEC/LIRR, those Northeast routes follow a different kind of signalling system called NORAC, which is much more speed-based than route-based. Frankly I am not well enough versed in NORAC signalling but here is a translation book from GCOR to NORAC: https://rail.pgengler.net/signals/fixed_norac.html And lastly, Canada uses something called CROR which is very similar to GCOR with some minor signal position differences. For the purposes of TSW you should be able to follow these rules on Sandpatch Grade, Oakville, and parts of Peninsula Corridor. NEC & LIRR use a different signalling system that I am not even certain is even modelled correctly. Cheers