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Idea for more realistic level crossings

You are here: Home > Forum > General > General questions, comments, and issues > Idea for more realistic level crossings

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Idea for more realistic level crossings 24/03/2015 at 05:16 #70225
Hawk777
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386 posts 		Right now, in SimSig, we start by pressing the Lower button. Once the barriers are down, we press the Clear button, which either gives us a message that the crossing is blocked and we have to raise it, or else locks in and stops flashing, after which either we can then set a route or else the route we already set clears its entry signal.

As I understand it, in real life, once the barriers are down, the signaller would look at a TV feed (or, perhaps, in a few cases, out the window), then, assuming the crossing is clear, push the Clear button. Rather than the Clear button checking whether the crossing is clear, it’s instead the signaller’s way of confirming to the interlocking that the crossing has been checked and is clear. So, the Clear button in real life would never fail—rather, the signaller would not push it if the crossing were blocked.

It seems to me that SimSig could, with very little effort, add a bit of realism here. Obviously the extreme case would be a simulated TV feed, but that sounds like a lot of work. How about something simpler: a small green rectangle near the crossing with one of the words “open”, “blocked by car”, or “clear” in it, representing the view on the TV? If you want to be a little bit fancier, some ASCII/line-art-style representations of barriers and cars?

Of course, SimSig doesn’t simulate collisions, so if you were to inappropriately press Clear while the crossing was blocked, the train would roll to a stop just before the car and give you a phone call. This would leave you to sort out the lovely mess of a train that can’t move forward because there’s a car in the way, a car that can’t move forward because there are barriers in the way, and barriers that can’t be raised because the train has route-locked the track circuit. Now you have to cancel the route, reverse the train, possibly reverse other trains that were following it to make space, and generally go through a lot of hassle—not to mention a points deduction for clearing a blocked crossing—which will hopefully teach you not to do it again!

Thoughts?
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Idea for more realistic level crossings 24/03/2015 at 09:47 #70226
GoochyB
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222 posts 		This topic has been discussed on more than one occasion, the most recent one just a few weeks ago. See http://www.SimSig.co.uk/index.php?option=com_kunena&view=topic&catid=13&id=39035&Itemid=0&limitstart=0 and the thread that preceded that one, linked to in the first post.
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Idea for more realistic level crossings 24/03/2015 at 18:05 #70232
GW43125
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495 posts 		" said:
Right now, in SimSig, we start by pressing the Lower button. Once the barriers are down, we press the Clear button, which either gives us a message that the crossing is blocked and we have to raise it, or else locks in and stops flashing, after which either we can then set a route or else the route we already set clears its entry signal.

As I understand it, in real life, once the barriers are down, the signaller would look at a TV feed (or, perhaps, in a few cases, out the window), then, assuming the crossing is clear, push the Clear button. Rather than the Clear button checking whether the crossing is clear, it’s instead the signaller’s way of confirming to the interlocking that the crossing has been checked and is clear. So, the Clear button in real life would never fail—rather, the signaller would not push it if the crossing were blocked.

It seems to me that SimSig could, with very little effort, add a bit of realism here. Obviously the extreme case would be a simulated TV feed, but that sounds like a lot of work. How about something simpler: a small green rectangle near the crossing with one of the words “open”, “blocked by car”, or “clear” in it, representing the view on the TV? If you want to be a little bit fancier, some ASCII/line-art-style representations of barriers and cars?

Of course, SimSig doesn’t simulate collisions, so if you were to inappropriately press Clear while the crossing was blocked, the train would roll to a stop just before the car and give you a phone call. This would leave you to sort out the lovely mess of a train that can’t move forward because there’s a car in the way, a car that can’t move forward because there are barriers in the way, and barriers that can’t be raised because the train has route-locked the track circuit. Now you have to cancel the route, reverse the train, possibly reverse other trains that were following it to make space, and generally go through a lot of hassle—not to mention a points deduction for clearing a blocked crossing—which will hopefully teach you not to do it again!

Thoughts?
Also, I believe the little barrier animations already exist on certain sims, take some of the AHBs on Worksop, for example.
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Idea for more realistic level crossings 26/03/2015 at 02:57 #70275
Hawk777
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386 posts 		Apologies for the duplication. I knew there had been previous discussion; I just thought this specific proposal hadn’t been made—it seems it was, and in fact already exists in some sims.
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