Sultan Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 Hello all, I've been mulling over ideas in my mind with regards to layout automation and control via PC running anyone of the various software packages available and wonder if it’s yet possible to do the following with what’s available at the moment. Q Is it possible with a complete layout running trains in “auto" to select a route A-B and then drive this train 1Z98 manually along its selected A-B path and across the paths of the” auto trains, will all the auto running trains come to a stop at their red signals if their path is lost, allow the manual driven train to pass and then given a green signal carry on with their pre programmed route? Second Q Is it possible with any of the available control software to program and control the loco sound functions so that at a crossing the horn/whistle would sound, a loco departing the depot have its sounds turned on , or a loco arriving at the depot or station to have its sound shut down (diesels). I have an idea on the train detection hardware thats available to feedback train locations. Is this possible/available now? Or are my mulling ideas to far away in the future. Having now progressed from the clockwork key to the dcc chip does anyone have any vision what the future will bring with it or the latest peice of technology that might arrive into our hobby? Best regards Sultan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigelcliffe Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 Yes, all of what you describe is possible. Probably TrainController by Friewald is the software package for what you want to achieve, though I think it may also be possible with SSI, JMRI and RocRail. Suggest googling for "McKinley Railway" and watching the four videos which describe how David Townsend setup automation on his very large model railway. The principles apply to any automated model, not just those which happen to use Digitrax/LocoNet based hardware. The McKinley runs with human requests for train paths as described in your question; a human operator requests certain blocks, if they are available the system hands them over and automatic trains are held at appropriate signals until the blocks are released by the human operator. It works extremely well. David Townsend will be at Warley show in November with his modest sized automation demonstration layout (it has no scenery, just track to illustrate how the control works). That demo layout has been tried with various maker's hardware, so if you are attending Warley try to have a chat with one of his team. Bigger decisions than software will be the hardware for train detection and feeding that into the software package. Careful research is required on what works and is fully supported by the software packages. - Nigel Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon H Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 For the record, it is 'David Townend' who created the McKinley Railway, not 'Townsend'. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigelcliffe Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 For the record, it is 'David Townend' who created the McKinley Railway, not 'Townsend'. Ooops sorry ! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sultan Posted October 25, 2011 Author Share Posted October 25, 2011 Hello, Thank you Nigel for your reply to my posting.I'll follow your guidance and see how I get on. Best regards, Sultan. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
two tone green Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 RR&Co is here http://www.freiwald.com/pages/download.htm to try for free before you buy. Well worth a try. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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