## JMRI: USS CTC Tools Recommendations

This page discussions some conventions that might be useful when setting up a CTC panel using the USS CTC tools. Basically, this is how we set up the device user names in the example. It might be a helpful approach for you to organize all the needed info.

The key organizing principle is the station or column number. These run from 1 to the number of columns on the machine. They appear as N in the examples below.

### On-Layout Items

Track circuit sensors
  These are named with "TC" as an abbreviation for Track Circuit, followed by station number N, and then a user reasonable name: "TC Sta 1 Left Approach"; "TC Sta 2 Main"
Turnouts
  There is only one Turnout per station in USS CTC systems, so these are named by station number: "Sta 1 Layout TO"
Signals

### CTC Lever Controls

Each position of a CTC lever has a sensor to detect how it's set, and a turnout that drives the lamp on that position. To reduce the number of names, we give the same name to those.

Turnout Levers
  Station name, then TO to indicate the lever type, the turnout number, then a letter N for Normal or R for Reversed: "Sta 1 TO 1 N", "Sta 2 TO 3 R"
Signal Levers
  Station name, then SI to indicate the lever type, the signal number, then a letter R for Right, C for Center or L for Left: "Sta 1 SI 2 C", "Sta 2 SI 4 R"
Code Button
  The code button is a sensor named for the station number: "Sta 2 Code"
Code Lamp
  The code lamp is a Turnout named for the station number, same as the code button: "Sta 2 Code"

### CTC Machine Track Diagram

Track Occupancy Indicators
  Because these don't necessarily have a one-to-one relationship with the sensors on the layout (a track diagram might combine several layout track circuits into one on the panel), they are named slightly differently: "Sta 1 Left Approach TC"

Some people will want to display the actual state of turnouts, track circuit sensors and signals on their track diagram. They can do that by putting up icons for the layout objects; no additional names are necessary, because there are no more items.