Dear Swiss Trainsim fans,
As you probably are aware, with the release of Rivet Games routes, ZUB magnets are finally available for TS1. This has triggered a whole series of upgrades and updates on our trains to make them compatible with this new system. To explain a bit more, I decided to write this short article.
ZUB 121 is a security system that picks up signals from magnets in between the rails.
In short, the system sends messages to a ZUB receiver in the cab (The small black box with red and green buttons on top of the Meters in below picture). The display will show information on speed restrictions and some other things. If you are interested to know more about the details please visit this article on the internet https://www.wikiwand.com/de/ZUB_121 (German)
Because there were no ZUB magnets available in the simulator before 2019, I created a ZUB emulation. This used messages from signals and tracks that I then, as best as possible, used to emulate a from of ZUB messages for the display. Far from perfect but better than nothing…
After the introduction of the Magnets in Rovet Routes (Gotthardbahn) I worked together with the Rivet team to make the ZUB system work with the magnets. It is now almost perfect but I do still get some reports of things going wrong in certain ‘corner-cases’. I will keep improving the system until it is perfect.
When rebuilding the scripts I replaced the ZUB emulation with the Magnet system. This meant that there was no more ZUB emulation available on non-rivet routes. That however became a problem when the Zuerich-Olten route was released. That route has no ZUB magnets and activating the system would cause many problems as the script has no clue what to do with the (lack of) information from the various sources. After some (actually a lot :-)) of thinking and scripting we have now found a solution…
In the RABe511 V2.0, we have implemented a hybrid ZUB system. What does this mean?
When you drive without activating ZUB you will have the default TS1 warning system available (AWS). ZUB will stay dormant. If you however activate ZUB, the emulation will become active. This is like the ‘old’ emulator. Not perfect but at least you will get some info on the ZUB screen on non-rivet routes like Zuerich-Olten. If you are driving on a Rivet Games route (with magnets), the script will sense the magnets and switch to the full ZUB system automatically.
Because of the highly complicated scripting involved in combination with possible signalling errors (route dependant), you might encounter problems a first. We are actively monitoring the issues and update the system as many times as needed to mitigate any problems. The plan is to retrofit the hybrid ZUB on all of our SBB engines during 2020.
Happy Swiss Trainsimming!!
Paul