Emergency Stop..

[aleopardstail]

Had a suggestion to add an emergency stop to Leopard Street.. largely due to certain reliability issues

many ways to do it, pondering if anyone else has bothered?

even just a simple "push to break" latching big red button wired into the track power would do it (planning similar here driving a relay to cut both rail feeds)

probably worth doing.. thoughts?

heck I have some of the illuminating "missile lock" type toggle switches that could be used as well.. snap shut to cut the power

[centenary]

Had a suggestion to add an emergency stop to Leopard Street.. largely due to certain reliability issues

many ways to do it, pondering if anyone else has bothered?

even just a simple "push to break" latching big red button wired into the track power would do it (planning similar here driving a relay to cut both rail feeds)

probably worth doing.. thoughts?

heck I have some of the illuminating "missile lock" type toggle switches that could be used as well.. snap shut to cut the power

Isnt this already built into panel Pro \ JMRI?

On my Prodigy Express, one press of the red button stops the loco top of the current stack with a second press supposedly stopping all moving locos. I havent tried either to be honest although do sometimes run 2 locos on one track.

[Free_at_last]

On my Prodigy Express, one press of the red button stops the loco top of the current stack with a second press supposedly stopping all moving locos. I havent tried either to be honest although do sometimes run 2 locos on one track.

Sometimes when something goes wrong, like a runaway, it doesn't respond to the red button.

[Free_at_last]

Had a suggestion to add an emergency stop to Leopard Street.. largely due to certain reliability issues

many ways to do it, pondering if anyone else has bothered?

I am thinking of mounting a pull switch on the end wall of my shed with the cord, a fancy braided one, running just above head height to the other end.
Just like a communication cord.

[aleopardstail]

Had a suggestion to add an emergency stop to Leopard Street.. largely due to certain reliability issues

many ways to do it, pondering if anyone else has bothered?

even just a simple "push to break" latching big red button wired into the track power would do it (planning similar here driving a relay to cut both rail feeds)

probably worth doing.. thoughts?

heck I have some of the illuminating "missile lock" type toggle switches that could be used as well.. snap shut to cut the power

Isnt this already built into panel Pro \ JMRI?

On my Prodigy Express, one press of the red button stops the loco top of the current stack with a second press supposedly stopping all moving locos. I havent tried either to be honest although do sometimes run 2 locos on one track.

yes JMRI has an on screen red power cut button, trouble is that means:
1. you need to be near the screen, mouse & keyboard
2. you need to quickly be able to do it..

I'm thinking nice red "oh ****" buttons dotted about that physically cut the track power

[aleopardstail]

On my Prodigy Express, one press of the red button stops the loco top of the current stack with a second press supposedly stopping all moving locos. I havent tried either to be honest although do sometimes run 2 locos on one track.

Sometimes when something goes wrong, like a runaway, it doesn't respond to the red button.

yeah nothing is going to stop a nice expensive rake of coaches rolling down a hill towards a lovely expensive crash..

but something that can stop the next lovely expensive train hitting the smouldering wreckage may help

[aleopardstail]

Had a suggestion to add an emergency stop to Leopard Street.. largely due to certain reliability issues

many ways to do it, pondering if anyone else has bothered?

I am thinking of mounting a pull switch on the end wall of my shed with the cord, a fancy braided one, running just above head height to the other end.
Just like a communication cord.

thats a very good way to do it, almost production line emergency stop

[centenary]

On my Prodigy Express, one press of the red button stops the loco top of the current stack with a second press supposedly stopping all moving locos. I havent tried either to be honest although do sometimes run 2 locos on one track.

Sometimes when something goes wrong, like a runaway, it doesn't respond to the red button.

Yes, very good point! I set all my decoders to only run on DCC but I guess even there, if the decoder craps out, that wont prevent a runaway.

yes JMRI has an on screen red power cut button, trouble is that means:
1. you need to be near the screen, mouse & keyboard
2. you need to quickly be able to do it..

I'm thinking nice red "oh ****" buttons dotted about that physically cut the track power

Ah yes. But you need to be near the handily placed big red stop button which, buggin's law will dictate you arent anywhere near when it's needed.

My cunning plan then is to have the power cable trailling over the floor so one can trip over it, literally, and pull the plug from the power socket!

[aleopardstail]

On my Prodigy Express, one press of the red button stops the loco top of the current stack with a second press supposedly stopping all moving locos. I havent tried either to be honest although do sometimes run 2 locos on one track.

Sometimes when something goes wrong, like a runaway, it doesn't respond to the red button.

Yes, very good point! I set all my decoders to only run on DCC but I guess even there, if the decoder craps out, that wont prevent a runaway.

yes JMRI has an on screen red power cut button, trouble is that means:
1. you need to be near the screen, mouse & keyboard
2. you need to quickly be able to do it..

I'm thinking nice red "oh ****" buttons dotted about that physically cut the track power

Ah yes. But you need to be near the handily placed big red stop button which, buggin's law will dictate you arent anywhere near when it's needed.

My cunning plan then is to have the power cable trailling over the floor so one can trip over it, literally, and pull the plug from the power socket!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who uses trailing cables as an emergency cut out

[Mountain]

Never forget about 10-15 years ago I bought one of those Hornby live steam sets along with buying a rake of 11 or 12 secondhand (4 were new but unboxed) LNER coaches and enjoyed it for a while. It needed the coaches to give the loco something to pull against, as those things can soon fly away at top speed if one does not understand the controls, and the leaflet seemed written by someone who had little or no idea, as some of the instructions on how to drive the loco were the opposite of what one needed. Having soon worked this out myself by experimenting, I very quickly got the hang of it, as it felt to me to be a lot like one of the Mamods except this was smaller and the heat came from an electric element instead with the electricity provided through the rails. The controller works a bit like a DCC in that to enable the motor that works the regulator and also reverses the direction works by picking up instructions via the rails where the heating element side of it is also taking its current from the rails. I rarely ever used the hotter setting and would regularly get up to an hour on a run from the water, which was far more than the instructions said. (It was designed to be run until dry, unlike normal steam locos which one does not do this. One turns it off if one notices a lack of steam as one does not want to heat up air without water, but I was impressed.
When a driver I worked with heard I had it he came down to have a try, but he just was not at all used to how it worked. When he would accelerate a little too fast, instead of moving the regulator again to slow it down, he kept switching the power off to the controller instead! Now suddenly a locomotive with a fair head of steam accelerating fast is going to take a long time before it eventually slows, as its drive is powered by steam and not directly from the electricity supply. In fact, by turning off the power, one suddenly has lost control of an already accelerating locomotive which soon comes off the rails at warp speed, and keeps going for a good while on its side! I could not get the driver to understand this. Yet he remembered the steam days as he was older than me!
Anyway, it was fun showing him even though I took over after he had a few tries. The gentleman who bought it from me who also worked on the railway also was turning it off expecting the thing to stop. I had explained how it worked and how to slow it down more than once, but to them their natrual reaction was to reach for the power switch! Not sure how, but I just seemed to be able to run it and get the most from it and within a very short time got the hang of it. I am wondering if it had anything to do with running the Mamod traction engine all those years ago in my teenage years? (My Mum or Dad would light the burner. I would do the rest).

[aleopardstail]

Never forget about 10-15 years ago I bought one of those Hornby live steam sets along with buying a rake of 11 or 12 secondhand (4 were new but unboxed) LNER coaches and enjoyed it for a while. It needed the coaches to give the loco something to pull against, as those things can soon fly away at top speed if one does not understand the controls, and the leaflet seemed written by someone who had little or no idea, as some of the instructions on how to drive the loco were the opposite of what one needed. Having soon worked this out myself by experimenting, I very quickly got the hang of it, as it felt to me to be a lot like one of the Mamods except this was smaller and the heat came from an electric element instead with the electricity provided through the rails. The controller works a bit like a DCC in that to enable the motor that works the regulator and also reverses the direction works by picking up instructions via the rails where the heating element side of it is also taking its current from the rails. I rarely ever used the hotter setting and would regularly get up to an hour on a run from the water, which was far more than the instructions said. (It was designed to be run until dry, unlike normal steam locos which one does not do this. One turns it off if one notices a lack of steam as one does not want to heat up air without water, but I was impressed.
When a driver I worked with heard I had it he came down to have a try, but he just was not at all used to how it worked. When he would accelerate a little too fast, instead of moving the regulator again to slow it down, he kept switching the power off to the controller instead! Now suddenly a locomotive with a fair head of steam accelerating fast is going to take a long time before it eventually slows, as its drive is powered by steam and not directly from the electricity supply. In fact, by turning off the power, one suddenly has lost control of an already accelerating locomotive which soon comes off the rails at warp speed, and keeps going for a good while on its side! I could not get the driver to understand this. Yet he remembered the steam days as he was older than me!
Anyway, it was fun showing him even though I took over after he had a few tries.
Now a year or two down the line I had left the job and had a mortgage payment to pay, and another college I knew who worked on the PW expressed interest. I lost a lot of money on what I had paid as Hattons had seriously dropped their price right down to £250 from £500, and as it was now classed as secondhand (Though in very good condition as I had only run it a few times), he bought it from me for £200. He didn't believe me that it had cost a lot more. (I think I had paid £400 as when the first came out they retained at £500, and some shops sold them for £450, and I had searched around seen one selling for £400. I can't remember the postage charge).

saw a remote control shunting mule on a depot, and more than once saw the instructor diving for the kill switch

[Mountain]

Never forget about 10-15 years ago I bought one of those Hornby live steam sets along with buying a rake of 11 or 12 secondhand (4 were new but unboxed) LNER coaches and enjoyed it for a while. It needed the coaches to give the loco something to pull against, as those things can soon fly away at top speed if one does not understand the controls, and the leaflet seemed written by someone who had little or no idea, as some of the instructions on how to drive the loco were the opposite of what one needed. Having soon worked this out myself by experimenting, I very quickly got the hang of it, as it felt to me to be a lot like one of the Mamods except this was smaller and the heat came from an electric element instead with the electricity provided through the rails. The controller works a bit like a DCC in that to enable the motor that works the regulator and also reverses the direction works by picking up instructions via the rails where the heating element side of it is also taking its current from the rails. I rarely ever used the hotter setting and would regularly get up to an hour on a run from the water, which was far more than the instructions said. (It was designed to be run until dry, unlike normal steam locos which one does not do this. One turns it off if one notices a lack of steam as one does not want to heat up air without water, but I was impressed.
When a driver I worked with heard I had it he came down to have a try, but he just was not at all used to how it worked. When he would accelerate a little too fast, instead of moving the regulator again to slow it down, he kept switching the power off to the controller instead! Now suddenly a locomotive with a fair head of steam accelerating fast is going to take a long time before it eventually slows, as its drive is powered by steam and not directly from the electricity supply. In fact, by turning off the power, one suddenly has lost control of an already accelerating locomotive which soon comes off the rails at warp speed, and keeps going for a good while on its side! I could not get the driver to understand this. Yet he remembered the steam days as he was older than me!
Anyway, it was fun showing him even though I took over after he had a few tries.
Now a year or two down the line I had left the job and had a mortgage payment to pay, and another college I knew who worked on the PW expressed interest. I lost a lot of money on what I had paid as Hattons had seriously dropped their price right down to £250 from £500, and as it was now classed as secondhand (Though in very good condition as I had only run it a few times), he bought it from me for £200. He didn't believe me that it had cost a lot more. (I think I had paid £400 as when the first came out they retained at £500, and some shops sold them for £450, and I had searched around seen one selling for £400. I can't remember the postage charge).

saw a remote control shunting mule on a depot, and more than once saw the instructor diving for the kill switch

I was looking up what a shunting mule was. I can imagine the panic as the thing keeps going.

It somehow reminds me of my Lenz DCC system where I can set a loco to run down the layout, unplug the handset where the loco will just keep running, walk down the length of the layout, plug in at the other end and stop the loco before it hits the buffers. I thought this was a nice feature, but I can see the potential issue should one be delayed! Sort of reminds me of a 00 DC layout I used to have and the track design spiralled back and fore so if I ran a loco at a fast speed it took the loco around 45 seconds to reach the other end, but at a more sedate realistic pace it was about a minute and a half before the train would eventually reach its upper level terminus. Many a time I got distracted thinking I had plenty of time only to forget about the train for a moment and hear it crashing through the buffers at the other end! (I redesigned the layout into a single level continuous loop after that, as though it was fun, and I could have added a diode at each end, it was more of a case that I wanted to set trains to go and then do something else on the layout without the need to watch the trains every second).

[aleopardstail]

sorry my bad for not explaining, they were demonstrating it to guests, and let the guests have a go

guests for whom "inertia" is a pub quiz answer

for me this is partly why I'm automating stuff like station arrivals.. and worst case having dead track sections.. just in case

[Mountain]

Don't worry. I go off on tangents...Trains of thought...

[aleopardstail]

Don't worry. I go off on tangents...Trains of thought...

I tried thinking once, I didn't really enjoy it