Railworks America

So I have read of people burying signals underground to control AI traffic. I am curious if this method is best to simulate a route that uses DTC for movement authority.

http://www.lundsten.dk/us_signaling/dtc/index.html

The route is single-tracked with sidings along the way. I was thinking of putting in signals at the sidings to simulate control blocks to handle the AI, then simulate the same with the player train via event pop-up messages.

Thoughts?

Trevor

I'm puzzled about this "underground" approach... wouldn't a player driver be at high risk for a lot of SPAD violations if we can't see the signals?

As PikeHkr Shows in his turorial here http://www.pikesproducts.com/Forum/index.php?board=10.0 it is okay to bury signals in yards for the correct signal blocks to run AI's.
I have buried 0T signals in all my yards with no problems. I am sure you can bury them anywhere though. 0T signals are all you need if you are going to bury them.

sleepyto wrote:As PikeHkr Shows in his turorial here http://www.pikesproducts.com/Forum/index.php?board=10.0 it is okay to bury signals in yards for the correct signal blocks to run AI's.
I have buried 0T signals in all my yards with no problems. I am sure you can bury them anywhere though. 0T signals are all you need if you are going to bury them.

Ohhhhhhh..... [insert lightbulb emoticon here]............
I assume you mean the 0T Permissives? Those wouldn't generate a SPAD would they? Are you using the usual 3 aspect heads? I assume so since there aren't any 0T dwarfs.

Yes just a single head 0T. Actually there is one dwarf signal but it is a two aspect one, it is "SMM-Griswold D H1 T0" Not really much different than a 3 aspect head though.

So will that protect the blocks between the sidings and allow AI traffic to operate around the players consist?

Trevor

Just follow the tutorials that I linked in the above post. Pike has the best set of tutorial on setting up signals and creating blocks so you can run your AI's.
Watch them all ( 9 or so I believe) it is well worth the time.

Using current signals and putting them underground would make them invisable to the player. Except the aspects would show on the 2D map. Would it not be possible to create a signal that would show "unlit" on the 2D map (black)? This would create blocks but be completely invisable to the player.

Yes, you can make signals that don't show on the map - not totally sure how atm but I was using a route recently that didn't show half the signals that were *meant* to be on the map. Maybe the script has to set the map state before they show up, worth looking at anyway.