RailMaster Beginner.

[Chrissaf]

RailMaster was originally written for Windows XP. It is clunky because it is also written for a Touchscreen, albeit I find that mouse control is more than adequate. I use a Touchscreen Laptop with a TouchPad instead of a mouse. Since my main PC is mouse only, I find I tend to gravitate towards controlling RM with the TouchPad, more out of familiarity than operational efficiency.

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If I could dictate what HRMS wrote, I personally would have done away with the clunky toy like appearance designed to suit a Touchscreen and tablets and gone for a pure professional looking Win 7 Desktop appearance with mouse control more akin to JMRI. But that is just my personal preference.

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Anyway, back to the plot. In answer to your primary question. No, there is no way to import an AnyRail or any other track planning software design into RM. Even Hornby's own track planning software (now obsolete) could not be imported into RM and that was written by the SAME Software house as RM (Invicto Systems, known on this forum as HRMS).

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I am afraid that as a newbie it all has to be inputted and configured from scratch. The one exception to that, is that a few of the Hornby train set layouts are already pre-loaded as loadable track plans & locos into RM. Like the Majestic Set for example. But that is about it.

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Just in case you are not aware, RM is totally 100% compatible with the Elite controller as well as eLink. I was looking through your posting history to try and see what controller you currently have, but could not find any previous post stating that info. I did however come across your Santa Claus post. I learnt to drive and passed my test in your car (the same brand model that is, not the actual same car of course, I clarify this point just in case Jacob takes my comment literally as written and asks me when I sold it to you 😀).

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[Chrissaf]

I am contemplating buying an eLink, and I have downloaded the Railmaster evaluation software. It seems a little clunky, but looks like it will do what I want. I tried setting up a Terrier as a loco, and that seemed OK, obviously I can't try it out, as I don't have a controller, or a chip in my Terrier. I did try entering my track plan, but that did seem a bit long winded.

 

Is it possible to import an Anyrail file into it? I couldn't find an import button anywhere.

 

The interface did seem a little DOS like.

 

Paul

 

[Triumph Owner]

Posting again because something ate my post. :-( (Got 404 error) If I can remember what I said.

 

When I said beginner, I should have said beginner to DCC. Nothing is DCC at the moment at all. I have no controller.

 

I am starting agian after a forty odd year gap. My wife bought me the ASDA set, with the GWR 101 engine, and I have set it up on an 8 foot by 9 foot board in the spare bedroom. I have also bought a 2-bil and a Terrier, and am using a Gaugemaster twin controller. I have spent lots of my pension on track.

 

I would like to convert it to DCC, and have looked at NCE and Gaugemaster controllers, but I would really like to control it from a PC, hence the interest in Railmaster. I used to teach Level 3 BTEC ICT, so like the idea of doing something on a computer.

 

As far as the car is concerned, I guess you took your test in the same make, but a different model, as mine is stupidly overpowered, and falls off the road if you take a bend too fast.

 

Fingers crossed, but I will copy it this time.

 

Paul

[Chrissaf]

because something ate my post. :-( (Got 404 error)

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You probably tried to post just at the same instant I was correcting the typo in your topic title (just to make future forum searching more effective). It is now fully intact above as before. From memory, it was a long time ago, it was a Driving School owned Vitesse 1300.

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You might want to look at JMRI, with your Level 3 BTEC ICT background you should be able to master it. It is 'open source' so completely free and would support the NCE controller you mentioned, maybe some of the others too (simple to check the supported controller list on the website) but not eLink.

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I have JMRI loaded on my main PC, but I only use it for DecoderPro and not layout control. Many say that it is not easy to set up and configure, but has extremely high level capabilities once mastered. I use JMRI DecoderPro with a SPROG II DCC programming interface. It claims to support Hornby Elite as well, but as said above not eLink. JMRI DecoderPro has five times as many functions and features than I could ever make use of.

[Triumph Owner]

Thanks Chris, I will look at that.

 

Probably if it was 1300 it was a Herald, not a Vitesse. Vitesse was launched with 1600 in 1966, but then upgraded to 2000. I do have one on my layout, along with a Herald estate.

 

Paul

[Chrissaf]

As I said it was a long time ago, I do remember it was a Vitesse so it was probably the 1600 and not a 1300. The year was 1970 / 71.

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The most notable thing I remember about learning in it was the turning circle, the front wheel geometry was I believe based upon that used by London Black Cabs of the time. At a certain point you could feel the resistance where you were in effect trying to push the tyres off the rims due to the extreme angle of the turned front wheels.

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At the time, given what was available from the other makers, I thought the Triumph Herald / Vitesse design a very nice car to drive. Oddly my very first car accident was with a Herald type Triumph. I was T boned by one when I was driving a Mk1 Cortina (my very first car).

[96RAF]

On topic

You could try Rocrail a free package that supports every DCC controller and associated points, signals and detection kit known to man and a few more besides. It also works with the Elite but not quite with the eLink.

 

Off topic

I rebuilt two Heralds from the rust up. I modified the transverse rear spring to flatten it, as if you employed the full turning circle at anything above a fast walking pace the swing axle on the back end would skitter as the rear wheels tucked under with extreme camber and the thing tried its best to flip onto its back. My modification limited that scary experience to some extent. The Herald 13/60 was like a single headlight version of the Vitesse. The 2 litre model was seriously quick for the day and from memory had modified rear suspension with lower suspension arm / radius rods to preclude the previous problem.

 

After I rebuilt my first Herald I noticed people flashing me as I was indicating to turn and it took ages to work out what was wrong. The bonnet harness was installed wrong and the left front indicator was in time with the right rear and vice versa. Got through its post build MoT like that OK.

 

Those were the days when I considered it essential to have anti-tramp bars on the rear axle of my 803cc Series 2 Morry Minor (0-60 MPH eventually even with an Alexander stage 2 tuning kit and using BP mega-octane pump fuel).

Rob

[Triumph Owner]

Thanks both for the suggestions, I will download a couple of those packages, and see what they are like. I presume the NCE has a USB socket.

 

Mine is the Mk2 2 litre Vitesse, which at least makes some attempt to stay on the road when you go round a bend.

 

Paul

[Rog RJ]

The NCE Powercab does not have a usb socket but an adaptor board is available, though it's a bit on the expensive side.

 

PS.  I had a Herald convertible 1200cc.

[Chrissaf]

The full list of supported hardware is given on this page (Hornby Elite is listed, but as previously stated not eLink):

http://www.jmri.org/help/en/html/hardware/index.shtml

The list confirms that a separate USB Interface board is needed for a NCE PowerCab. The list shows two other options for other controller products in the NCE product range.

[Triumph Owner]

Ok, I will have a look at that.

 

Fell at the first hurdle, as I have uninstalled java from my system when I had security concerns. I may try the Android version instead.

 

Paul