[PRCo] Fwd: My South Shore, CTC, CMRI, Signalling, Local Turnout Control, etc LONG EMA

[James B. Holland]

--- In Interurbans at yahoogroups.com, "Jay Beckham" <jay at ...> wrote:

Hi all

Over the last month I have posted questions and received dozens of
answers and suggestions to the various topics shown in the subject line
of this email.

After considering all the answers and opinion and historical data I have
made a lot of decisions in the design and operation of my version of the
South Shore and it's connection in Chicago with the Illinois Central
electric commuter division.  If you like I would suggest you download
and print out the track diagram at:
http://www.south-shore-line.com/SouthShore.pdf

You will note the following colors:  Orange is South Shore tracks.  Blue
is Illinois Central tracks.  Green is Illinois Central shared with the
South Shore.

The modeled portion of the IC (Illinois Central) ends just west of
Kensington at the bottom of the drawing.

1. The entire South Shore (basically) was three color light Automatic
Block Signals.  So it will be with my version.  All operated by CMRI and
a computer using my DCCOD detectors and SMINI boards.

2. The IC had Interlocking plants at various locations between Randolph
Road and Kensington.  I will have one to control that track.  It will be
basically like a CTC and will be based on US&S designs (Green and
Black).  It will be an actual board (not computer) and will be powered
by CMRI also.

3. All turnouts on the layout are powered by stall/show motion switch
machines and will be wired through CMRI SMD12 boards. All will be
controlled locally along the fascia with toggle switches.  In cases
where there are many turnouts e.g. Randolph Road, Kensington, and Gary
among others, multiple toggles will be mounted to track diagram panels.

4. All turnouts within the IC interlocking plants will also be connected
to the CTC panel as well as the Local Fascia panels.   Permission for
local control must be obtained from the dispatcher if present.  Under
solo and non dispatcher operating sessions, the computer program and the
design will allow operators to use any and all turnouts locally.  Those
"shared" turnouts will also communicate their positions (normal or
reverse as well as local control) to the CTC panel and the computer
program logic.

These things basically conform with actual practice more or less in the
early 70s.  However I reserve the right in the future to put the entire
layout under control of a CTC board if I get the notion or at least have
the option of running the railroad with or without a CTC board.  However
such a board would be rather large with about 98 OS sections and blocks.
So I could just build a second board just to run the South Shore.

So for the long posting but I have had so much help from so many of you
I figured you deserved to know what I did with all the information and
many many emails I received.  Thanks so much, everyone, for your help,
information, and kind words.  I also want to also thank Jim for the many
hours of working with me on the layout from it's very beginning, and I
want to thank Joe in advance for his offer to help with the programming
and electronics end of this project.

Jay Beckham, Accredited Cruise Counsellor
Member Cruise Line International Association
Cruises On The Sea, Inc.
2799 Highland Ridge Road
Berkeley Springs, WV 25411
(304) 258-4451
VISIT OUR NEW WEB SITE
http://www.CruisesOnTheSea.com/
"You're Not Dreaming. You're Cruising"

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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