Anyone used Shipit! ? Is it worth the $$?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Has anyone used ShipIt! by Albion software? I know it’s been around for a while, so I figure someone on here has. Is it worth the $$

2

I compaired Ship-it and Rail-Op and joined both groups before I made my purchase. I went with Rail-Op and I am glad I did. Support is great and up-grades are free. It is a very versatile program and there are many features.

3

Rail-op…it may be good for smaller size layouts but when you get into med and large size layouts rail ops has a couple down falls. Certian trains are made up via a computer generated switch list which route cars to all different industries all over the layout but if you dont run train A with cars for train B then train B cannot set out said cars for train C to later on pick up

But with waybill programs such as ship it and shenadoah software you physicaly have a carcard and waybill for each car so when you go to stage your layout you can route cars to any of the locations you made waybills for so you can prevent the whole train A needs exactly these cars.

Waybills may take a little bit longer to make and stage but its well worth it in the end, there are so many more options with waybills verus a computer generated switch list

4

I have Ship-It and have upgraded it a few times. I use paper car cards, but I used the Ship-it program to plan my layout.

My layout has several staging yards. I used the Ship-it program to evaluate the number of trains and cars needed to get the type of operating sessions that I thought I might need. My layout is situated in Kansas City. I wanted to ship “beyond the basment” to industries on both coasts. Ship-It will hold the car in staging to simulate the time it takes for the car to get there and back. I was finding after three or four operating cycles, that most of my freight cars would be held in staging to simulate the travel time to the simulated destination. The net result was that very few if any trains would run on the home road. It helpesd me re-think my operating plans. Although I print my own car cards in MS-Word, Ship-it also has a car card program that will print four cycle waybills or car cards.

5

Thanks to all.

I think what I will do is download the trail versions of all three (ShipIt, Rail-op, and Shenendoah) and play around with them using TrainPlayer. I will then probably make my own program with the features I like/want. ( I’m an Access guru)