JMRI: USS CTC Tools Recommendations
This page discussions some conventions that might be useful when setting up a CTC panel using the USS CTC tools. Basically, this is how we set up the device user names in the example. It might be a helpful approach for you to organize all the needed info.
The key organizing principle is the station or column number. These run from 1 to the number of columns on the machine. They appear as N in the examples below.
On-Layout Items
- Track circuit sensors
- These are named with "TC" as an abbreviation for Track Circuit, followed by station number N, and then a user reasonable name: "TC Sta 1 Left Approach"; "TC Sta 2 Main"
- Turnouts
- There is only one Turnout per station in USS CTC systems, so these are named by station number: "Sta 1 Layout TO"
- Signals
CTC Lever Controls
Each position of a CTC lever has a sensor to detect how it's set, and a turnout that drives the lamp on that position. To reduce the number of names, we give the same name to those.- Turnout Levers
- Station name, then TO to indicate the lever type, the turnout number, then a letter N for Normal or R for Reversed: "Sta 1 TO 1 N", "Sta 2 TO 3 R"
- Signal Levers
- Station name, then SI to indicate the lever type, the signal number, then a letter R for Right, C for Center or L for Left: "Sta 1 SI 2 C", "Sta 2 SI 4 R"
- Code Button
- The code button is a sensor named for the station number: "Sta 2 Code"
- Code Lamp
- The code lamp is a Turnout named for the station number, same as the code button: "Sta 2 Code"
CTC Machine Track Diagram
- Track Occupancy Indicators
- Because these don't necessarily have a one-to-one relationship with the sensors on the layout (a track diagram might combine several layout track circuits into one on the panel), they are named slightly differently: "Sta 1 Left Approach TC"