GWR/LMS OO Gauge DCC RR&Co

[user=540]gdaysydney[/user] wrote:

Hi John,
Still sitting on the fence!
Do you only need a connection to the internet during activation of a PC or do you have to be connected all the time?  Just wondering as I am building a small portable demo  which would run off a laptop but wondering how TC would know its in use if not connected to the WWW
Dave

You only need an internet connection each time you boot up Train Controller. Once started, losing the internet connection does not affect TC.

I dont believe you can start TC on one computor and then start it on another computor without first closing down the first one.

I guess you have seen this thread

https://yourmodelrailway.net/view_topic.php?id=17108&forum_id=151&jump_to=309866#p309866

You may want to make your decision before Dec 31:hmm

Best wishes

Thanks John,

I guess I'll have to get up to speed with using my mobile phone as a hot spot if I am using the Laptop off site.

Financially it makes sense and will future proof the investment I have made over the years as knowing my luck the USB stick which has given faultless service for many many years will play up if I dont !

Hi Dave

I am inclined to think that is the correct decision - it is certainly what I decided to do.

 However I have mis informed you - TC has to remain connected to the internet throughout each operating session.


Here is a recent response from Juergen Freiwald :


TrainController requires access to the Internet  the whole time  during operation with a connected model railroad. This  does not  necessarily mean that it will be constantly accessing the  Internet  during this period, but it must be able to do it.
 
If you cannot or do not want to meet this requirement, I recommend not to purchase an upgrade.
 
Since you're paying cash for the upgrade, I wouldn't rely on testing or   observing actual traffic. We will not publish details for obvious   reasons. However, access during the session can vary from session to   session and can be completely changed at any time by server-side   settings.
 
Again: The only important thing is that TrainController has access to   the Internet the whole time during operation with a connected model   railroad.                                                      
_________________
Best regards / Mit freundlichem Gruss
Freiwald Software
 Railroad & Co.






Once again my apologies! :oops:



John

I am afraid that, apart from a flurry of posts regarding the RR&Co upgrade, I have been most noticeable on this forum by my absence.  :oops: :oops:

Regular readers may be forgiven for concluding that I had hibernated.

Quite a good idea considering the weather we have been "enjoying" for the few weeks  :roll:

 





I know this is how most people visualise Canadian winters but its not what is supposed to happen in Vancouver. Snow in December, let alone November is almost unheard of.

Weather apart, other unforeseen events delayed any worthwhile post on Granby.

I left you in early October describing the details of a relief loco exiting Granby Engine Sheds

Earl Class 9003 in the turntable exit road awaits the arrival of a passenger train from Barmouth:




The turntable exit is a short road that runs directly into Platform 6.



The Platform 6 Road is used as goods relief and also by short  commutor trains. As you can see it is situated directly outside the overall roof :




The unforeseeable event I referred to earlier was the failure of the point immediately in front of the train at P6.

Unforeseeable in every sense. The first sign I had that all was not well occurred when the two coach train departing from Platform 6 appeared from behind the roof and proceeded serenely across the turntable and attempted to enter Shed #5!

Fortunately the emergency stop button was near at hand.

Once I had identified the problem - which was not at all straightforward - the only way to resolve it involved removing the roof and adjacent buildings.
 
Here are rarely seen naked images of platforms 1 - 5:





The cable is to assist in identifying the relevant wiring from below.

The roof is temporarily on the floor - somewhere a joke is lurking about not treading on eggshells.




The less than ideal solution was to replace the surface mounted point motor along with new wiring back to the decoder. Once you start tinkering with previously stable wiring all manner of unexpected side effects can occur. Without going into tedious and embarrassing detail I managed to create a mysterious short that closed down the entire station area. Very frustrating and time consuming to identify and repair - fortunately all is well that ends well -

I am now back happily testing the Granby - Barmouth passenger service.

Hopefully it will not take quite as long before I post the next installment.

Regards from Vancouver

Don't knock yourself, John. I think you've made a marvellous layout and I'd put money on it that most of the other members think the same. We've just started summer here in Qld. Hot, sticky with thunder storms thrown in.

I’ll second that, but I think marvellous is an understatement. :)

Hi Pete and Phil

Thank you for the encouraging comments - you are both too kind but they were much appreciated.

Best wishes

Hi John,  
Thanks for posting the recent photos.
Its a real pain when you have to do surgery to the layout especially when the design doesn't allow easy access ( as in my case - no problem getting under the boards 10 years ago but not so easy now!!)  
Glad to hear the problem is now sorted and we also got to see parts of the layout that we normally wouldn't - so every cloud has a silver lining ( and a possible snow storm!!)

Granby Junction     May 1947



Two months since my last post and little to report. My time in the train room has been focussed on developing a commutor routine with two 4 car sets of Hornby GWR Collet non-corridor stock. This involves three large prairies behaving themselves. When they do, I run a B Set and Autotrain as well - so thats 6 locos in play - quite spectacular when it works - less so when it doesnt! I think it will be a while before the oft promised video goes into production.

I continue to be plagued by the failure of polarity switches installed in 2009 - how I wish I had started with Tortoises - the switches are being steadily replaced with reliable and inexpensive Gaugemaster Universal relays and there are very few of the originals remaining but they are naturally in crucial positions and inaccessible. You will see one such location shortly.

None of this is particularly photogenic so I thought it might be more interesting if I took time out to shoot some photos of a few of Granby's freight trains.



  This series follows the journey of a Class H through train returning Coal empties from Brymbo Steelworks to Bersham Colliery. (usual apology: much artistic licence applied to the geography of North Wales).

Here we see a 56xx 0-6-2T, out of Croes Newyd , crossing over the main running lines on to the junction for the branch line:




The train spotters are not too interested - 6698 and its stable mate 6694 are seen on this run most days.

These two Bachmann model were bought almost 25 years ago - super reliable and great haulage capability. 





You can see that the diagram is not entirely non revenue. The two leading wagons carry pit props and at the rear of the train is a Gunpowder van - separated from the Brake Van by two empty wagons acting as a barrier.


Having crossed over the main lines 6698 passes Castlegate Goods warehouses and descends Cynwyd Bank:



The 56xx class was designed especially for work in the South Wales coal fields.The 0-6-2 configuration being well suited for for loaded trains to be hauled bunker leading down from the pithead to the ports below. Here in North Wales the process is reversed because my mythical coal field is situated on the floor of the Vale of Clwyd !


Having descended the bank the empties train trundles through Cynwyd Station:



The train is over 5' long and I have struggled to capture its full length in one shot.

Here is 6698 crossing the Shropshire Union Canal :



while the rest of the train is still passing the Cynwyd cattle dock and McPeter's Dairy :






I quite like this shot, apart from the missing wall behind the goods shed! It had to be temporarily removed to access the wiring for the most recent failed polarity switch - definitely not a fun job and still in progress. Grrrr

To finish on a more positive note here is another Box Brownie shot circa May 1947



Regards from Vancouver - where the snow still lingers.

Hi John,
I am pleased to know Granby is still busy! Great photos!

Great pictures and layout John  ;-)

Nice  :thumbs


Ed

Wot 'appened… I posted, praising your work and when I looked just now.. there it was, gone.

Anyway, it's still looking really good.

As always John, an inspiration to many of us. When looking at the pictures, and no matter how many times I look, I can always find something new.

Claus, Phil, Ed, Pete, Dave



Thank you so much for taking the time to comment - it is much appreciated :thumbs



I am so glad you liked the photos despite the assorted unintended errors  :oops:  Wonky tripod and extremely variable light conditions didnt help.  :oops: In 48 hours we had 3' of snow fall alternating with super bright sunshine so it was quite difficult to achieve a consistent finish.

I will try and get a crisper overall look with the next train sequence

Thanks again for your continued support 

Hi John,
Just a glimpse of a pannier in photo 2.

Not entirely by accident!


In other news if you check the RR&Co forum you will see there is an issue where TC boots ok but the yrrg file is corrupt and will not load. Fortunately the bak file is ok and once renamed all is well

The interesting thing is the file size of Granby.yrrg is normally about 2400KB - the corrupt file was 630KB as was the bak file yet that worked fine when renamed. :roll:

It was scary for a while I thought I had lost 3 months work - yes my regular back ups were a bit behind :oops:

Best wishes

[user=434]John Dew[/user] wrote:

In other news if you check the RR&Co forum you will see there is an issue where TC boots ok but the yrrg file is corrupt and will not load. Fortunately the bak file is ok and once renamed all is well

The interesting thing is the file size of Granby.yrrg is normally about 2400KB - the corrupt file was 630KB as was the bak file yet that worked fine when renamed. :roll:

It was scary for a while I thought I had lost 3 months work - yes my regular back ups were a bit behind :oops:

Best wishes

Thanks for the heads up. My files are just under 1.9k  and I normally save it twice - the second time to a back up disk as I have had the bitter experience of hardware failure  :twisted:

Having looked at the forum I see you haven't received a response to your post - not even an acknowledgement  :sad:
  

[user=540]gdaysydney[/user] wrote:

[user=434]John Dew[/user] wrote:

In other news if you check the RR&Co forum you will see there is an issue where TC boots ok but the yrrg file is corrupt and will not load. Fortunately the bak file is ok and once renamed all is well

The interesting thing is the file size of Granby.yrrg is normally about 2400KB - the corrupt file was 630KB as was the bak file yet that worked fine when renamed. :roll:

It was scary for a while I thought I had lost 3 months work - yes my regular back ups were a bit behind :oops:

Best wishes

Thanks for the heads up. My files are just under 1.9k  and I normally save it twice - the second time to a back up disk as I have had the bitter experience of hardware failure  :twisted:

Having looked at the forum I see you haven't received a response to your post - not even an acknowledgement  :sad:
 

Hi Dave

I was hoping Herr Freiwald would have replied! :sad: It is a bit worrying that the *.yrrg file can be compressed like that, sometimes working and sometimes empty.

I will keep checking back and I may raise it again.

Hi John,
Is it a recurring error or spasmodic?