SimRail for Dummies

a guide made by 3N & KagurazakaYukari, SimRail CN Community

The Preface for English Version

Since this book is for people who knows nothing about railways, this book only talks about some general concepts and definitions. And it assumes all readers never take a train or go on a journey by train. Therefore, you may find some unprofessional description on certain ideas or terms.

I don’t like to throw out all terms you will use at first. So, I’ll try to use some personal view and explanation to help you understand these words better.

This book has seven parts:

The first part is the basic concept you should know, like signals, interlock, turnout, etc.

The second part is the terms used in driving, for example, you will learn about locomotives, EMU/DMU, and batteries.

The third part is for dispatchers. We’ll talk about what to say, timetables, priorities, left-track operation, and other things related.

The fourth part is some terms for operation, like delay and early, and all kinds of failures.

The fifth part is a basic introduction to Polish Railways, like the meaning of train number, train codes, and current situation.

The last two parts will contain very detailed tutorial of driving and dispatching. Also, there is a simple page for you to learn how to pronounce Polish alphabet.

The Preface of Original Chinese Version

Now there are more and more Chinese players in the game. According to the questionnaire I posted one month ago, some players have no idea what railway means.

However, tutorials in the game, and some community tutorials always are always set for people that have some basic understanding on railways. So, I think maybe it’s time to write a tutorial for these people.

Hope you can learn something after you read this very long article. And I want to thank KagurazakaYukari for adding some brief and easy-understanding descriptions.

Your Sincerely,

3N

Link to Original Article (Simplified Chinese)

If you think you can understand Chinese, you can check the link below. The content of this book was first posted on SimRail Wikipedia:

专题：从零开始理解SimRail - SimRail_Wiki

Chapter 1: Some Basic Concepts

1.1 Signals

We can see many different traffic lights in life. Usually they are red-yellow-green, some will add numbers. Railway transportation also needs such thing, which is called “signals”.

“When it’s red, you should stop. When it’s green, you should go.” This is the most common rule for signaling system. But, it’s not enough to just tell a train whether you should go or not. You need to know there are many trains running on the railways at the same time. That’s why, we would use different displays and colors to tell drivers:

• How far is the previous train?
• What is the route for your train after this signal?
• How fast can you drive after this signal?

But there is another problem. Just imagining, we told a driver your train is 1600m away from the previous train. What would the driver think?

“How can I measure that? What do you mean by 1600m?”

To avoid this, we divide a whole route into different sections, and we put signal lights at the division point of two sections. These sections are called blocks.

And for each block, it can only contain one train. Why? Let’s think it in another way. You’re driving on the road, and there is car in front of you. When you saw the red light from the previous car (which means it is breaking), you will also brake, unless you are filming some crash scenes. That red light from previous car is the signal light we set. Therefore, one block can only have one train theoretically.

“Then why is it called block? That word has many different meanings. It’s confusing!”

Well, before you shout out your opinion, let’s turn our eyes to roads. You’re driving, and the traffic light turns green. But the driver ahead of you refuse to go and block your way. You decide to sound your horn, because that car has blocked your way.

An example of Hl

OK, now we turn back to the three things a signal would tell. We told drivers how fast you can drive, and how will you drive. But the driver today is a little bit anxious, he drives so fast that may fail to brake in time. That’s why we tell drivers how fast you will drive at this signal.

“Then how many signals we need? Two? Isn’t it expensive?”

That’s why we decide to combine these two things into one signal. To make you easy to understand, let’s check Hl system from Germany.

What you can see on the left is a typical Germany Hl system signal.

“There are so many lights, which one shall I look at?”

The lights in red square would tell you the situation of the next signal, while the lights in blue square would tell you what you are going to do now. Hl system can be concluded into a chart, circle with four straight line means it’s blinking, if you want a more detailed one, please check:

http://www.tf-ausbildung.de/SignalbuchOnline/hlsignale.htm

A chart to summarize Hl system

and you can summarize in this chart easier:

(All number=km/h)		Next Signal Speed Limit
		Vmax	100	40/60	Stop
This Signal Speed Limit	Vmax	Hl1	Hl4	Hl7	Hl10
	100	Hl2	Hl5	Hl8	Hl11
	60	Hl3b	Hl6b	Hl9b	Hl12b
	40	Hl3a	Hl6a	Hl9a	Hl12a
	Stop	Hp0

The Polish one is similar to this one, since they share the same logic.

Poland Signal 1

Poland Signal 2

I also use a chart to tell you the logic, so you can compare these two. If you saw lights with four short lines around, this means it will blink.

You can consider S1 as a boundary, the light upper than the third light shows the speed limit of next signal, the lower ones show the speed limit of this signal.

(All number=km/h)		Next Signal Speed Limit
		Vmax	100	40/60	Stop
This Signal Speed Limit	Vmax	S2	S3	S4	S5
	100	S6	S7	S8	S9
	60	S10a	S11a	S12a	S13a
	40	S10	S11	S12	S13
	Stop	S1

If you have difficulty remembering this, don’t worry, HUD will tell you the speed limit.