With some track down, a minimal selection of rolling stock and engines, and a handful of locations available to spot cars, I’ve begun trying to visualize operations on my layout.
I’ve never had the chance to visit an “operating” layout, but have an idea of what I would like to accomplish. Ideally, I’d like to be able to enter the layout room with and pick up where I left off the last time I operated-perhaps breaking down a train that just arrived, or making up a train that will be leaving, or possibly operating an over the road train from staging (a point on my railroad) to its destination, be that the yard, or in the case of a unit train, its destination whether that is an industry or interchange.
So, is there software available that allows me to enter all my rolling stock, the class of the cars so the computer can determine which customers these cars can be assinged to, the customers along with some parameters for what type of cars they would use, and then uses its processing power to generate work for me to do on my layout? I am aware of, but not very familiar with, car cards and waybills, but I would really like to make this more random and it seems a computer with the proper software would be able to acheive this. I understand that this might take some time to set up, but I would be willing to invest that time for the benefit of realistic and unpredicatable operations.
I have looked into this also recently, and the only viable solution for a home layout is a free program called JMRI Decoder Pro. It’s for programming decoders, but they also have an operations feature. You input all your locos, cars, locations, etc. into the system.
And you tell it which industries, or city’s locations what cars can be serviced. And then you can print out when you build a train. It keeps track of where the cars go.
Like you, I’m getting close to being able to run operations, and this is what I plan on using.
The issue with any software is keeping the layout matching where the software thinks the cars are. If you do any operations between computer-driven operating sessions, you will likely remove the match.
Under the circumstances I described, the manual 2-4 location waybills often work out better, allbeit a little less prototypical. With these waybills, a car may or may not be moved from where ever it is to the next destination on the routing chart. Determining whether a car is to be moved on/in a particular train can be random or rule-driven.
Real railroads are not random movements. And their operations dept goes to great lengths to organize operations into repeatable patterns. However, strictly repeating patterns tend to get boring for some to many model railroaders.
Didn’t answer your question, but just trying to determine if the direction you are headed is really where you want to go.
Most have their own Yahoo support group. I would suggest joining them, looking at the demos and examples, read the groups to see what kinds of problems and the amount of tweaking required. Some of them have extensive developer support. Some only work well if you use the user developed support. Some are only supported by the users.
For a small layout you won’t have “unpredictable” operations. After all, the whole point of putting it in a computer is to DEFINE the operations and make it predictable. XYZ industry will always use 50 ft boxcars. So if you have a 50 ft boxcar its going to XYZ.
You can also roll your own using Excel, Access, handwritten lists or even dice to determine what to spot where.
Another alternative is car cards and waybills. Micro Mark sells kits for those or you can make them yourself with a word processor, a spreadsheet or a database program.
The Operations Special Interest Group is a good place to research. www.opsig.org. They also have a Yahoo group. Car cards has its own Yahoo g
I have never been to a layout that uses this but at the price it should read your mind. I don’t intend to be a smart !!! but thats a bit pricey, Whew!! Can you tell I am on a budget.
For a small layout the car cards are your best bet to get your feet wet if you do not want to spend to much money. Here is a link to a free program that will allow you to print your own cards and waybills. You can do train orders and have cards for power that you can break down and set up again. Its not perfect but it does allow you add maintainance notes and any other info you feel important on your locos and rolling stock.
I did purchase Railop, and it is supported by a Yahoo group, but it is a little finicky to get up and running. I need to take some time before any accurate assesment can be made. I have visited and run on a couple layouts with Railop and found the switchlist much easier to deal with than the car cards.
The issue I have with the car cards is you will need to create a work space(open shelf) for an operator to shuffle and organize the cards as the train is worked. Otherwise your operator will have them all over the layout taking away from the scene you tried so hard to create. Here was my solution and it works OK, but as soon as Railop is up and running they will be removed.
There are five car card trays, one flat for locos and train orders, another flat one for staging, and three angled ones for industry or yard assignments. You can see the three angled ones will allow the operator to use the flat brown space for sorting cards while above it are plexiglass slots for industries.
Since my layout is a work in progress, and the track (and rolling stock) available for operations varies from session to session, I’d probably have to spend as much time updating the software ‘background data’ as I would building the layout’s ‘hardware.’
OTOH, the car card and waybill system I use has been in successful operation for close to half a century - and some of the cards are almost that old. I’m using waybills generated by hand during a layoutless tour in a combat zone - and I retired from active service in 1982.
My point? Car cards are made ONCE - and can last the life of the car. Waybills, once made, can be used until the print wears off the paper as long as the named origin and destination remain valid. Once the system is up and running there isn’t much paper shuffling - and most of that is done before or after the train-running part of an operating session.
I can stop at any time, push the layout KILL button, then come back after lunch, the next morning or after my wife and I return from a cross-country or trans-Pacific vacation and pick up at the exact fast-clock second that I left off. If, in the meantime, I run a train or two roundy-round for mundane visitors, the cards stay with the train, no matter where it originated and no matter where it ends up. Even if the location seems totally inappropriate the DS can get things back to normal in short order, ready to re-start the fast-time clock and go railroading, TTTO, 24/30.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - by timetable, with car cards and waybills)
Thanks for all the replies-you’ve given me some material to chew on. If I come up with anything interesting I will be sure to share it. Anyone else with ideas, I’m still listening.
One of the layouts I operate on uses Ship it. It generates the consists and switch lists, uses a fast clock and seems pretty easy. Occasionally a car is added or left off a train without reason, but I suspect it is “operator error”. I’ve never been in on the programing.