Automated computer control chapter 1 - An introduction.Before I begin, I just want to say I'm no expert at this. In fact, I've only ever built 1 automated computer controlled layout, and that one had traffic in 1 direction only. However, when I was researching how to decided about things like blocks, brake sections, stop sections etc, I wasn't able to find many sites that had info available. A lot of sites had bits and pieces, but most were explanations seemingly meant for people who already knew it in the first place. The idea is that this series is mainly aimed at beginners who've never done anything with computer control, block control and automation. Also, the info here is only valid for digital control.
The first question many people ask, is why would anyone want to automate a layout. Isn't a large part of the idea behind a model train layout that you can operate it, and do shunting to put together consists etc.? That is of course true, but it'll limit the amount of trains you can run. Generally, people can only really keep track of 2, maybe 3 trains at a time. If you want more than those, you need to either get other people to run the layout with you, or start automating parts of the layout. Since people with an interest in model trains are getting more rare, and people with an interest in manually operating trains together with others even more rare, automation seems like a good option.
Before starting with automation however, there are a few things to consider. If you already have a layout, you may need to partially take it apart to get to hard to reach places. You'll also need to add a lot of wiring, and the wiring needs to be well thought out, otherwise it'll turn into a nightmare should something fail at a later time. Expenses can also quickly go up when automating a layout. But, if you do go through with it, you can easily run a lot of trains simultaneously. For example, my father's layout (the only one I've built so far that's computer controlled) is somewhere around 2.5 x 1 meter give or take. There's a fairly large main station, a couple of storage tracks, and an elevated track. Before we added computer control, we could, with the 2 of us, run about 5 trains at most. There'd be more on the tracks, but only 5 would be running. After we added computer control, it'll run 15 trains with ease.
Below is a link to a video of what the main station area looks like (operation wise, most platforms have been temporarily removed.) Everything you see here (including the smooth (in most cases) deceleration and acceleration) is controlled by a computer program. The program decides which train goes where, within a certain set of rules you specify, and there's various options to add routes, priorities, and even mass simulation (as in, heavy freight will have a much longer braking distance than a local passenger train.) The video is about 25Mb, it should start fairly quick though, as it's being streamed. Apologies for the rather bad quality, it's a cheap camera ;)
http://www.jr-chiisai.net/_div/computer_control/chapter01/computer_control.htmlIn the next chapter, I'll try to explain blocks. What are blocks, why do you need to divide a layout into blocks, why do blocks have multiple sections, etc.
Any comments, hints and tips about what you want to see in either the next chapter specifically, or in general, please post them and I'll see if I can incorporate them. Hopefully with your feedback we can turn this stuff into a decent document that should be a good help to anyone who wants to create a computer controlled layout ;)
