Productive Weekend

This has been a productive weekend.

Stub-ended staging track 2 is set for departure

I rebuilt the stub-ended staging yard, added more power feeds and squeezed in some more track. The switch ladder is now fully powered and integrated with JMRI. The logix are set up to throw the switch ladder and set an imaginary signal to Green when leaving the staging yard. Also, when setting the route for an arriving train, the cross-over on the staging ramp is thrown automatically.

I actually relaid the staging tracks 3 times, because M-track was giving me some connectivity issues. I hope I have that worked out now. Time will tell...

The decoder "bank"

Next was adding another DS64 to the main decoder panel. The panel was originally envisioned as the central place where all electronics is located. Over time that turned out to be not such a smart idea, and I came to appreciate a model of components distributed on the layout and connected by LocoNet. Nethertheless, there *are* a lot of solenoid driven turnouts in staging, and the signals in Talheim, so it made sense to group the decoders driving those units together.

Finally, I spent some time to install and connect the first semaphore signal in Emsingen. This signal is known as "A". Since there is a facing point turnout in Emsingen, the signal needs to be able to signal both "Stop" (Hp0), "Go" (Hp1), as well as "Slow" (Hp2). I wrote JMRI logix to control what the signal shows based on which route is chosen through the station. Below is what the signal shows, as well as what's shown on the layout panel in JMRI. Yes, JMRI introduced the concept of signal masts in version 2.14 which should render quite a bit of my custom routing and signalling logix obsolete. However, what I have works, and I don't feel like ripping it all out at the moment. There are more interesting work items ahead of doing _that_...

"Stop" (Hp0) "Go" (Hp1) "Slow" (Hp2)