Koluszki - a preliminary guide

[chancellor]

 

Hello!

Welcome to my preliminary guide to one of the new behemoth signal boxes: Koluszki (pronunced Kolushki).
These are basically the things I have spotted while playing those few hours I could get my hand on it and would like to share with you.

As with all new (and large!) signal boxes, I strongly suggest turning on automatic filling of EDR (OPTIONS > SIMULATION). The station can be overwhelming at first especially on the rush hour and one less burden of filling the timetable could be a saviour. Filled EDR status is also a massive help for other signallers as they know what to expect and which trains are delayed and where.

To have one less thing to do, you can also close the two crossing you do need to operate. Permanently. Currently, the game doesn't punish you for doing that (no flying bricks from angry car drivers thrown at your window yet).

Turning on reminders about WBLs is also a great idea since I have noticed the chat windows from bot request tend to disappear or not appear at all sometimes. Moreover, a blinking request does sadly not make any sound on computer panels.
 

Hereby, I would like to acknowledge Moooritz whose ever helpful pictures I am using here for the switch speeds.

With this out of our head, lets talk about Koluszki.
The station is divided into three parts, hence the three EDR screens*, which I will call sectors from now on. These are Koluszki, Koluszki PZS R154 and Koluszki PZS R145.. I have marked their approximate area in Figure 1.

EDIT:
*by the way hit that "3" key to change between them without having to leave EDR zoom and enter another
**hit that "2" key to switch between sides of the panel-the tabs labeled 1 and 2 are misleading since "1" will bring you to the default position in the signal box near the entrance

 

In my guide for Dąbrowa Górnicza Ząbkowice, I have encouraged you to check EDR for which line a train needs to head to. In Koluszki, I find it easier to look for from which to which sector a train needs to head to because in most cases the exit direction is thightly connected to its appropriate sector.

Thus, if I see a train coming Rogów -> Koluszki R154, I know it will go to Rokociny (Figure 2). So far, I did not see any exception to that but it doesn't mean there are none - please let me know below.

However if in doubt, remember you can always check a full route of a train after selecing it in EDR and choosing the right-most tab at the top of the window.

The tricky directions are Słotwiny and Żakowice Południowe (Płd) as they seem to belong to the Koluszki sector. This is why I marked their exits with the blue frame as the majority of the station on the left. Żakowice Płd is also the separate box which is located in the same tower as yours so don't get scared like me when you see a fellow signaller on your right.

The station has five exit directions (Figures 3 and 4):
- Gałówek (white arrows)
- Rogów (blue arrows)
- Słotwiny (green arrows)
- Rokociny (red arrows)
- Żakowice Południowe (purple arrows)

There is also a possible route between Słotwiny and Rokociny, which I have marked with yellow arrows and line, but I have yet to see any train going through there.

The main connection in real world is the Rogów <-> Rokociny which is the line 1 (LK - linia kolejowa, railway line). However, because we don't have all routes in the game, for us the most important is the connection Rogów <-> Gałówek simply because this is the longest connection trains can travel for us. Because of that, we need to pay close attention to which trains we send before which to not to make fast trains have to crawl behind a freight.

A surprisingly often utilised connection exist also between Rokociny and Gałówek (marked with red and yellow lines in Figure 4). It is not uncommon to send a four-digit train through this line which reminds me of the immortal Sosnowiec Główny - Sosnowiec Południowy connection. Don't let its curvature and short appearance (on the screen) fool you.

Słotwiny and Żakowice are direction you need to ask for permission to set the direction from you and vice versa. As mentioned before, I have only seen trains coming via 1S track from Słotwiny.

Rokociny is currently our train sink. I call it like that because in the game, the route ends shortly after your station and trains sent there simply dissappear. Thus, we don't have to worry about sending a slower train in front of a faster one (even if the schedule says otherwise) sine the slow train will be gone. I know it is a game-y thing to do but it could save your skin every now and then.

I would also like to point out the two signals marked with red ellipses in Figure 5.

Those exits have automatic crossings introduced in this version. Although you don't have (you can't even) to interact with them, be warned that setting a route takes longer than standard signals. I assume this initiates their closure and we are waiting for the confirmation. When preparing a route there, I find it more convenient to set those exits first and only then connect the signals to them. 

This is actually the correct way to do it (set the exit first and then other signals on the way to it) but I find myself forgetting about it. It makes sense though as you prevent a driver from seeing a discoteque of changing colours on their signals while they await departure by their platform: if you start turning the signals green "from" them, they will see double yellow first, then maybe blinking yellow and finally a blinking green or green at the end of the process. If a driver is playing with UI, they may pass the signal before the final green appeared and they will continue slowly not expecting green all the way.

As you can see, most of the switches on the station are actually 40 km/h. Make a habit to quickly learn the fastest switches as it helps tremendously with swiftly releasing trains from the station.

Moreover, trains passing through the automatic crossings often have to slow down to 20 km/h because they get Osp1 signal. Keep that in mind as it may cause problems when you want to squeeze one more train before others.

Finally, I have found (great guy called hurtful as well!) that some trains coming from Gałówek will have platform 2, track 2 designated for them in EDR. This is a mistake in EDR as there are no switches on this station to make it possible. Simply route them to platform 2 track 1 or even platform 1.

And that is it. 
Currently, the best thing I can wish you is that you will be able to access the singla box as it is heavily occupied. And for good reason as it is finally a station which could be marked as difficulty 6 and is a lot of fun.

Safe travels
ch

 

Edited 18 hours ago by chancellor

[BigVern]

That looks like one helluva signal panel to operate. I wonder if in reality there would be more than one signaller on duty to manage the workload or some sort of auto routing system (ARS) as the modern signalling centres in the UK have.

[chromatix]

I think this is one of the more modern and centralised "signalling centres" in Poland.  I wouldn't be at all surprised to find three actual signalmen and a coordinating supervisor on duty in that building.  One of the signalmen (probably the most junior in grade) would operate Zakowice Pld. which is in the adjacent office, the other two would operating one half of the panel each.

[CoraVanLincolnius]

just as a precaution message: If you have a route set towards signal O2 and another train passes crossing 25.537 the signal towards O2 *will* revert to danger!