Static switches

This Chapter deals with static switches only. Switches for moving trains have different rules and are described in another chapter.

There are several classes of switches available:

A. Adapter of two rails with different width. The length of these adapters is 50m. The northern end always has the bigger width. Symmetrical switches have the name Pay..., those opening to the right Par, etc. You see below Pay24050 with %6=3, %7=1, %8=1, %9=0. This switch has a quad northern end and a dual southern end.

All adapters are called with the same parameters:

Parameter | Value | Meaning
%1 |  | Geographical width
%2 |  | Geographical Length
%3 | 0 | Rail is placed on the surface of the FS terrain.
| Unequal 0 | Absolute Altitude of the rail above sea level in m
%4 | 0.250 | Scale. Should always be 0.250.
%5 | Orientation | Orientation of the rail on the terrain (0 = south-north direction)
%6 | 0-7 | Wires, Pylons and lamps: 0 no wires, no night illumination 1 wire, no night illumination 2 wires, simple pylons, no night illumination 3 wires, massive pylons, no night illumination 4 wires, massive pylons, lamps, night illumination for FS2000 5 wires, no pylons, no lamps, night illumination for FS2000 6 no wires, no pylons, no lamps, night illumination for FS2000 7 no wires, pylons with lamps, night illumination for FS2000
%7 |  | Height of the northern end in 25 cm units above Surface, if %3=0 %3, if this is >< 0
%8 |  | Height of the southern end in 25 cm units above Surface, if %3=0 %3, if this is >< 0
%9 | 0-105 | Embankment color 0: No embankment 1-FF: FS color 100-104: Texture 105: Seasonal texture
%10 |  | Range in m Rail is visible if within range. Typical value is 7000. The last digit is used to encode the rail texture.

The following adapters exist:

Par12050, Pal12050, Par23050, Pal23050, Par34050, Pal34050.

Pay13050, Pay24050

B. A third rail connected to the side of a straight main line. A single rail can be attached to a single, dual, triple, or quad rail. A dual can be attached to another dual rail. The length of these switches is either 50 or 100m. Here you can see S221r050 called with %6=4, a switch attaching a single rail to the side of a dual main line. For this example the winter texture for rails is used (%10=7004 or 7005).

The following switches exist:

Attaching single to single: S111r050, S111l050.

Attaching single to dual: S221r050, S221l050, S221r100, S221l100.

Attaching dual to dual: S222r100, S222l100.

Attaching single to triple: S331r050, S331l050, S331r100, S331l100.

Attaching single to quad: S441r050, S441l050, S441r100, S441l100.

C. Big connection of parallel rails with correct distance for stations. These macros have a length of 200m, two dual rails at northern ends with 8m spacing in between, one dual rail at southern end. The distance of 8m allows you to

1. attach two stat2200 or stat2500 stations with a platform in between,
2. two station3 or station6 macros without gap,
3. two cargost0 cargo stations without gap,
4. the two rails of the dead end station,
5. two rails of two parallel dead end stations,
6. the big crossings Pa2x... .

Since the northern ends are expected to be coupled to stations they always have height 1. %8 describes the height of the southern end and %7 the height in the middle to get smooth transitions.

This shows Par222st called with %6=4. Available are Par222st with the third end at the right side and Pal222st with it at the left side.

Hints:

I recommend not using the value 0 for %7 or %8 to avoid a multitude of potential problems.