TrainController Gold and Silver - Freiwald

1 RAILROAD & CO. TrainController gold and Silver Version 9 Users Guide March 2019 RAILROAD & CO. TrainController gold and Silver Version 9 Users Guide March 2019 Copyright Freiwald Software 1995 - 2019 Contact: Freiwald Software All rights reserved. The content of this manual is furnished for informational use only, it is subject to change without notice. The author assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccu-racies that may appear in this book. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmit-ted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, with-out the prior written permission of the author. 3 Table of Contents About this Document .. 13 RAILROAD & CO. TrainController Users Guide.

2 13 Help 14 The Editions of TrainController .. 14 The Differences between TrainController gold and Silver .. 15 Quick Start - Step 1: Installation and Program Start .. 32 Installation .. 32 Program Start .. 33 Quick Start - Step 2: Controlling a Train .. 36 Preparing a Train for Model Railroad Computer Control .. 36 Controlling a Train .. 40 Quick Start - Step 3: Controlling Turnouts The Switchboard .. 41 Creating a small switchboard control 41 Preparing a Turnout for Model Railroad Computer Control .. 43 Quick Start - Step 4: Creating Blocks - Tracking Train Positions .. 46 Equipping the layout with feedback 46 Dividing the layout into Blocks .. 47 Entering the locations of Blocks into the Switchboard .. 47 Assigning Feedback Sensors to Blocks .. 48 Displaying train positions on the Computer Screen .. 52 Simulating Train Movements on the Computer Screen.

3 54 Quick Start - Step 5: Controlling Trains Automatically .. 56 Spontaneous Runs .. 56 Adjusting the Stop Location .. 57 Creating a Commuter Train .. 61 AutoTrain by Drag and Drop .. 62 Commuter Train with intermediate Stop .. 64 1 Introduction .. 70 Overview .. 70 Supported Digital and Control Systems .. 70 Modes of Train Operation .. 71 Use .. 72 72 Automatic Operation .. 75 Variants of Train Control .. 75 Spontaneous Runs .. 76 AutoTrain by Drag & Drop .. 77 AutoTrain Symbol Bar .. 77 4 Schedule .. 78 Manual Train Control .. 78 Comparison Chart .. 79 Fundamentals of Use .. 81 The Overall Principle .. 81 User Interface: Ribbon vs. Menus and Tool Bars .. 82 User Interface Design .. 83 Window Handling .. 84 Window 86 Customization of Menus, Tool Bars and Keyboard Accelerators .. 86 File Handling .. 87 Edit Mode .. 88 Printing .. 88 Further Steps.

4 89 Switchboards .. 89 Train Windows .. 91 The Visual Dispatcher .. 91 2 The Switchboard .. 93 Introduction .. 93 Size and Appearance .. 94 Drawing the Track Diagram .. 99 Space-Saving Turnouts .. 100 Smart Gates and Crossing Gates .. 101 Crossovers .. 102 Connecting the Turnouts .. 102 Signals and Accessories .. 105 Signals .. 106 Accessories .. 107 Connecting Signals and Accessories .. 107 Text Labels .. 107 Self-provided Switchboard Symbols and Images .. 108 Self-provided Symbols .. 108 Images .. 109 Highlighting occupied track sections .. 110 Displaying Train Names and Symbols in the Switchboard .. 110 Using the Computer Keyboard as a Control Panel .. 110 3 Train Control .. 111 Introduction .. 111 The Train Window .. 111 Engines + Trains Window .. 113 Engines .. 114 5 Throttle and 117 Speedometer and Odometer.

5 119 The Speed Profile .. 119 Preparing the decoder .. 120 The simplified Profile .. 120 Advanced Fine Tuning of the Speed Profile .. 122 Measuring with Momentary Track Contacts .. 123 Measuring with Occupancy Sensors .. 124 Trimming the Brake Compensation .. 126 Trimming the Maximum Decoder Speed .. 128 Using a third party Speed Measurement Facility .. 129 When do I have to profile my Locomotive? .. 131 Locomotive .. 131 Headlights, Steam and Whistle .. 131 The Engine Functions Library .. 133 Operation of Function Only Decoders .. 135 Passing control between Computer and Digital System .. 135 4 Contact Indicators .. 137 Momentary Track Contacts vs. Occupancy 137 5 The Visual Dispatcher I .. 141 Introduction .. 141 Blocks and Routes .. 145 Blocks on the Layout .. 145 Block Diagrams .. 147 Routes between Blocks .. 150 Linking Switchboards together - Connector Symbols.

6 151 Direction of Travel vs. Engine Orientation .. 152 Direction of Travel .. 152 Engine Orientation .. 153 States of a Block .. 154 Occupied Block .. 154 Reserved Block .. 154 Current Block .. 155 Display of Train Positions .. 156 Unidirectional Blocks .. 156 Locking the entries of Blocks .. 156 Locking the exit of Blocks .. 157 Train Tracking .. 158 Train 158 Tracking of Back and Forth Shunting .. 159 Blocks and Indicators .. 160 6 Stop, Brake, Speed and Action Markers .. 162 Stop and Brake Markers .. 163 Speed Markers .. 166 Action Markers .. 167 Arranging Indicators and Markers in a Block .. 167 Arranging Momentary Track Contacts and Occupancy Sensors in a Block .. 167 One Sensor per Block: Shifted Brake or Stop Markers .. 171 Stopping a Train in the Middle of a Platform .. 173 Variable Stop Locations in a Block Stopping for Coupling and Line-Up.

7 174 Stopping different Trains at different Positions .. 179 Markers for scheduled Stops vs. Markers for unscheduled Stops .. 180 Block Signals .. 181 181 Signal 182 Color .. 182 How to use Signals on the Model Railroad Layout .. 183 How Block Signals Work .. 183 Additional Notes .. 184 Spontaneous Runs .. 185 Schedules .. 185 Schedule Diagrams .. 186 Start and Destination of a Schedule .. 187 Passage through each Block .. 188 Alternative Paths .. 189 Execution of Schedules .. 191 Starting a Schedule .. 191 Reservation of Blocks and Routes .. 192 Path Selection .. 194 Release of Blocks and Routes .. 195 Preset Block Signals and Speed Limits .. 196 Temporary Speed Limits .. 198 Waiting Time .. 199 Additional Operations .. 199 Type of a Schedule - Shuttle and Cycle Trains .. 201 Shunting .. 201 Running Trains manually under Control of a Schedule.

8 202 AutoTrain Start of Schedules made Easy .. 203 Auto Train by Drag & 203 Auto Train Toolbar .. 204 AutoTrain with Start and Destination Keys .. 206 Schedule Sequences .. 207 Successors of a Schedule .. 208 7 Schedule Sequences vs. Schedule Successors vs. Long Schedules .. 209 Schedule Selections .. 211 Operation Interruption - Termination of Schedules .. 211 Putting it all together The Dispatcher Window .. 212 Customizing the Dispatcher Window .. 214 General .. 214 Visibility of Schedules .. 215 6 The Traffic Control .. 216 7 The Inspector .. 219 8 The Message Window and Pins .. 220 The Message Window .. 220 Dr. Railroad .. 221 Pins .. 221 System Pins .. 223 Dr. Railroad Pins .. 225 User Pins .. 225 9 The Simulator .. 227 Starting the Program in Offline Mode .. 228 Saving and Restoring of Train Positions .. 228 10 A Sample Layout.

9 230 General .. 230 Step 1: Creating the Switchboard .. 231 Step 2: Defining the Engines .. 232 Step 3: Creating Blocks .. 234 Step 4: Contact Indicators .. 236 Step 5: Creating Schedules .. 239 Manual 240 Further Steps .. 240 11 Advanced Train Control .. 243 Train Sets in TrainController Silver .. 243 Operation of Additional Function Only Decoders in TrainController Silver .. 244 Example: Automatic Car Lighting in TrainController Silver .. 244 Cars and Train Sets .. 245 Cars .. 245 Train Sets .. 246 Control Cars .. 248 Cars and Load .. 248 Forwarding of Functions in Train Sets .. 249 Joining and Separation of Train Sets .. 249 Arranging Train Sets by Train Tracking .. 250 8 Arranging Train Sets by Schedules .. 251 Arranging Train Sets By Operations .. 251 Operation of Additional Function Only Decoders in TrainController gold .. 252 Example: Automatic Car Lighting in TrainController gold .

10 253 Line-Up of Vehicles and Trains in a single Block .. 253 Approved Trains .. 257 Train Descriptions in TrainController Silver .. 257 Vehicle Groups in TrainController gold .. 258 Exclusion of Vehicles from Vehicle Groups .. 258 Train Descriptions in TrainController gold .. 259 Simple Train Descriptions .. 259 Train Descriptions as independent Objects .. 261 Conditional Train Descriptions .. 262 Extended Train Descriptions .. 262 Directional Train Descriptions .. 268 Train Descriptions with marked Vehicle Positions .. 269 Acceleration and Train Tonnage .. 271 Coal, Water and Diesel .. 272 Monitoring the Maintenance Interval .. 273 12 The Object Explorer .. 275 Folders .. 276 Objects and Links .. 276 Object Details .. 278 13 The Clock .. 279 14 Extended Control and Monitoring Functions .. 280 Indicator Symbols in Switchboards.