Video 31: Using iTrain Tutorial Series - Automatic Routes - Station Selection (Part 1)

[@phillipthomas7185]

I’m at this stage in my layout development. So helpful. Thank you

[@mariochi1969]

Since I've been testing, I've been following the videos and I have to tell you that I love them and I want to thank you for your great help. Excuse me if I made a mistake because I use a Spanish to English translator

[@bobfuller]

Thank you, Mario. It is comments like this that keep me motivated to produce more. Thanks again. 😉

[@joveld6038]

Thanks John.

[@bobfuller]

That's great news, John. It's really encouraging to hear that these tutorials are helping people. Thanks for the feedback. It is really appreciated.

[@phillipthomas7185]

Just wanted to say I am enjoying Itrain. Your videos help a lot. Thank you.

[@bobfuller]

That's great to hear Phillip. I appreciate the feedback. Makes it all worthwhile.

[@johnsmith-km9sf]

Great series Bob, watched all your videos several times. I’ve been on the trial license since Christmas, which finishes soon. I’ve got everything working you have done so far on my part built layout. I think I would have lost interest by now without your help, but I look forward to every new video you produce and will defiantly be purchasing a license thanks to you.

[@bobfuller]

Thanks for the feedback, John. Great to hear that you are successfully getting things to work on your actual layout. I envy you. My new layout build has been slow going due to lack of parts and spending too much time preparing tutorials!!! :)

[@johnsmith-km9sf]

Hi Bob, my layout build is pretty slow, also waiting on parts. Your tutorials have also slowed my progression in a good way, as I have tried to prove on my layout each videos contents and then change parameters to see the difference. I have actually had my four locomotives all running completely automatically tonight. None of my main lines are complete at the moment so they all become lots of sidings and it all worked!! Just want to thank you again Bob. You have done a fantastic job of explaining it clearly and in such a logical order to build up the data in the software. It’s all new to me, I didn’t know what block detection was until I started watching your videos 3 months ago. Brilliant!!👍👍

[@bobfuller]

@@johnsmith-km9sf Thanks John. It's so great to hear the success stories. I am also relatively new to iTrain. I only started using it in March last year. I think the success of the tutorials is because I am looking at it with the eyes of a novice, and asking the questions that experienced users probably take for granted. But the real stars are the creator of iTrain, Xander, and the gurus on the Forum, especially Iain, who I consult with most of the time, and who checks the tutorials for accuracy before I publish them.

[@roberthechinger2051]

Hi Bob waouh waouh... all the bricks are now in place and with these last videos you nearly complete the wall - great stuff - I cannot see how all the important details of itrain that you show in your tutorials could be understood just by reading the manual - Thanks a lot to you and Ian for the outstanding contain. Question : Are you going to cover in a future video how to include in automated routes actions like triggering whistle at certain points of the track, or opening and closing crossing gates ? Waiting anxiously for your video about signals.

[@bobfuller]

Yes, Actions and Signals will be covered in later tutorials.

[@Julian-zc4ik]

Sorry Bob - just to clarify... I have a storage yard with a couple of through lines running through it - the whole of which I will designate as a station. I could then reduce the wait chance in the station properties from 100% on the through line blocks, increase the wait on the storage track blocks to 100% and my through trains would always choose the through lines, thus leaving the storage tracks free for future trains to store there? I think that sounds correct?!

[@bobfuller]

How would you set some blocks to less than 100% wait, and some to 100% wait? The same wait percentage is applied to all blocks in the station. There is are various elegant solutions to your scenario, but it is jumping ahead of the tutorials a bit. In the upcoming tutorials on the Station Blocks tab, and Station Train Types tab, I will explain everything. But essentially what you can do is append (add) a particular Train Type to the Train Types tab, such as Express Trains (your through trains), and untick the wait for that train type, in which case they will not wait at all in any of the blocks, or use a reduced % to sometimes wait, and you can use the permissions tab in the Train Type properties to tell the Express train not use the storage tracks. It's easier to do than to explain in writing.

[@Julian-zc4ik]

@@bobfuller thank you Bob - of course you’re correct, silly me. Your solution sounds logical, but it looks like I am jumping ahead of the tutorials, so I will bide my time! It is very interesting to see how we can apply (or not as the case may be!) what we are learning from your tutorials to our own layouts or future plans. Many thanks once again, Julian

[@Julian-zc4ik]

Hi Bob - thank you for a really clear and helpful tutorial, it is much appreciated. Can I ask a stupid question - when you changed the block to uni-directional it chose clockwise automatically. Is that choice of direction always going to be clockwise, when changing from bi-directional? Many thanks, Julian

[@bobfuller]

Hi Julian - when the block is changed to uni-directional or preferred direction, the direction of travel is dictated by the orientation of the block symbol in the Switchboard. Remember the block symbol has two dots on it which indicated the direction NEXT. That is what will determine the direction of travel for uni-directional, and the preferred direction for preferred direction.

[@Julian-zc4ik]

@@bobfuller thanks Bob, all understood. I missed the direction next and the dots... that does make total sense. Many thanks Bob, Julian