FAQ - How do I manually add a loco to the RailMaster roster.

[Chrissaf]

This tutorial covers two primary manual tasks:

1. Adding a non-Hornby locomotive to the RailMaster loco roster.
2. Adding a Hornby locomotive to the roster that is not currently in the RM database.

Note: This ‘adding a loco manually’ process can also be a solution to the commonly raised issue of RailMaster having no control over locomotive speed when installing a Hornby loco from the database.

The RM screen grabs used in this tutorial are taken from the RM ‘Metal’ theme. If another RM theme is being used, the described icons may be different.

The first thing to do is to find on the Internet a suitable image of the loco in question. The image needs to be cropped into an oblong that is just slightly larger than the loco itself and preferably on a blank white background. To give an example of what I am trying to describe, I have included an example image taken at random from the Internet.

Once you have found a suitable image of your specific locomotive on the ‘Internet’ to use and have saved it, move or copy it to the RailMaster loco image folder.

Note: The RailMaster Loco images folder is located on 64-bit Windows systems at:

C:Program Files(x86)RailmasterLocos

Once you have saved an ‘image file’ of your specific loco. The only other information you need is the ‘Function’ list. That is to say, what ‘Function’ features & sounds [if any] relate to which function number [Fn] used by the installed DCC decoder. This list will be on the loco documentation included in the box with the locomotive if DCC fitted or with the decoder instruction manual.

You now have all the information you need to manually add this loco into RailMaster in its most basic configuration.

Open the 'Loco Settings' window.....by clicking the steam loco icon – green highlight box below:

Clicking the above ‘Steam loco’ icon will open the following screen. The ‘ADDENDUM’ at the end of this tutorial gives an itemised description of all the elements of this ‘Locomotive Setting’ screen.

Arrow 1 - Enter the ‘Locomotive DCC Address’ that you want to use for this loco. Entering the loco DCC Address ID number here DOES NOT actually program the address in the loco....that is done later. Purely for the sake of this tutorial I will use the address 015 as an example, but you will need to choose an address of your own that does not clash with any address currently in use. If you wish, you can initially make this the default 003 address so that you can test the loco once it is entered into the RailMaster locomotive roster [roster means the throttle list on the right of the main RM screen] before making any changes to the actual loco decoder itself, then come back to change it to something different at a later time.

Note that DCC Addresses between 001 and 127 are what are termed ‘short addresses’. Any DCC Address between 128 and 9999 are termed ‘long addresses’.

Arrow 2 – Type in the name of this locomotive. This will be the name of the loco that will appear on the RailMaster throttle on the right hand side of the main RailMaster screen.

Note: if you were adding a loco that is in the Hornby database, then the pull down arrow on the right could be used to search for it. But as this tutorial is describing a manual locomotive addition, the database is unlikely to have the locomotive contained in it, hence this alternative manual adding locomotive process.

Arrow 3 - Click the magnifying glass icon and navigate to the image that you saved earlier, follow on screen prompts to add it to this RM box.

Arrow 4 - Enter the 'Cruising' & 'Shunting' speed you want for this loco.

Leave the other data boxes in this screen section 'blank' as shown.

DCC Functions list.

If your locomotive and/or decoder is a ‘motor control only’ decoder and has no operable functions, then this vertical right hand side ‘DCC Functions list’ can be ignored.

If it is a basic decoder with say just ‘Directional Lighting’ then this will typically just use the first function [F0] – check your loco and/or decoder documentation. The label for F0 would typically read “Lights on/off” [without the “ “ marks]. The on/off text is important and required to latch the function on and off.

If the installed decoder has additional functions or has a sound capability then the vertical function list panel needs to be populated.

In the ‘Function’ list panel. Type in the features & sound labels for each function as listed on your loco or decoder documentation. The list is scrollable to see Functions above 16. If the function or sound needs to 'latch on' you must add the words "on/off" at the end of the label text, else the sound will stop after 4 seconds. Do not include the " " marks. There is a character limit, so use short names and abbreviations where possible.

Six of the total number of functions can be allocated to appear on the small RM loco throttle. Tick the check box of the six (SIX ONLY) functions you want on the small throttle. Note: All of the functions ticked or not, will still be seen on the large RM throttle. These chosen six functions will also appear on the main large throttle as the first six function buttons on the throttle display and therefore may appear to be displayed ‘out of numerical order’.

Note: For more ‘in depth’ information regarding using the ‘Function List’ review the ‘ADDENDUM’ section at the end of this very long reply.

Click the Green Arrow to save the loco to the RailMaster locomotive roster.

Close and re-open the 'Loco Settings' window. Your newly added loco should now appear in the ‘Loco Name’ list in the upper left hand side of the ‘Locomotive Settings’ Window.

Select your newly added locomotive by clicking and highlighting it for the next stage. All the previously entered information should populate the window if it has been entered and saved correctly.

If you entered 003 in the Arrow 1 stage above, you can now use the RM throttle that has now been set up for your locomotive and test your locomotive on the main layout track to prove it is working. This assumes that the decoder is still set to its factory default 003 address.

If you omitted this ‘testing stage’ which by the way is highly recommended and entered the final required decoder DCC address in the initial tutorial Arrow 1 stage, then you now need to change the actual decoder DCC address to match it.

In the example above, I used ‘DCC Address’ 015

The loco must now be placed on the 'Programming Track' if not already on it.

To write the new loco DCC Address to the decoder [in this example, DCC address 015].

Click the ‘Steam Loco’ icon in the bottom row tool box:

Follow the on-screen prompts to enter the DCC Address you want to write to the decoder. This tool can be used for any address, both ‘short’ and ‘long’. This DCC Address must match the DCC Address used in the earlier ‘Arrow 1’ process when adding the locomotive to the RM roster.

If all has gone well, you should now be able to put your loco back onto the main track and test it with the new DCC Address. All of this that I have documented above is actually in the manual, but not particularly well enough written in a manner that is easy to follow. The manual also focuses on locomotives that are in the RM database and does not go into great detail with regard adding a loco which is not in the database. I have only documented the absolute basics of the process.

ADDENDUM

This addendum describes, in detail, each feature and function of the ‘Locomotive Settings’ screen.

Icons from left to right.

Up arrow - First of all, highlight a loco in the ‘Loco Name’ list at the top of the dialogue box so that it is selected and populates the dialogue box with the configured loco data. When a loco is highlighted the 'up' arrow moves the selected loco further up the list to change the order. This also changes the loco throttle order on the main RM controller screen.

Down arrow - opposite to the 'up' arrow. Moves the selected loco down in the list order and also the throttle position on the main controller screen.

Waste bin - delete the loco currently 'highlighted in the locomotive name list' from the RailMaster roster and deletes that loco’s throttle from the main RM controller screen.

Loco icon - clicking this icon opens a dialogue box to change the loco DCC decoder address. The loco has to be on the 'programming track' when using this button.

" i " icon - opens the full CV reading / writing screen. The loco has to be on the 'programming track' when using this screen.

Printer icon - This only shows if you have RailMasterPro. As I don't have Pro I am not sure what this button prints out. There is a similar button on the CV reading / writing screen that prints out the CV list, there is also a similar print button on the Track Plan screen and the Automated programs screen that prints out those two respective screens, so logic would say that this 'print' button on this screen will print out the 'Locomotive Settings' shown on this set up screen.

Stop watch icon - Used to set up and configure 'scale speeds' see pages 36 - 38 of the RM 1.74 manual.

COG icon - Auto Profiling button. Non-functional at present as this function requires Hornby 'Loco Detection' hardware which has not been launched yet.

Double Arrow - Used primarily for sound locos that are either Hornby locos that have not yet been added to the Hornby database or for non-Hornby sound loco brands. Sequentially clicking the button - sequences through four ‘Function Button’ label options. The four button label options being Hornby Steam, Hornby Diesel, Bachmann Steam and Bachmann Diesel. When used, the function button labels are populated with a basic set of labels that can be further edited to provide the exact labels required (see ‘Function Button’ section further below). This double arrow feature just provides a convenience feature to save some typing.

Red X - Closes the screen and abandons any changes not previously saved with the green tick.

Green Tick - Save the changes.

Data input boxes from top to bottom.

Locomotive DCC ID - This box does not change any configuration on the DCC decoder. Its function is to tell RM what DCC address to use when operating the associated loco throttle. The DCC ID in this box needs to match the same DCC address ID that is actually going to be or already is programmed into the loco decoder. You use the 'Loco' icon (described previously above) to actually change the decoder address.

Name - This is the box where you search the Hornby database by clicking the down arrow. Commence by starting to type in the Hornby Rnnnn stock number in the dialogue 'find' box that opens. As each character is entered the choice in the list gets shorter (assuming that the loco in question is actually in the database). Once you see the loco you are looking for, selecting it will populate the white box with an image of the loco. Alternatively, if the loco is not a Hornby loco therefore not in the database, then you can type in a custom name here instead. The name that eventually appears here will be the one displayed on the throttle.

Magnifying Glass – Located in the bottom right of the plain rectangular white box. Clicking the ‘Magnifying Glass’ opens the search box for the Hornby loco image in the database if it is not automatically populated by using the 'find' box above. If setting up a non-Hornby loco then if you put a custom image of the non-Hornby loco in the RM folder where the loco images are stored, then you can load this custom image into this field instead - see RM 1.74 Manual pages 43 to 45.

Locomotive Group - An optional field. If you have lots of locos, you can group them together into logical groups. For example you might have one group that are Diesels, another Group that are pre - 1940 Steam and a third Group that are post 1940 Steam. How you group your locos together is up to you as is what names you give them. As you create a 'Group Name' it becomes visible in the pull down box when you are setting up a new loco it can be added to an existing group already in the pull down list or a new group created by typing the new name in the group box. As said at the start, this feature is totally optional. Once you have set up a number of 'groups' you can then show just the throttles with any one particular group in the main RM controller screen. Say you have got 60 plus locos. Without groups all 60 plus throttles would be listed in the main screen. If you split the 60 plus locos up into 6 groups with about 10 locos in each group. Then only the 10 throttles for the selected group will show on the main RM controller screen. When you have configured more than one group an additional group selection box appears at the top of the throttle list. This box does not show if there are no groups created. The only way to delete a group once it has been created is to delete the Group.dat file from the Railmaster program folder. But be aware that deleting this file will delete ALL groups that have been configured. Use it if you want, or ignore it.....the choice is yours. Personally unless you have a significant number of locos I would leave this field blank.

Cruising Speed - The speed the throttle will move to when you click the 'cruise' button on the main throttle associated with this loco.

Shunting Speed - The speed the throttle will move to when you click the 'shunting' button on the main throttle associated with this loco.

Detection ID & Type data fields - reserved for future use when and if Hornby 'Loco Detection' is ever released.

Voice Control Command - The name you put in here will have to be trained into the system when using 'voice control', so that RM can recognise that this is the loco that you want to control when the name is spoken. This is purely optional. But note that if using numbers, these can not be written as numbers in this panel, they have to be written as words. For example Class 395 should be written as Class three nine five.

Function Button Panel

Each function has a pull down selection box where a function label can be selected. Locomotives called up from the Hornby database should populate the button labels automatically. But this does not always happen correctly. The Function button labels can be populated with labels in a number of ways. All function button labels can be manually edited.

1. Calling up the Hornby loco by Rnnnn from the Hornby database as previously described using the 'pull down find' feature in the 'Name' box.
2. Using the Double Arrow button as previously described.
3. Using the pull down selection box on each individual button label.
4. If you still can't find the label you are looking for, then just place the mouse cursor on the Function Label box and type your own label.
5. Any label that does not end with on/off will only play once. If you want a sound to lock on permanently (engine running sound for example) then on/off must be written on the label at the end of the label text. Use abbreviated name labels as there is a limit on the number of characters that can be used on the function button (the on/off text counts towards that character limit).

For example "Fireman's Breakfast on/off" would probably need to be abbreviated to something like "F.Break on/off". Note that changing the sound described on the label does not change the sound the sound decoder plays. The sound is hard-coded into the decoder. The labels are editable so that the label can be edited to match with the sound actually played, not the other way round.

Clicking the Function Label box will also open the 'Sound Macro' dialogue box. The default macro does not typically need editing, but it can allow fine tuning of the way a sound plays. See the RM 1.74 manual pages 41 to 42 for more details on sound macros and how to use them.

Of course not all functions will be sounds, F0 for example is usually 'directional lighting' on suitably equipped locos. Other functions may optionally be used for other non-sound actions, like ‘Cab Lights’ for example.

The check boxes on the right are used to select six (six only) buttons that will appear on the small throttle. All functions whether ticked or not will still appear on the large throttle. The six chosen functions will appear on the large throttle in the first six button locations. This may make the Fn numbering displayed on the large throttle buttons appear to be ‘out of numerical sequence’. This is normal and not a fault or bug.

The speaker icon to the far right is a 'preview' button [the loco needs to be on the main track].