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Transit Actions

What are Actions?

Transit Actions are tasks that can be initiated automatically as a Train, running in automatic mode, traverses the layout following a Transit. One or more Actions may be requested for each Section in a Transit. If a Section is in a Transit multiple times, different Actions may be specified for each occurrence of the Section.
Actions only apply to trains run automatically under Dispatcher by a virtual engineer. If running Trains in automatic mode is of interest, please read on. If your trains will only be run manually with a human engineer, Actions aren't used.

Actions are set in addition to the standard actions that happen automatically when a Train runs in automatic mode. Standard actions are things like following signals and using stop sensors that are specified with each Section. Standard actions occur automatically whenever a Section is traversed in automatic mode. Other standard actions include automatically requesting allocation of Sections, and automatically changing locomotive speed according to signal restrictions.

Special Actions are tied to Sections, but are specified at the Transit level to provide maximum user flexibility. A Section is a piece of physical track that may, for example, be used by passenger trains, through freight trains, or locals. Each of these uses may need different Actions in a specific Section. For example, a passenger train may make a station stop in a particular Section, whereas a through freight train may go straight through. Adding special Actions to Transits allows Active Trains traveling the same path through the layout to have different Actions.

Special Actions that have not been executed when the section is deallocated are cancelled. This is to prevent actions being fired randomly when a condition is met hours later.

Requesting an Action

An Action is requested by specifying when an action is to be performed and what action to be performed. Any When event may be combined with any What action. This flexibility provides for a wide variety of Special Actions. An Action is initiated when the Train enters the Section with the Action request. To decide when to perform the Action after the Section is entered, the program looks at the When event.

Add action

When to take action?

Available When event choices are:

Optionally a Delay may be set for each When event, specified in real seconds or milliseconds. If the Delay time is set to zero (the default), the action will be performed immediately after the When event occurs.

What action to perform?

Available What actions are:

The View Actions Window

The View Actions window is displayed for a specific Section in a Transit by pressing the View/Add/Edit Actions button in that Section's row in the Sections in Transit table on the Add Transit or Edit Transit pane:

action buttons

The View Actions window (illustrated below) displays Actions that are currently set, and provides for adding, editing, or deleting Actions.

action list

For all Actions that have been created, the When event and the What action are described in the When and Action Requested columns respectively.
To add a new Action, click Add New Action... to bring up the Add/Edit Action window.
To edit an existing Action, click the Edit button in its row. To delete an existing Action, click the Delete button in its row. The order of the Actions is not important.

When the Actions are completely defined, click the Done button.

Back to the Transit Add/Edit help page.