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The zip file at http://www.shotscan.com/ruletherail/8WaySwitching.zip contains 8 engines which automatically switch to their own siding/terminus. When you load ROA file, it will start in about 5 seconds. It will continune to go back and forth between single file and all parallel.I learned that the three Engine ID settings can be all be used together. There are 8 different combinations of settings for the 3 bits. If you think of them as number values, thinking of ID 1 = to 1, ID 2 = to 2, and ID 3 = 4, you can add them up to get engine numbers from 0 to 7.
Controlled Objects like switches respond to ANY of the bits that are on in the Engine ID. If the switch control is set to ANY engine, then engines 0 through 7 will run the switch. If the switch control is set to ID 1 and ID 3, then only engine numbers 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 will cause the action.
In the sample layout, left switch responds ONLY to ID 3. Low engine numbers to up and high ones go down. The middle pair of switches respond ONLY to ID 2. That sends 0 and 1 and 4 and 5 to the upper part of their branches. The right switches responde ONLY to ID 1. This sends the even engines up and the odd ones down.
The JPG file shows the trains in their slots with labels for the ID numbers of the engines. The ROA file has the layout with a 9 second timer counted down about 1/2 way. To get back to single file, the engines are launched at 3 second intervals from a control on Engine number 7’s (the bottom one) track.
I learned another thing while doing this experiment. When I used a wreck to stop the trains, it did not stop the counting down of time delays.
😯 I caused a wreck with all the trains in the parallel section of the layout. When I was done and cleared the wreck, all the engines took off to the left causing wrecks on the ID 1 switches.It seems this multiple ID engine approach could be very useful in complex layouts. For example, you could use one ID (on or off) to separate freights from passenger trains. Then you could use another ID to separate Hopper Car Trains from Tank Car Trains and send them to the appropriate Freight Handling line. You could use that same ID to separate kinds of Passenger trains. And there’s still one bit left.
It will take thoughtful planning to take full advantage of this feature. There are more than twice the number of Engine Numbers than Engine IDs. It seems that we can do more with the 3 bits we have than we previously thought possible.
Roger
Hi Roger, Good to know about this and for the example.
i´ll stuy this exatly.
Hi Roger, That’s great what you found out. That opens a lot of operation possibilites! Many thanks for sharing your experiences.
Best regards,
Willi
Hi Roger, You mean,set an id ist bit wise and not by value on it,if i understand you right.
😉 💡 Your example let me to show it.Hi Roger Thats a great idea. Things like these help us open great track Possibilities. The trains look like there on military parade.
Thanks Dave
The basic idea here is very nice…. i cleaned up the messy behaviour at the end stops 😆 Thanks a lot!Louis, If you combine this “kind of train” logic with “block controls” it could work with passenger or freight cars in front of or behind the engine. The spacing between the switches would have to be long enough to allow the whole train to fit between the switches. You’d have to plan for some maximum number of cars in front of and behind the engine(s). And you’d have to block the track segment where the switch control was until the preceeding train was no longer on a switch.
Another option is to put the switches as close to each other as possible. Then have the controls set the switches all at once and use the blocking logic to be sure that one and only one train is in the neighborhood of the switches at a time.
Trains with more than one engine also complicate things. My freight trains seem always to have more than one engine. I’ve had trains with 15 or so freight cars that one freight engine couldn’t budge. I’d back into the train to couple up, then forward to get things moving and nothing happened.
😯 I added another engine and it would move. For the large layout I posted earlier, I tagged all the extra engines as ID 3. The controls are set (mostly) to ignore ID 3. For most pratical layouts, I think you would have to reserve one bit as the “do nothing” case for engines that only pull and don’t control. That still leaves 4 cases.Can you post your improved layout? I’d like to see how you let the trains out the “back end” into another set of switches and avoided collisions bringing them all back together again. I don’t like to use time delays, but that’s what I did to reset the 8-way switch demo. I’d love to see how you did it.
Roger
AZRoger wrote:Louis,
Can you post your improved layout? I’d like to see how you let the trains out the “back end” into another set of switches and avoided collisions bringing them all back together again. I don’t like to use time delays, but that’s what I did to reset the 8-way switch demo. I’d love to see how you did it.
Roger
Roger, I didn’t
The first train leaving, loops back into the entrance and THEN triggers the next one. What I’m working on now is an alternating sequence of freight and passenger trains, where the freight trains take a north loop and the passenger ones a south loop. The passenger trains go thru a station with 3 tracks where the diffent ID’s select them onto track-1 or 2 or 3, where they stop for about 1 minute and then continue. The hardest part now is to trigger 2 trains out, 1 immediately, the other 35 secs later so at the same time 2 trains are moving. Problems will arise sooner or later when 2 trains try to move back in at the same time. I think it’s been discussed earlier, I may need to figure out some controls at the entrance tracks to prevent two trains entering at the same time.
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