Does anyone out there use Ship-It! software for car routing?
I’ve had several problems with the software, mainly that movement grinds to a halt after 15-20 operating sessions. I was made aware of a companion program to supposedly balance things, but almost $200 has already been invested in the software. It sounds like another $100+ to get it to function at peak efficiency. It almost feels like a scam. Here’s what’s involved:
Ship-It software $114.95, but first you need to buy…
Railbase Pro $59.95 to inventory your collection, then to get trains running properly…
Ship-It Scheduler $59.95, this will schedule trains as needed, then…
Ship-It Real-Time $159.95, this will update your session while you operate, but to really get Ship-It to run…
Deluxe Balancer $49.95, this program isn’t even made by Albion software, but it supposedly works, then for updates…
Deluxe balancer subscription service (updates) $59.99 to keep your program updated.
I also feel that it takes too many “shortcuts” and doesn’t act like the prototype in a lot of respects. The idea of cars having a “home yard” goes against every theory of routing empties that I’ve read about (mostly Tony K. stuff). Trains reversing themselves in staging with the exact same consists. It just seems like in this age of supertechnology, we could do away with shortcuts.
I’ve been working on a piece of software that is very easy to use…I hope to have it out soon it is called Sort It…it’s basically a car inventory program and a train manifest system I am looking for a few interested people to beta test it for me so if you are interested email me at scott@pittsburghandohiorailroad.com I hope it to be a good piece of software and I believe in providing software that works and is affordable…software prices are outrageous…plus with my software the users decided what goes in it and what does not…also I plan to make it customizable too!!
I have talked with several people who bought Ship-It! and all of them gave up on the software. Your report of it eventually coming to stand still is common with everyone. It appears all of your cars end up n one end of the layout and they can’t return (easily). I wonder if the guy who wrote Ship-It! is willing to fix his obvious programming mistake(s).
I was introduced to Ship-It by some well-meaning guys in a group and actually had some reasonable sessions with it for a while. Eventually, I found that it started doing strange things. Like leaving cars on sidings that should have been picked up, not shipping cars at all, and what I call the feast-or-famine secenario. It would pull every car out of an industry in one session and a couple of sessions later would try to put every car of that type I had in there.
But, my biggest complaint was the lack of flexibility. For example, I wanted to be able to send a random selection of cars to an interchange. This was designed to simulate the random car types that would be handed back and forth between two railroads. Unfortunately, Ship-It doesn’t move a car unless a shipper has loaded it with a commodity that a consignee wants. So, to move that car, I’d have to create a business to load it, another business to recieve it and still go through a couple of sessions to get the thing on the way. No thanks.
I got into this hobby because I love to run trains, not spend untold hours pouring through reports and making changes to settings to try to get things to work. I finally gave up on it and came up with a system of my own that I’m very pleased with. I move the cars I want, when I want and where I want. It’s my layout. I sort of figure I should be able to do that.
I ran my trains with, “supertechnology” - pencil and paper - back in the '80s. Now that I’ve gotten back into the hobby and once my new layout is complete, I figured I would again run 'em with “supertechnology”. Just can’t see spending the $$ on software to operate 1 freight consist with 4 stops. [:D]
I mentioned above I am working on some new software…and to those of you in the model railroading community who are interested please let me know and please do send me yhour ideas of what you would like included in the software…this will be freeware because I know software is way expensive and very over rated…so let’s start a new trend software that we can afford!!! My email is in my signature!
I’m going to need some user input of what you would like to see in my new software you can email me at scott@pittsburghandohiorailroad.com or you can go to http://www.pittsburghandohiorailroad.com This software will be free it will come on a cd I will need beta testers so if any one is interested please let me know!!
I understand your frustration. I started by putting all my industries, trains , shippers, consignees, etc and got completely frustrated. I even tried using the ShipIt interest group with Yahoo.
I have restarted the program with one shipper ( a coal mine) and two consignees. The combined requests of the two consignees is equal to one quarter of the coal hopper cars. I found that this worked well. I then added another consignee and adjusted the requests to the above restriction and it continues to work.
My suggestion is to do the above and keep adding consignees until you have listed them all and it works without a glitch. When it does, add another shipper and start the process over.
Personally I am not sold on ShipIt but I do like the Railbase program and use it extensively. Like you, I will use ShipIt because I spent the money and so far the above system is working.
My experience with “Shi%-Fit” as we’ve come to call it is similar. My friend used it on his large basement filling layout, and it’s a night mare, as far as I’m concerned, though he seems perfectly happy.
The problems you have encountered he has too. But he is a retired Phd who has the time, and apparently the brains, to get around those problems. I don’t. We recently had a discussion on the Yahoo Operations list on trying to operate a yard on his layout. The concensus was he had WAY too many cars on the layout, and that Shi%-Fit’s requirement of a home yard should have been specified as staging, not various locations on the layout, as the yards just get plugged up eventually. This wasn’t an actual FIX, but was a best guess solution to working around the programs “goofiness”.
At this point I don’t know if I want to use car cards or a computer program for my ops. I’ve used both in the past but if I do go with a computer based system, it definitely won’t be Shi%-Fit, that’s for sure.
Have you made your operations program? I currently use Rail Op, but it is no longer sold or supported and I don’t know how much longer the program will work on the computer operating system. It is an ideal program for car forwarding and is easy to use. Looking for a back up program.
Corlissbs… You replied to an 17 year old thread. I don’t think any of the previous posters are here with us any longer.
You might be better off to start a new thread asking about operations programs that do not have the title of an obsolete piece of software in the title.
I posted the link to what might be the only remaining image of the Ship-It code a couple of years ago. I have no idea where that was (you’ll have to ‘search the community’ for the link), or indeed if it is still there, but it proceeded to a load window when I tested the install for malware on a VM then.
I’m reasonably sure a far superior program could be developed with a simple IDE nowadays, for far better OS and device support.