Large Scale Central

Fucntional Question

Operations Train Operations Software
#1

For the experienced Train-Ops users -

If a car is sitting as an empty in a yard, can it automatically be switched to a load when Build-a-Train is run?

Working with a small set of industries and an even smaller set of cars, I’m trying to anticipate what the program should do when a train is built, and I had an empty in the yard that I didn’t expect to move but it magically changed to a load and was ordered up for the train :smiley:

This is not a problem, just trying to understand how the software is supposed to work so I can continue testing.

#2

As I understand it, an empty can only magically change to a load in a yard, an interchange, or off-layout. Thus, your assumption is correct.

I find it interesting to think about how many cars an industry requires.

For instance, if a particular industry gets just one load a day:

On day 1, car #1 shows up at industry A.

On day 2, car #1 is unloaded and is ready for use elsewhere; let’s assume it just gets taken to a yard. Meanwhile, car #2 shows up at industry A.

On day 3, car #1 has magically changed to a load and is now ready for delivery to industry A. Car 2 is unloaded and ready for use elsewhere.

The original intent was to have cars go “off-layout” from the yard, simulating that it was being used elsewhere on the railroad. This would have made car #1 not available until at least day 4. Bob has encountered some problems with this and is reworking the code a bit.

Even so, you can see that it takes more than a few cars to keep the railroad running. On my small layout, I have 8 industries with a yard at each end of the layout. I put out all 32 cars for each operating session.

#3

Hhhhmmmmmm!!!

A pity the edit feature cannot change the heading of this thread. :wink:

#4

Thanks Bruce !

Tony - Not only am I dyslexic, I’m visually challenged as well so I sometimes don’t notice these little things. Good thing I didn’t slip and hit the K :smiley:

#5

One thing I have noticed on mine is it seems to
be acting as if there’s 2 different sidings at both the mill siding and the
mine siding. It’ll pick up cars at the mill siding to deliver them to Mills
Manufacturing, which is the same siding. It does the same thing at the mine
siding. Picks up cars at the mine sidng to deliver to the Mine tipple. Now
that may be because I have the sidings configured the wrong way. If so, then
a suggestion on how to fix that would be appreciated. It seems to do that at
other sidngs as well, though it doesn’t appear as obvious at other sidings
as it does at the Mill and Mine sidings. It has on occasion, picked up cars
at the freight siding at Mancos to be delivered to Mancos Freight, which is
one and the same.

I’ve sent my db to Bob to check out, but if it’s a configuration problem with how I have the sidings set up on the Physical Layout, I can fix that myself. But from what I can see from operating on Bruce’s layout and being somewhat familiar with how his is laid out and what appears on his switch lists, that doesn’t appear to be the case.

#6

I’m experiencing the same thing, Ken. A load goes from the siding to the industry on the siding. It’s something Bob is working on, as loads should go to yards or an interchange.

#7

Yup - Me to. I think your sidings are set up the same as all of us.

I decided to peek under the covers with an SQL database tool and watch what happens when a train is run. I can’t see an obvious reason for the double delivery, but I did discover that the latest build wants to deliver empties to an industry that wants loads and vice-versa. This could be caused by a simple coding error, and Bob asked for my database to look at it.

If you study the double delivery problem (which I did, nothing on TV this weekend)… The first time the car goes to the industry it will be in one state, lets say loaded. The next time a train is run, that same car is being delivered as an empty. This probably relates directly to the load/empty issue I noticed.

Don’t tell Bob, but I did figure out how to force cars back to the yard to start over :o It requires talking to the database in SQL speak, not something for the faint of heart - nor something that software makers like people doing :smiley:

#8

I feel better now knowing it’s a data base thing and not me.

As for what Jon said about SQL…he may as well been speaking in greek…:wink:

Consider me very faint of heart…