Testing a map

Before you share a map, check it and run trains on it. The map editor uses the game's own code for both, so what works here works in a game.

The Check tab

The Check tab after Validate map: the game loads the map, and the quick checks find nothing.

The Check tab lists problems as you edit, split into errors and warnings. Press the crosshair next to one to find it on the map.

Things it catches include:

• two signals, platforms or buffer stops with the same id,
• next signals, conflicts or routes that name a signal that isn't on the map,
• a buffer stop that isn't on a track end, so the game won't draw it,
• conflict rules that can never apply, and
• routes with no operator, no spawn variant, or no ending.

Validate map

Validate map runs the game's own map loader on your map.

• If it works, it tells you how many signals, routes and zones the game found.
• If not, it says why the game would refuse the map. Fix that first: the workshop won't take a map the game can't load.

A result marked (before your latest edits) is out of date; press Validate map again.

Testing with trains

Press Test in the toolbar. The map is loaded into a test bench, and you can no longer edit it until you press Stop test.

Testing Example Junction. Train 1T01 is crossing Line 2 on its way to B2, so signal A is held at red: the panel at the bottom right says Red: conflict with 1T01. Train 1T02 waits for it at A.

Placing a train

1. Choose Spawn (N) in the tools on the left.
2. Click where the train starts: a signal, a buffer stop, or anywhere on a track.
3. Click the signal or buffer stop it should run to.

The train takes the shortest way there in the direction it's facing. A train placed at a signal or buffer stop holds the block leading up to it, as if it had just run there.

You can set the train's Headcode and Stock before you place it, or type a start and end in the boxes and press Spawn.

Running the test

• Press play or pause (or P), and pick a speed: 1×, 2×, 5×, 10× or 30×.
• The restart button clears every train and loads your map again.
• Signaller chooses who runs the signals:
  • Nobody (all signals automatic): every signal clears behind trains on its own. Good for checking next signals and routes.
  • You, zone …: you control that zone's controllable signals, as in a game. They go back to danger after each train unless rollback is on.

Trains drive as in a game: they speed up, brake for red and yellow signals, and take time to react. There are no timetables, station stops or platform choices on the test bench.

Trains

Click a train, on the map or in the Trains list, to see where it is going, its route and the blocks it holds. You can then:

• Send to…: click another signal or buffer stop for it to go to,
• Stop at next signal, then Continue, or
• Remove it.

The editor marks where each train really is and which blocks it holds.

Why is this signal red?

Click a signal on the map. The panel shows its aspect and why, such as block occupied by 1T02, or conflict with 1T01 when another train is holding it through a conflict.

If the signal is controllable, you can also:

• choose its Route when it has more than one next signal,
• give it a Danger, Caution or Proceed command, and
• turn rollback on or off.

The What happened list records each step, with the time.

What to test

• Run a train along every line, both ways, with all signals automatic. A train that won't go where you expect usually means a missing or wrong next signal.
• At each junction, send two trains towards it at once on moves that cross. One should wait. If both go, a conflict is missing.
• Send two trains on moves that don't cross. Neither should wait. If one does, a conflict is too broad.
• Run a train into each terminus, and check it comes in at caution.
• Choose your own zone and signal a few trains through, as a player would.

When it all works, publish it.