Garden Railway Forum

Ref remote control mentioned above I had some thoughts after Rik asked about random running.

Originally I was just going to use the controller to run some schedules and have a stop button but now.....
Buttons 1 to 5
Press a number to select either Platform 1,2,3 or 4. 5 is a block within the Garage as the start. Press another 1 to 5 to set that block as the destination and the train in the start block runs to the destination (under computer control, avoiding other trains etc)

Button 6 starts whatever is in Platform 2 and/or 4 on a 'Spontaneous Run' which is basically just run wherever you want. With some rules added to stop Spontaneous Runs eentering sidings and making them pause for 30 seconds whenever they enter a paltfrom works quite well.

Button 7 locks / unlocks all blocks. So this basically stops all trains as they are in a safe place and then allows them to continue on next press. The same as if all signals went to red.

Button 8 is the Emergency Stop which just tells TrainController software to turn the track power off. Has to be manually reset from the PC.

The remote controls the relay box which is linked to 8 DCC inputs on the S88 Bus.

Air pressure check for point operation.

Added a point accuator (point motor) hooked directly to the air pressure supply inside the cabinet which pushes a microswitch closed when there is pressure.

If pressure begins to the drop the spring door latch pushes the whole thing open.

Microswitch is hooked into a sensor on the S88 Bus which is checked every couple of seconds, if air pressure is lost it stop the whole system and turns the track power off.

The spring pushing back means it kicks in way before any points loose enough to be set the wrong way.

Neat idea!

Rik

I'd never really given much thought to the logistics of making a pneumatic points system work, so this is fascinating to see.
Hard to go wrong with simple and effective.

Andrew wrote: ↑Thu May 25, 2023 8:20 am

ge_rik wrote: ↑Wed May 24, 2023 8:45 pm That junction looks tasty!

That's exactly what I thought!

Can't wait to see some trains making their way through that!

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