Frauscher AXC Simulation

I was very surprised at the interest in my development of a simulation tool for Frauscher Axle Counter Heads that I posted the other week on Linkedin. A tool that I developed to aid principles testing of Axle counter data (ie resets, supervisory sections, counting head control, etc..) and also a tool that can be used to simulate Axle Counter Heads when they aren't available due to either civil construction works or works that have a lot of disturbances to the axle counters (ie lots of plant on track during commissionings), so that I could get the tracks up to allow the rest of the signalling system to be in a state that helps with testing and commissioning.

Following my post there have been numerous questions about the box shown above, which I promised to share the circuit (the box has 8 of these circuits). The circuit concept is very simple, it is a series of resistors to simulate the Axle Counter Head (either Frauscher RSR180 or RSR123), then a set of push buttons that add resistance to the circuit to then simulate damping of the axle counter head (less than 75% of the normal current). My later box includes an LED in this circuit to help show a damping is in effect. The box also includes a normal/invert switch, this was added so that I could set the box up have the Sys1 and Sys2 in the order they would be damped by a train traveling through, to account for Axle Counter heads on the opposite rail, it is more of a human factors feature.

There was much thought about having push buttons, toggle switches, capacitors to compensate for miscounts or even automatic counting using PLC operated switching. These were all dismissed for a few key reasons, the first having just resistors, LEDs, buttons and switches made the box passive. It didn't need a power source, so becomes more user friendly in the site environment, its always ready to go. The second reason was the use of it for Principles Testing of axle counter data. Having the ability to independantly do each of Sys1 or Sys2 means testing things like partial counts can be undertaken with ease.

The operation of a normal passage of a train is quite simple with the push buttons. Push and hold Sys1, then push and hold Sys2, release Sys1 and then release Sys2 (or the opposite direction as required). The ease of the push buttons allows me to step trains through very quickly in what some that have watched me simulating train movements have dubbed the "Piano Keys" given the speed I push the buttons.

The circuit for a straight simulation of an Axle Counter Head (just a couple resistors) and for the circuit for one head with damping (remember the photo of my box above has this repeated 8 times) is shown above. Please feel free to use it, give me some feedback if you find any improvements that could be made. I do want to stress my philosophy is to share knowledge, I am not providing the circuit for others to make testing units for commercial gain (ie to sell), but to make units for their own use. I trust this won't be much of an issue, as I don't expect there is a very big market for such units, once each testing group has a couple.

Finally a plug of my own, I have gathered and shared information on the Railways in Victoria for over 23 years now. I do it out of my own interest and I want to share the information for others to use. I put much of this information on my website, Vicsig (https://vicsig.net) which I do without commercial gain but do appreciate the support of those in the industry to provide information or to support the website through Patreon. So please consider supporting Vicsig, or even just follow Vicsig on Linkedin thank you.