I'm having difficulties understanding Swindon

This is my first try at using ARS, so hope you don't mind some more questions and observations. I finally got the hang of basic ARS but still many things not mentioned in the Wiki section or in the Swindon manual.

What are all the green slots in Swindon used for? The manual doesn't mention them.

Why do all ARS codes start with L and not, for example, A?

How do I know where an ARS area begins and ends for a particular line? The only way I can tell that ARS has "caught" a train is when a route magically appears ahead of it.

Is there any way to tell ahead of time when ARS will conk out if it can't complete setting a route, e.g., when another train (also ARS) is temporarily blocking the route? Right now I seem to have to wait till F2 tells me XXXX is waiting at a red signal, which wastes time.

If ARS is so helpful, when might I need to disable it as opposed to simply setting the next route segment manually?

"You need to request permission to send trains to Didcot Power Station." How do I do this, please? No slot there. Unfortunately, not enough explanation here.

jc92's post in this category talks about BLOKs. Thanks to the WembleySub manual, I now have an inkling of what BLOKs are all about. Before that I imagined that a BLOK was a really capital bloke, just like all you guys. However, I can't see why anyone might want to interpose a BLOK when SimSig creates its fair share of them and more.

After looking at the ARS options, it would seem sensible to me, accustomed to non-ARS, to choose ARS popup information displayed when one clicks a description. This, it turns out is our old friend Show Timetable, aka Location List, under yet a different alias. But if I select this option, wouldn't I miss out on seeing Routesetting status displayed in Messages? That stuff's handy to know too - wouldn't want to lose those advisories.

BTW, it seems the hot keys don't work any more in 2.227; on the other hand, Views 1-9 do.

You can choose whatever setting you prefer- "Delay" is fun as you get the colours

It is possible to manually route individual trains - right click on the Train Describer, select 'Make train Non-ARS', and the TD will change from cyan to magenta. Right clicking and selecting 'Make train ARS' will change the train back.

That explains what I see, but isn't this back to front? I would have expected that making a train ARS would give it the same colour (magenta) as the ARS codes. ????

Is there any way to tell ahead of time when ARS will conk out if it can't complete setting a route, e.g., when another train (also ARS) is temporarily blocking the route? Right now I seem to have to wait till F2 tells me XXXX is waiting at a red signal, which wastes time.

If you mean the ones at the interface with Bristol, they are for wrong line running when chained. The green slot-like circles at Causeway just indicate the crossing gates are closed (local gate box).

I thought all trains here were processed by ARS. Does this mean ARS on 6V30's route has failed?

clicked both LC buttons to turn them off

" said:

That explains what I see, but isn't this back to front? I would have expected that making a train ARS would give it the same colour (magenta) as the ARS codes. ????

If you mean an ARS-disabled train is pink while a ARS-enabled subarea is also pink, then yes that is a bizarre arrangement. But I can assure you that those are the defined colours, as Stephen has said.

" said:

BTW, it seems the hot keys don't work any more in 2.227; on the other hand, Views 1-9 do.

I was not aware that was a problem- will look into

Peter

After looking at the ARS options, it would seem sensible to me, accustomed to non-ARS, to choose ARS popup information displayed when one clicks a description. This, it turns out is our old friend Show Timetable, aka Location List, under yet a different alias. But if I select this option, wouldn't I miss out on seeing Routesetting status displayed in Messages?

" said:

" said:

BTW, it seems the hot keys don't work any more in 2.227; on the other hand, Views 1-9 do.

I was not aware that was a problem- will look into

Peter

To activate hotkeys you need to press Shift+Hotkey. Works fine for me so I'm guessing that's the bit you've missed. Wiki page on hotkeys.

" said:

" said:

That explains what I see, but isn't this back to front? I would have expected that making a train ARS would give it the same colour (magenta) as the ARS codes. ????

If you mean an ARS-disabled train is pink while a ARS-enabled subarea is also pink, then yes that is a bizarre arrangement. But I can assure you that those are the defined colours, as Stephen has said.

It wouldn't surprise me if this was a hangover from the days when the VDU interface was being designed. I suspect there may still have been a number of CRT-based train describers around (this would've been early - mid 1980s); where they'd been replaced it was generally with dot-matrix LED displays. Both used a blue-green sort of colour (exact colour varied somewhat), so it would've seemed natural to specify cyan as the normal colour for train descriptions. Then ARS had to grafted in to the system.

That's my guess anyway. I'm sure I've said before that the standard is pretty much unchanged from the original and my late father's papers include a copy of the spec, from around 1983 or so (it's up in the loft at the moment so that date is from memory).

Thanks Geoff, Stephen and Steamer.

So it seems that all trains entering an ARS-enabled area are taken under ARS control until this is breaks down or is cancelled for some reason.

One last question - is there any type of train that can't be made ARS by the signaller, e.g., are somehow specified in the TT that they must be routed manually? Hope you don't think this is a ridiculous question. I appreciate what Peter Bennet said earlier about switching off ARS for freight trains. Thanks again.

maxand said:

After looking at the ARS options, it would seem sensible to me, accustomed to non-ARS, to choose ARS popup information displayed when one clicks a description. This, it turns out is our old friend Show Timetable, aka Location List, under yet a different alias. But if I select this option, wouldn't I miss out on seeing Routesetting status displayed in Messages?

ARS routesetting status is displayed at the top right of the 'ARS Pop-up information' window.

the way ive frequently seen York IECC deal with ARSe is to collar signals at regulating points to prevent routes being set in front of, say a very late class 1. this also applies at the station to prevent the route setting when TRS is recieved.

the only ARS function not replicated (although ive never seen it used) is a yellow status for using a timing pattern over a timetable.

joe

" said:

the way ive frequently seen York IECC deal with ARSe is to collar signals at regulating points to prevent routes being set in front of, say a very late class 1. this also applies at the station to prevent the route setting when TRS is recieved.

the only ARS function not replicated (although ive never seen it used) is a yellow status for using a timing pattern over a timetable.

joe

SimSig does have "Run to STP" and a corresponding "Special Timing Pattern" box in the timetable editor. They aren't used to much these days but were common back in the days of ad hoc freight trains, eg coal trains from colleries, where the ARS wouldn't receive VSTPs and thus would consider the train as not in timetable.

ive just taken a look at this with the description "does not create train, instead this timetable is used for ARS special timing patterns.
can someone explain how this works in terms of timetabling trains to run to the pattern etc.
edit: noted how it works through trial and error

also do trains running to such a pattern appear yellow on their description?