RailCommand Emergency Stop
Emergency stop is for immediate unsafe movement or uncertainty about control. Use it when continuing movement could damage equipment, create a collision, injure someone, or leave operators unsure who has control.
When to Use It
Use emergency stop when:
- A train moves unexpectedly.
- A locomotive does not respond to normal stop commands.
- A turnout, signal, block, or route state looks unsafe.
- Operators disagree about authority.
- Hardware or local runtime state becomes uncertain during movement.
How to Issue It
You can issue an emergency stop from the throttle, from the operating console, or by asking Casey to stop a train or halt everything. All of them take the same route: the request is relayed to the station that is registered as the layout host for your operating session, that station commands the hardware, and it reports back whether the stop actually happened.
Two scopes exist:
- Layout-wide all stop. Available to anyone in the operating session. Blocking a stop is itself unsafe, so this scope is never withheld for lack of authority.
- Single locomotive. Checked against the engineer who holds that train. If RailCommand cannot confirm who is running it, the single-locomotive stop is refused rather than widened, and you are told to use the layout-wide stop instead.
After Emergency Stop
- Announce that emergency stop is active.
- Keep operators from issuing new movement commands.
- Inspect the physical layout.
- Check command station, throttle, route, and session state.
- Confirm every affected train is safe.
- Clear the emergency condition only when the session host or operating procedure says it is safe.
- Re-run readiness or role checks if needed before movement resumes.
Recovery Discipline
Do not treat emergency stop as a normal brake. Normal stops are for planned movement. Emergency stop is for safety protection and should be followed by inspection and recovery.
Troubleshooting
"E-STOP NOT CONFIRMED" — what it means and what to do
RailCommand reports a stop as confirmed only when the layout host acknowledges that it commanded the hardware. Anything else is reported as E-STOP NOT CONFIRMED, followed by the instruction to cut track power now if the train may still be moving.
Do exactly that, in this order:
- Cut track power at the command station or the power bus. Do not wait for the screen to change.
- Check the layout physically before anything else.
- Only then work out why the stop could not be confirmed.
Treat a not-confirmed stop as a train that is still moving. It does not mean the stop definitely failed — it means RailCommand cannot prove it succeeded, and on a physical railroad those must be handled the same way.
Why a stop can come back not confirmed
- No layout host is connected. Nothing is attached to your operating session that can command the hardware, so the request has nowhere to go. Common when the desktop station has been closed, has lost its network connection, or has not yet joined the session.
- The layout host did not answer in time. The station is connected but did not acknowledge within the time RailCommand waits.
- The connection dropped mid-request.
- The layout host declined, or its own hardware link did not acknowledge the command.
- More than one operating session is live for your organization. RailCommand will not guess which railroad to stop, so it refuses and tells you to use the emergency stop on that session's own console.
- The locomotive could not be identified, or the engineer holding it could not be verified. Only the single-locomotive stop fails this way; the layout-wide all stop remains available.
Recovering after a not-confirmed stop
With power cut and the layout inspected, reconnect or restart the layout host station, rejoin the operating session, and confirm the host shows as connected before restoring power. Re-issue the emergency stop and confirm you get a confirmed result before anyone resumes movement.
Safety Notes
- A confirmed emergency stop is the only report that means the railroad was told to stop. RailCommand never reports success on the basis of having sent something, and never on the basis of a screen updating.
- E-STOP NOT CONFIRMED means: cut track power now if the train may still be moving. Act first, diagnose second.
- Casey uses the same path and reports the same verdict. If Casey cannot confirm your stop, it will say so and tell you to cut track power. Casey saying nothing, or a chat that appears to hang, is never evidence that trains stopped.
- The stopped state you see on screen is recorded only after the hardware acknowledgement, so it is not a guess — but it is also not a substitute for looking at the railroad.
- If the software that commands your hardware is not running or not connected, no software emergency stop can reach the trains. Keep a physical means of cutting track power within reach of every operating position.
- Emergency stop protects against unsafe movement. It does not replace the operating rules, the session host's authority, or a physical inspection before movement resumes.