Your first track plan

Switch the track plan to edit mode with “✎ Edit” and open the “Tracks” palette. The practice layout needs only a few pieces: straights, 30° curves, three turnouts and a buffer stop. An oval closes with twelve 30° curves – two half circles of six each – and the straights in between.

1. StationLay a row of straights along the bottom. This will be the station.
2. Close the ringOn the right, add six curves going up, straights back along the top, and on the left six curves going down. That closes the ring.
3. Station turnoutsPut two turnouts into the bottom row, one on the left and one on the right, with the diverging route towards the station side. Between their diverging routes you get “Gleis 2” (track 2).
4. SidingAt the top, add a third turnout for the siding, with a buffer stop behind it.

An insulated joint says: one block ends here and the next one begins. Turnouts and open ends separate blocks by themselves – for everything else, set an insulated joint with “Set insulated joint” from the “Block & insulated joint” palette.

For the practice layout, one insulated joint is enough: in the top straight, between the east curve and the north line. This turns the ring into two line blocks.

A block is the section where exactly one train may be. The practice layout has six: Ostbogen, Nordstrecke, Weststrecke, Gleis 1, Gleis 2 and Abstellgleis (east curve, north line, west line, track 1, track 2 and siding).

1. Place blockIn the “Block & insulated joint” palette, choose the “Place block” tool and click a piece of track – or drag the tool straight onto the track. The block takes everything that hangs together between the boundaries. For the next block, choose the tool again.
2. Name itGive every block a meaningful name. It will appear in every message later, and “Gleis 2 belegt” (track 2 occupied) reads better than a number.

Feedback sensors are the eyes of the layout. Click a block and, in the inspector under “Feedback sensors”, use “+ Feedback sensor” to enter one line each with:

• the sensor type,
• the address in the form module.channel, e.g. 1.8,
• the length in centimetres.