Railroad Switch Control

Railroad Switch Control
A sign to indicate the current direction of a railway switch
Unlocked by	Tier 6 - Monorail Train Technology

The Railroad Switch Control is used to decide the path of a manual driven Train on a Railway switch. It is generated automatically on every Railway switch that is properly built. It cannot be built separately, dismantled, or moved by any means other than save editors or mods.

Usage

A Railway switch is formed by joining two Railways together, or branching off of an existing Railway, at the end of a segment. It cannot exist immediately following or preceding a Train Station. A junction can only have 2 or 3 possible ways while not simultaneously merging and splitting tracks.

If the Railroad Switch Control doesn't appear, the track is not connected properly and the switch will not work. If a certain path cannot be switched to, the switch may have been built in the wrong order and should be rebuilt (this can happen when the common track is dismantled after the branches are already built, all of the branches have to be rebuild afterwards).

Switching the switch is possible either by interacting E or while manually driving a locomotive using A/D. The chosen path only affects trains with autopilot disabled. Automated trains ignore Railroad Switch Controls and always choose the desired track automatically, even if the switch is switched by another automated train.

Current issues

• A single Railway segment can only have a switch on one end, not both, otherwise autopilot may path through the junction incorrectly.^{[Verification needed]}
• Even though the switch cannot be removed directly it is possible to remove a switch from a junction indirectly. On a 2:1 junction remove any segment from the split side and quickly rebuild it before the switch is gone: the old switch will be removed and the new one will not appear.
• If two Railways are connected in a junction so that they both point the same way, e.g one is higher than the other on the same foundation grid, the switch will display one or both of the Railroads in the wrong direction.

Gallery

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  Different states of a Railroad Switch Control

History

• Patch 0.7.0.1: Fixed Blueprints containing special buildable's that get auto created by other buildable's (Like Sign poles, Railroad Switch Control, etc) not being able to be loaded
• Patch 0.5.0.14: Reduced Railroad Switch Control size
• Patch 0.5.0.12:
  • New visuals for the Railroad Switch Control.
    • Undocumented Change: Changed the arrow-shaped lever to a diamond-shaped sign with an arrow indicating the direction
    • Undocumented Change: A switch can now only have 3 possible paths, but switches constructed earlier still function
• Patch 0.5.0.0: X-shaped (n:m) switches can no longer be constructed
• Patch 0.4.0.4: Fixed “Floor is too steep” appearing when railway switch controls were placed in between foundations
• Patch 0.4.0.0: The "flag" for Railroad Switch Control better shows the actual position of the switch
• Patch 0.1.16: Now officially available