TrainController Gold and Silver - Freiwald Software

• Stop schedule: if this option is selected, then TrainController terminates the affected
schedule. This is another, more drastic measure to prevent the train from
passing the failing turnout and to enable the human operator to resolve the problem
first.
Additionally and optionally it is possible to decommission the failing turnout in its current
position and/or to execute a macro to perform other actions. Note, that decommission
of the turnout does not prevent the turnout from being used by routes, that match
the current position of the turnout. If a turnout, that failed to go to the thrown position,
for example, is decommissioned, then it can be still requested by other routes in the
closed position.
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Limits of Turnout Position Control
While the methods (a) to (c) listed above concern the logical or electrical status of a
turnout, the actual physical/mechanical position of the turnout, i.e. the actual position of
the switch blade, can differ from the electrical state. This is for example the case, if the
turnout drive operated the turnout correctly, but a small piece of ballast prevents the
blade from following the drive completely. Such mechanical problems usually remain
undetected or require at least complex and uneconomical changes of the turnout construction,
which enable the blade to report back its position to a feedback input according
to method (c). For this reason turnout position control can usually only be used to
solve problems related to the logical or electrical status of turnouts, e.g. unauthorized
operation of locked turnouts by external handhelds or electrical problems in conjunction
with the decoder or turnout drive. Turnout position control can usually not solve mechanical
turnout problems.
Because of these undetected mechanical problems and because the error processing of
failing turnouts detected by turnout position control always causes an actual unwanted
intervention into the normal operation of the layout, all measures to prevent turnouts
from failing should be utilized first. Turnout position control is a measure, that can be
added as an additional security measure for normally reliably operating turnouts. It
should not be misunderstood as a compensation for unreliably working turnouts!