In our example our track control diagram consists of a yard A with three tracks (A1 through A3, on the left) as well as a yard B with also three tracks (B1 through B3), on the right. There are two three way turnouts that can be switched according to the desired route.

The start / destination buttons are installed as dummy buttons (accessory without actual device on the layout but with a dedicated address) on the control panel as well as on the track diagram. Use the F symbol with the shortest possible switching time.

The actual route between the two points is switched with the “Route XX – XX”. Each possible start / destination combination requires its own route. In our example there are 9 routes in total. Let’s have a closer look at one of them:

The “Route A1 – B1” must not only switch the two turnouts correctly, but must also delete the start / destination buttons that were used to trigger the route on the track control diagram. Therefore these two buttons are also incorporated into the route.

The two start / destination buttons are the only conditions triggering the switching of the route.

There is, however, another issue that must be resolved. This issue occurs if two or more start / destination buttons are pressed in one yard. Then more than one button per yard is active preventing the switching of a route. If you now press a start / destination button in yard B then several routes will be triggered with an undefined result.

This problem can easily be solved by pressing one button in one yard, which deletes the other two buttons of the same yard. Thus one can assure that only one button is active in each yard.

We realise this with additional routes “SZ button XX Clear”. Each of these 6 routes deletes the other start buttons in the same yard. Since only dummy accessories are switched the switching time can be set to the shortest possible value.