I will admit I’m a little OCD, (my wife would say a lot OCD [8D]). With my layout approaching 8 years old, as well as, a roster approaching 30 locomotives, 20 cabooses, and 230 freight cars. Keeping all the information straight can be a bit daunting.
Early on, I created a construction log:
A three ring binder (I love three ring binders) filled with track plans, wiring diagrams and color codes, scenery techniques and colors, and structure information (kitbash sources, colors, etc). As I completed projects, I also added photos. This proved to be an invaluable resource as I try and match work from 6 or 7 years ago.
When I converted to DCC, a couple years ago, I started a similar binder for all the command station, decoder, and other DCC equipment manuals.
The biggest “issue” however has been keeping track of my rolling stock. So I created yet another binder for that. Each piece of rolling stock gets a data sheet (I used OpenOffice database), listing prototype information, model information, how the model is equipped, and any custom finishing information. Additionally, the locomotive sheets list decoder information, and CV values.
I boiled all that into a Access 2000 database that also generates car cards and waybills (its available as freeware from the Car Cards Yahoo group). Downside of Access is that you can only run the app on Access 2000 (or newer), so if you don’t have the program you can’t run it. Upside is that Access lets you build all sorts of neat forms and macros to make it look and operate real purdy.
I use Dave’s car card generator (ver 7.11) and it’s very easy to use and once all the info is loaded in, it’s almost “auto pilot” after that. Just about any type of form or report that you can think of can be printed out using the data store in the program; car cards, waybills, rosters, timetables, you name it. If you know your way around Microsoft Access, you could cobble up anything you might think of very quickly.
3-ring binders are all over my desk and office…I use them to save printed .pdf’s and .doc filesf or future reference
All my rolling stock information is in a database…It just happens to be Sun Microsystem’s OpenOffice, instead of MS Access. OpenOffice will do the same stuff, the steps are just a little different.
