TrainController Gold and Silver - Freiwald Software

For specific purposes it is also possible in TrainController Gold to place blocks on
diagonal track symbols. For technical reasons the size of such blocks is automatically
shrunken to one single switchboard cell. Adjacent track elements, which will connect
such mini block symbols with adjacent blocks must touch the block accordingly in appropriate
opposite corners.
When working with TrainController you may notice, that switchboards and their
corresponding block diagrams seem to look almost identical at first glance. But this is
not actually the case. Switchboards contain the details of the track diagram, i.e. each
particular track symbol and turnout and also additional objects like signals, push buttons
etc. Switchboards are also the base for you to operate your layout, i.e. to perform
manual interventions during operation. In contrast, block diagrams display routes between
blocks rather than single track or turnout symbols and no additional objects like
signals or buttons. Block diagrams mainly serve to manage the blocks and routes and to
define and manage predefined itineraries for your trains (“schedules”). They can also be
used to monitor the traffic on your layout but are usually not used for manual intervention.
In many cases you will display the block diagrams only during edit mode to manipulate
your data but hide them during operation.
TrainController Silver is limited to one block diagram in total, even if more than
one switchboard exists. The automatic calculation of the block diagram works only for
one selected switchboard.
TrainController Gold allows to work with as many switchboards and block diagrams
as necessary to represent your complete layout.
Even though block diagrams are normally automatically created by the software, it may
be necessary under certain circumstances, however, to integrate a part of your layout into
the block system of the dispatcher, which cannot be represented in a switchboard
window. For this purpose TrainController allows to create additional, manually
drawn (“custom”) diagrams, too.
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Routes between Blocks
In order to let trains run from one block to another the blocks must be linked together.
This is done with the help of routes. In the block diagrams routes are represented by
lines that connect one block with an adjacent block.
Each block has two entries/exits. If a block is passed horizontally, then the entries/exits
are graphically located on the left and on the right side of the block. If a block is passed
vertically, then the entries/exits are located at the top and at the bottom. Each route begins
at the entry/exit of a block and ends at the exit/entry of an adjacent block.