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Offline Laxman  
#1 Posted : 11 February 2014 01:03:02(UTC)
Laxman

United States   
Joined: 18/01/2012(UTC)
Posts: 240
Location: South Carolina
Hey All,

I am about to change my layout over to mostly contact tracks and digital control with a CS2 as I have just had too many problems with circuit tracks and analog control.

Below is an image of the complete track plan and progress on the layout can be seen here Christmas 2012 Layout.

On the bottom is a schematic sketch of the relevant parts of the station yard and passing sidings. Train directions are indicated by the black triangles. I initially had trains traveling in opposite directions to take advantage of the ability of M trains to run against a turn out and therefore only needed 3 working turnouts (indicated in red) to have the trains run automatically.

The yellow circles are the current circuit tracks. I am not going to remove them but wire them to the new s88 and incorporate them into the new digital layout where needed (if they continue to work reliably).

My question is where to place the new contact tracks for the s88's. The blue areas are the current track blocks controlled by the corresponding signals.

Also would the recommendation be to run all trains on each loop in same direction or keep directions the same as they are or does it matter (i have enough switch motors and decoders to control as many switches as necessary; but my original thought was the less switching the better the chance of avoiding mishaps.

Thanks

Laxman
File Attachment(s):
Station Area Office Layout.pdf (71kb) downloaded 53 time(s).
Laxman attached the following image(s):
Holiday 2012 layout”.jpg
Station Area Office Layout.jpg
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Offline river6109  
#2 Posted : 11 February 2014 12:16:26(UTC)
river6109

Australia   
Joined: 22/01/2009(UTC)
Posts: 14,636
Location: On 1965 Märklin Boulevard just around from Roco Square
Laxman,

contact tracks are usually place behind turnouts and you always need 2 to be able to isolate any track from the next block section.
for whatever reason(s) you have decided to keep some of your lines to a single track is something you've decided but it looks like you have enough room to have a double track on both individual lines.
your current outer single track should have one block system after or before each turnout,
you also have a 2 way direction of travel on your single track.
so how you run your trains you must decide but each siding has to have 2 contact tracks, How do envisage to change your turnouts because the moment you come into an unoccupied siding and the wheels of the loco make contact withe contact track your route or setting would change the turnout as well and the train will derail.
If you could elaborate on this, it would be great

John
https://www.youtube.com/river6109
https://www.youtube.com/6109river
5 years in Destruction mode
50 years in Repairing mode
thanks 3 users liked this useful post by river6109
Offline Laxman  
#3 Posted : 11 February 2014 15:38:26(UTC)
Laxman

United States   
Joined: 18/01/2012(UTC)
Posts: 240
Location: South Carolina
John

They currently run mainly in automatic mode. Each loop is independent, but they run similar.

Generally a train leaves the station and makes the loop resetting the signal to red after departing (via direction control of circuit track). Travels around the loop and comes back to the same siding in the station and releases the next train (with circuit track in station siding) in the opposite direction which then returns and releases the next rain in opposite direction, etc.

Since I have two passing sidings there are a couple of times (in the sequence ) that a train will stop there while another passes and then it releases the one in the passing siding to return to the station.

All the trains return to their same siding except the two trains that are on signal 11 and signal 13 switch sidings each time they return to the station.

It is a pretty simple algorithm, but few people watch it for more than 10-15 minutes and it takes almost 5-7 min to cycle all the way through each train departing and returning on the 4 track station. Optically it seems more complicated since the two loops are completely independent so the trains are arriving and departing from station area on the two loops almost in a random pattern relative to each other.

It was hard enough for me to get this to work in a pure analog fashion as the sequence is 'hard-wired' in.

This is of course one of the things I am looking forward to with the move to CS2
File Attachment(s):
Station Area Office Layout a.pdf (66kb) downloaded 104 time(s).
Station Area Office Layout a.pdf (55kb) downloaded 59 time(s).
thanks 2 users liked this useful post by Laxman
Offline river6109  
#4 Posted : 11 February 2014 16:34:12(UTC)
river6109

Australia   
Joined: 22/01/2009(UTC)
Posts: 14,636
Location: On 1965 Märklin Boulevard just around from Roco Square
Laxman,

because of the different direction you trains run, most of your turnouts aren't affected by the circuit tracks as on train comes in, stops, could turn the turnout but doesn't have to and starts the other train in the opposite direction, this train than comes back into the same track the same.

it looks like your trains are not longer than by the time they go over circuit track F or I they have to pass the turnout after Circuit track D.

John
https://www.youtube.com/river6109
https://www.youtube.com/6109river
5 years in Destruction mode
50 years in Repairing mode
thanks 1 user liked this useful post by river6109
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