In CTC Release 3.11 we will add the possibility to give an order to a train to pass a red signal.
It will be possible to do it in two ways: (1) by giving an order while in contact with your virtual train engineer via phone conversation [this is considered to be like a written train order], and (2) by setting a special indicator at the signal to be passed.
In Germany, the special signal indicator is called “Ersatzsignal”. We will implement the functionality in a similar fashion, which is: the permission will be active for about two minutes, after which the permission is withdrawn, and the permission is valid only for the next approaching train – if there this another train behind it, the permission is not valid for the 2nd train, even if the signal still indicates this (in order for the 2nd train to pass a red signal, you need to reactivate the permission again).
The signal symbol will flash in yellow, if the signal has the indicator on.
For hidden signals there is only the option via phone authorization.
Now, as you know, passing a red signal is a dangerous operation. The system will not check if the switches are aligned properly or if the next track section is actually free – that is YOUR job. Of course, allow to enter a block with a train already in it is what you actually want to do, therefore your train engineer will do his part and pass a red signal with restricted speed, prepared to stop at any obstruction.
Part of the enhancements for 3.11 is to deal with the consequences if something goes wrong. In preliminary testing I already caused a head-on collision, which the program does not handle very well – yet. It does detect that, but I tended to terminate the program instead of waiting for hours until the system deletes the involved trains, so that part is not very well tested and has bugs as I found out. But thanks to the save/load feature in introduced 3.10 we can now dig deeper into these scenarios.
As always, enjoy the game.
The WebRailRoader Team