Hi Paul,

I think what you have described is correct. When the home signal is red, no information is shown about the settings of the next signal. The moment the home signal is set to off the setting of the distant signal on the same mast is illuminated.

Regards
Adrian

Thanks Jean and Adrian,

Jean - that makes sense. I have not yet attached an actual signal to the layout, but was playing around with 'virtual' signals in the CS3. For the life of me I could not get the distant signal to "off" when its combined block signal was red. If it is a part of the 'hardware' rather than the 'software', then that makes sense. I have such a signal arriving next week, so I'll know for sure then.

Much appreciated,

Paul

When you have a combined main signal and distant signal on the same mast, the distant signal should not show any indication and enter "dark mode" when the main signal on the mast switches to red. This is set up in the decoder that is used to control the signal. In my case I use LDT signal decoders and Viessmann signals. When you first connect the signals both signals on the mast will show illumination for all aspects of that signal regardless whether the main signal is red or not. One needs to remain in programming mode and then push the specified keyboard button on the CS2 to enter dark mode. Once that has been done, the distant signal will always turn "dark" when the main signal turns red. This "dark mode", however, does not show up on the CS2 keyboard screen. It continues to show the last distant signal setting.

Alternatively, if you are using software to control your railroad, such as Rocrail, there is a procedure there as well to configure the "dark mode" if the decoder used does not offer it.

Since you didn't specify whose signals and decoders you are going to use, it is best to read up on what their procedure needs to be.

Peter

Well, it makes sense to me. If the home signal is red then the distant signal is irrelevant as the train has to stop. Also having the distant signal go dark removes a potential source of mistakes. Consider a train stopped at the home signal, and the distant signal changes aspect, bu thte drivers attention attention has wandered while he is stopped. He sees the change in the distant signal out of the corner of his eye and thinks the home signal has changed state, so starts the train past the red home signal ...