Some more details on the workings, I find the turnout control solution very clever.

Usual cascading signal setting:


Turnout control via catenary ports, the clever bit (undocumented feature but logical if you think about it for more than a couple of days )

To be clear this is not my solution, just something I saw on youtube, the beauty of the setup is that no collision is possible, that is if you don't run out of the cable during installation :)

Hi everyone. First post here. I'd better stop lurking and come clean since you seem to like my teppichbahn videos on youtube.

Actually, the hardest part of the magnum opus layout wasn't the station tracks, it was controlling the signals that guard the
station approaches. At any one time, there can be zero, one or two trains waiting to enter the station. When a train leaves
the station, it admits only one train at the time into the station, setting only one signal to green. Except if no trains are
waiting, then both entry signals go green. I had to dig up some old logic reduction techniques I learned in electronic engineering
to make the logic fit in 3 fernschalter relays. It's not perfect and will admit two trains into the station simultaneously
if the timing is unfortunate.

Oh well. It's all been dismantled now. It took three weeks to build and two hours to tear down...
I sometimes watch the videos myself. It's oddly calming to watch the trains move in
interesting patterns and see the control logic work. Delightfully nerdy :-)

Anyway, glad to be here.

Regards,
--Anders.

Hello John.

The signals before the crossing also happen to have an interesting detail.
The two approaches to the crossing (call them A and B) each have a contact track (CA and CB) in front of a signal (SA and SB).

CA sets SB to red through the SA catenary connector.
CB sets SA to red through the SB catenary connector.

So a train on one track will stop the other track, but only if it hasn't been stopped itself already (its own signal is green).
Running the control signals through the catenary connectors (there they are again ) like this prevents deadlock where two trains arriving simultaneously will stop each other.

You will also need one contact track a "train length" after each exit to set the signal to green again.

Regards,
--Anders.