Getting Started (Railcraft - Signaling)

Probably the most complex addition by Railcraft is the concept of Signalling. Signals are powerful. They give us the ability to route minecart traffic using advanced logic and wireless connections. This guide will attempt to explain how to setup your own basic signalling system.

Vocab List
We will start with a list of terms. To those of you familiar with railroads, you may recognize some of these terms:

Signal Block The length of track between two paired Block Signals. Can be quite long, they can even extend beyond the chunk loading boundary. Currently you can only define straight sections of track as a Signal Block. Any deviations or breaks in the line between two signals will render the Signal Block invalid. Slopes are valid, but there are some considerations that need to be taken into account. More on that later.

Signal Aspect Basically the current state of a Signal. Possible states in order of least restrictive to most restrictive are Green, Blink Yellow, Yellow, Blink Red, Red. Blink states are currently only used to indicate Signal Block pairing state (pairing and unpaired respectively). Green indicates that no minecart is in the Signal Block. Yellow that the minecart is moving away from the Signal, and Red means that a minecart has either stopped in the block or is moving towards the signal.

Controller A device capable of transmitting a Signal Aspect to a Receiver. All Block Signals function as Controllers.

Receiver A device that can be paired to a Controller in order to trigger different behavior on different Signal Aspects. These would be Distant Signals, Switch Motors, and Receiver Boxes.

Block Signal A Signal that can paired with another Block Signal to define a Signal Block. It also functions as a Controller. They only function is pairs, and every 4 minutes check the validity of the Signal Block they define. In the case of a failure, it will wait another 4 minutes before checking the Signal Block again. If the Signal Block is still invalid, the pairing will be cleared and they will revert to the Red Blink state.

Distant Signal A Signal that functions as a Receiver to display the state of the paired Controller. This can be used to display the status of Block Signals you could not normally see, such as the status of a Diverging Line or the status of the Signal Block after the current one.

Main Line The primary track, for our uses it will usually refer to a straight section of track.

Diverging Line A track that splits from the main line and travels in a new direction.

Items
Now we will move onto the two items that are needed to create a functional Signal System. Both function by right-clicking on one block and moving to the block you wish to pair with and right-clicking on it. Its a simple system to pair devices. You will receive various messages indicating the success or failure of any pairing attempt.

Devices (Blocks)
And now we have the real meat of the Signalling System, the Signals and devices operated by them.