QUAKER VALLEY Railroad
- CTC Panel 
Updated January 2010
This is the newest page describing the progress on the Quaker Valley Railroad and a discussion of JMRI
turnout and
signal lever operations. Older info can be found at http://www.quaker-valley.com/CTC/CTC_Index.html
The Quaker Valley Railroad has been developing a CTC Panel using the
Panel Pro feature in Decoder Pro since 2003. In the summer
of 2006, I attended the NMRA Philadelphia Convention and sat in on all
of the JMRI clinics. I met some of the key people behind the development
and learned a lot, especially about the then newest features of Panel Pro
in version 1.7.5. I also gave a clinic describing how I was using
JMRI Panel Pro with my NCE system to develop a virtual CTC panel.
I even have acquired a clunky old touch screen monitor which allows me to change the lever
position by touching them on the screen. This can mean no more mouse or trackball
for the Dispatcher. One of the new flat panel touch screens would be
even nicer!
By the end of 2007, I had added three more AD4HC accessory
decoders to the Quaker Valley, automating 11 turnouts or turnout pairs.
You can see how I mounted the CVP accessory decoder cards at http://www.quaker-valley.com/CTC/AD4.html
This completed the conversion of all main line turnouts to DCC control.
This permitted me to complete the CTC panel with all turnout levers
active and block detection on the single track QV line under control of the NCE DCC command station.
In late 2009, I added some new hardware from RR-Cirkits, creating a stand alone Loconet allowing me to complete block detection of the Conrail mainline. It also will allow addition of signalling trackside. So I am in the process of updating the JMRI Panel Pro created CTC panel. The most current screen looks like this:
The upper CTC panel shows the Dispatcher has aligned a westbound train
which is through Twin Rocks and just took the signal at Moss Creek.
It will take the siding around a train on the main at Shinnton and is cleared
into Costello. There is a train waiting to come off of the yard lead
at Costello. Using the JMRI Logix, the signal lights on the panel drop as the westbound
progresses through each control point. Detection is being added to the lower panel as shown by the TOL indicators. Only 3 or 4 detectors left to install. All of the turnout levers work, so the Dispatcher has abandoned the
old DC control panel with push buttons and rotary switches and controls everything from a dual monitor PC setup. The CTC panel occupies one entire monitor. The other has the JMRI menus and a developing layout editor screen showing field signal indications.
I always wanted to develop the panel to use the turnout and signal levers
and code button just like the real ones. I thought it would require
scripting, but found a way around it in 2006. Since then the newer versions
of JMRI have multi position sensors, and it has worked well to add the
signal levers to the single track Quaker Valley line in the top panel.
The signal levers shown now work pretty much like the prototype..
I have redrawn the background graphics using the 15 wide by two high USS
panel included with Panel Pro. I have moved things around a bit in the past two years to align better with the levers below. I also have renumbered
some of the turnouts on the lower panel. It is nice to develop things
on a screen and if it is not right, easily change it. I suspect many
will develop their model railroad CTC controls this way before constructing
a full size CTC panel.
The code button at the bottom of each position is momentary and controls
the turnout and signals. You can flip the turnout levers back and forth without
setting the turnouts. Only when the code button is pressed does the
turnout and signal follow. And because of the way the JMRI route
function can work, they will only follow if the interlocking is unoccupied
and the block ahead is unoccupied and the block ahead is not assigned to
a train coming the other way. No more throwing turnouts under moving
trains.
With the latest version of the panel, I have added sound to the code buttons and some toggle switches. I also added a bell when the trains OS (go on sheet) at each of the control points and when a B&O train shows up from Punxsatawney or Cumberland and when trains are powered up in the Conrail Staging. Using a faster laptop, I am encouraged to add more and more animation and sound to the panel.
I also added the traffic control lights on the upper panel. I had buillt the logic in two years ago, but saw a more prototypical way to display them in Dick Bronson's 2009 clinics. These are used to "reserve" a track for a train that is not yet there and stop assignment of that same track to another opposing train.
I continue to update
parts of the CTC panel as I have been learning how to better use the new Logix, grouped sensors
and the multi sensor icon introduced in JMRI version 1.9.1. I am now running a 2.8 version of Panel Pro.
So how does this all work in Panel Pro?
Each position has three inputs from the Dispatcher. These are
the turnout lever, the signal lever and the code button. There are
three block detector inputs from the railroad and an internal sensor for
the interlocking occupancy. I use NCE BD20s which detect current
in each block. These are connected to a NCE Auxiliary Input Unit (AIU)
which is on the cab bus and makes the block occupancy info available to
the command station and thus to Panel Pro. If the turnout NT53 is
closed (normal) and both NSx and NSy are occupied a Logix sets IS53 to
active. This might save me some infra red detectors.
My friend Ken McCorry uses an infrared detector at the points in each
interlocking to hold this block occupied when a car is over it. I have been experimenting with detection of my caboose fleet
and will likely only detect them and not all freight cars. In 2007, I was experimenting with the Logix feature in JMRI to create a three second
delay before the detector will clear. Since then the JMRI developers have made this even easier. I now have an internal
sensor ISx to follow the real block detector NSx. ISx goes active intsantly when the block is occupied but has a 5 second timer before it goes inactive. In this way the flickering due to dirty wheels is gone. The new Logix made it easy to update the panel and so now only the internal ISx sensors show on the Quaker Valley panel. The newer BOD8 block detectors on the Loconet have a 2 second delay built into the hardware. I am adding additional delay to make them function with a five second delay. I find that keeps the detector on even for a single resistive axle equipped caboose (or cabin for you PRR fans)
There are two routes for the turnout. One sets it Normal (Closed)
and one sets it Reverse (or Thrown) to follow the turnout lever.
I have set up routes which only operate when the code button is pushed
AND the center light IS545 is active AND the inerlocking IS53 is inactive
AND the lever IT53 is set. Panel Pro allows multiple sensors, so
I have made sure the block is unoccupied before these routes are used.
I simply show the turnout position as driven by Panel Pro in the two lights
above the turnout lever. I have some local control panel lights that
display the turnout position, but none are sent to the computer.
I don't see the need for feedback from the turnout on the railroad.
Turnouts in positions 49, 53, 7, 15 and 19 in the Quaker Valley panel
above show turnouts in the Reverse position.
The signal lever has been much easier to setup with the advances in
the JMRI release 1.9.1. The multi position sensor icon for the lever
follows the three sensors IS541,542 and 543. The directions lights
IS544, 545 and 546 are in a defined group so only one can be lit.
If the block IS53 is unoccupied, and the IS545 light is lit and the lever
is set for east or west, a Logix will set the appropriate direction light
IS544 or 546. When a train enter the block IS53, the direction light
IS545 is set active, dropping the direction light and setting all signal
to red. Another condition in the Signal logix allows the Dispatcher to
manually set the block to red after it has been assigned. I have used a blinking red lamp IS547 which overlays the center red lamp for a 15 second delay. The sensor is transparent when inactive showing the underlying lamp. So it shows the signal as it drops to red.
I have added a JMRI clock to the CTC panel . After upgrading to version 2.6, I experimented with Ken Cameron's NCE clock contribution originally out in version 1.9.2. It now is a fast
clock married to the NCE command station. I even added a toggle switch to turn it on and freeze time if the Dispatcher desires.
This background was developed using MS Paint. I started with the
dual background panel provided in the resource folder of Panel Pro.
This now includes a better shade of green and the button punch outs as
on the real US&S panels. I stacked two separate CTC panels one
over the other as I need more than the 15 positions available on a single
panel. In fact levers 31 and 33 in the upper right corner control
access to staging tracks on the double track Conrail mainline. I
reused the track artwork in the black areas from my older panel.
I even kept the Quaker logo in place. I added a USS&S plate,
starting with a scan of a real plate from a photo. I cleaned up the
lettering and then added it to my panel. This has been
contributed to JMRI and is part of the current release and also in the group files area. Since it made sense, I have moved it off the background and made it a repositionable icon.
The upper section of the panel represents the modeled portion of my
Quaker Valley line which runs north and south between Buffalo NY, through
Costello and ending in Lynnsburg, a town in the hills of Western Pennsylvania
between Altoona and Johnstown. The lower panel section shows Conrail's
secondary track between these two towns. I have abbreviated the staging
yard tracks on either side of the modeled lines. In reality, the
yards at McKeesport and Altoona are two ends of the Westbound staging yard.
Johnstown and Harrisburg are the Eastbound staging yard.
One other thing I added in 2007 is a startup reset of the levers
and turnouts to the normal position. When the panel first opens,
it looks like this:
Notice that all of the turnouts and levers are unknown. The NCE
block detectors settle in at first, and this shows a train on the wye track
at the west end staging. My reset button is hidden in the bow tie
of the quaker logo.
See the red dot? Touching it sets off two routes. The first
sets all of the internal levers, turnouts and sensors to their normal posistion.
The second sets the turnouts on the accessory decoders around the layout.
I have this one staggered to bounce around the railroad, allowing the capacitors
to recharge for the next machine.
While these are running, I play a relay code sound file.
It is not necessary on the newest turnouts where I have used slow motion
machines. But these are too quiet, I'll have to add some relay
clacking sound to those levers.
In order to fully develop signalling on the Quaker Valley, I started to add signals to the CTC panel. That was a situation that is very unprototypical. And I needed a better way to watch the signal response to the railroad and to the CTC panel as I developed the Routes and Logix to control it all. I turned to the Layout Editor and spend about 15 hours developing the layout figure shown:
The turnouts are animated in the layout editor and the signals can work. In edit mode, the layout editor allows you to open the signal logic and correct it. I have JMRI showing occupied track in red or maroon. Unoccupied tracks are show in black.
The layout editor panel shows all of the internal signals I used to complete the Simple Signal Logic. I need to place the signal held Logix in place now to make the CTC panel take charge over what is essentially an ABS signal logic.
Sweet! And always getting better. Seems the JMRI guys add
things just as I need them. The JMRI developers have now gone beyond my original wish list. Integrating the NCE and LocoNet hardware into one functioning system allows me to replicate the prototype US&S CTC machines of the 1960s and 1970s. I've been experimenting with the layout editor and it does make it easy to develop signalling as I am adding signal hardware in 2010. And Decoder Pro / Panel Pro is still freeware.
Thank you Bob Jacobsen, Dick Bronson and the rest of the JMRI crew!
Learn more about the JMRI project, Decoder Pro and Panel Pro at http://www.jmri.org
Bob Bucklew
Quaker Valley Software
bob@quaker-valley.com
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