Large Scale Central

Informal Inaugural Ops Session

Operations
#1

I wasn’t sure whether I should put this in the “Model Photography” section or here, but since it was a operating session, here it is. This was more or less to find any bugs I may have entered in the JMRI program. Found a couple, a RGS #3 baggage car, wherever that came from, and a few mislabeled Tank Cars.

First thing I do is print out the roster by car location, then I can make up a set out train to spot them where they belong.

Delores Yard

I was surprised at the amount of cars it had me setting out. Looked to be a good session.

Delores Depot LCL

Freight House and service track.

The manifest for today’s run.

Getting the train together and then back into the yard for the caboose.

That’s a first, all home road cars.

Leased D&RGW #345 is at the head end.

Looks pretty simple, till we get up there and see where the cars are.

A stop at the Depot to get a look-see at what needs to be done.

Getting 2103 to the Freight Forwarding building required a few moves, to clear the passing siding and do a run-around.

Here’s what we have as we leave town. Dropped the hopper at the LCL siding and a reefer at the Freight house.

This looks like Hepserus will take some time.

The boxcar we need is the one in the foreground on the right, Coal Creek lumber co. Looks like we’ll be here awhile, but the second one we need is at the depot.

Cars are picked up and we’ve spotted the set outs. 2 hoppers at the depot and a gon at Bergs.

Then it’s on to Porter. 5 set-outs, 2 boxcars at Mills in the background, 2 at Radders Mill on the right and the reefer at the LCL siding on the right.

We’ll drop the cars here and run around them using the wye.

2 boxcars for Mills.

You’ll have to pretend there’s a depot over there, where the reefers spotted. Flat car and boxcar at Radders.

After turning on the wye and grabbing the caboose, train 2 is ready to depart Porter. All in all I was pleased with how this went. Took we about 3 hours to do this run, and found some trouble spots, which I thought I’d have and plan to work on. Not bad for a beautiful spring day. It was a lot of fun.

#2

Looking good! Did you keep all the locations and car spots from the old layout? If not, wondering how you got stuff spread out before the first run.

I have yet to run a session on mine this year. Every time I get it cleaned up and ready, another project comes along; then mother nature deposits another ton of tree debris all over the place (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-surprised.gif)Today I’m installing a ceiling fan on the porch to keep the skeeters away and make it a bit cooler on hot days.

#3

Looks like a nice run, Ken… (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)

#4

You need some Amtrak to screw up the main!

#5

Great photos! Looks like a good run.

#6

Daktah John said:

Looking good! Did you keep all the locations and car spots from the old layout? If not, wondering how you got stuff spread out before the first run.

Yes, all the locations are the same as the old layout, just in a slightly different configuration. Mathesons and Vaggiano’s are new as is the yet to be built depot in Porter, which is a new location.

Delores was the biggest change. Bigger yard, added industries, Mathesons, a LCL spot at the depot and a team track, plus the Interchange directly accessible from Delores.

I had to start from scratch with the JMRI program, since the old configuration went kaput when the hard drive went.

Doing the set outs took almost as long as the op session itself, since each location took anywhere from 6 to 10 cars. Once I got it to each location I sorted out the cars by hand. If I hadn’t I’d still be out there.

Here’s the car roster sorted by “Car Location”. This is what I used to do the set outs.

As you can see, Delores is broken into 2 sections, the yard itself and the industries.

Wasn’t much left in the Interchange, which told me it must be doing something right.

I used the C-19 to sweep out Delores and the K-27 from the other direction when I was done. The K was struggling towards the end. Must of been 10 cars on the front and 10 behind it…(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

#7

Looks like fun, Ken.

#8

I like your waybill format with a check off. Looks like a good time

#9

The JMRI program does that, plus I like to have the pick ups and set outs in different colors. That way just a glance will tell you what’s what.

#10

Thats pretty cool.

OK I am not at all familiar with the JMRI software. Is this an operations software that is taking your car inventory and your destinations and creating a waybill for an ops session. If so is it doing it on its own or are oyu having to do all the work. I need a crash course.

Edited to say I just looked at the website and I assume you are using the operationspro? If so are you having to import a layout design to the software so that it can develop the routes?

#11

Thanks Ken - So if JMRI was kaput, then you must have manually located each of the cars to an industry when you input them to JMRI again. I did it the hard way. Started with everything in one yard and ran trains to move the cars out into the industries. Took several runs before there was good distribution of cars. I should have done it your way :slight_smile:

#12

Jon, I guess I could have done it that way, but since I had the time, I did the same thing you did. Built a train, checked the build logs, then terminated it, and so on. That seemed the easier way for me…(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

OK I am not at all familiar with the JMRI software. Is this an operations software that is taking your car inventory and your destinations and creating a waybill for an ops session. I assume you are using the operationspro?

Devon, actually it’s the PanelPro we’ve been using and that’s exactly what it does. Bruce did a write up on how to get started with it:

http://www.largescalecentral.com/forums/topic/24208/getting-started-with-jmri

There’s a long story involved with this software. Bob had been working on writing a program that he called TrainOps to move cars for several years that we’d all be de-bugging for him. With every suggestion we came up with, the program just kept getting more and more complicated, to the point where it was taking up too much of his time. He looked in to this program and recommended it. It’s all explained here:

http://www.largescalecentral.com/forums/26/train-operations-software

RailOps is another software program that does the same thing, but from what I understand it’s no longer being supported. The guys in Canada still use it though.

#13

Thanks Ken. It was quite interesting. Pretty good photos too!

#14

I will have to play around with it. A few in our club would like to get more involved with Ops and this looks like a great tool to use. Even if only I use it for my use, I like that sort of stuff.

#15

Devon Sinsley said:

I will have to play around with it. A few in our club would like to get more involved with Ops and this looks like a great tool to use. Even if only I use it for my use, I like that sort of stuff.

Most of it has been discussed in that second link I posted. Bob, Jon, Bruce and I seem to be the ones who use it the most, so if you have any questions or problems, just ask. One of us is bound to have the answer or know where to steer you in order to get an answer.

#16

OK I do have one basic question I guess or a series of questions. I started with your links and instantly was over my head. So I went to the JMRI site so I could start from scratch to understand what the software is meant to do. So my first question is your using PanelPro but in reading it looks as if for solely operations purposes OperationsPro is what I would want. Is or can OperationsPro be used stand alone or does it have to comes as part of the large suite? Do I want the larger Suite of software for some other reason? Is the OperationsPro pulling the layout design from another part of the suite (PanelPro) s that it can know how to route trains? If so can you import it another way (AnyRail?)

OK thats enough for know. All I would be interested in for know is the operations aspects for creating waybills. I mean if it gets overly complicated then it may not be worth it. But having random and new waybills being created would be cool and it would be nice to have something do the planning and coordination of an ops session for me. One thing I noticed at Dave’s was the long time operators had the waybills memorized. It would be nice to have new and random way bills for each session.

#17

Now your taxing my memory, Devon. If I remember correctly, after you download it, PanelPro gives you a list of items on the top of the logo (File, Tools, Edit, Roster, etc ) one of which is “Operations”, which is all we’re interested in. All the rest seems to correspond to decoders, engine numbers and so on. Click on that “Operations” and that’ll start you on your way. You’ll get a menu with Settings, Locations, Cars, Locomotives, Routes, Trains. That’s where you want to be.

This is the section that deals with which software you want to install: http://www.largescalecentral.com/forums/topic/19562/train-ops-to-jmri

It will also guide you on how to set everything up for “Operations”.

Once you have all your settings in there, it automatically goes to “Operations” when you click on the PanelPro icon.

I’ve never dealt with OperationsPro so I have no idea how that one works.

#18

Devon Sinsley said:

OK I do have one basic question I guess or a series of questions. I started with your links and instantly was over my head. So I went to the JMRI site so I could start from scratch to understand what the software is meant to do. So my first question is your using PanelPro but in reading it looks as if for solely operations purposes OperationsPro is what I would want. Is or can OperationsPro be used stand alone or does it have to comes as part of the large suite? Do I want the larger Suite of software for some other reason? Is the OperationsPro pulling the layout design from another part of the suite (PanelPro) s that it can know how to route trains? If so can you import it another way (AnyRail?)

OK thats enough for know. All I would be interested in for know is the operations aspects for creating waybills. I mean if it gets overly complicated then it may not be worth it. But having random and new waybills being created would be cool and it would be nice to have something do the planning and coordination of an ops session for me. One thing I noticed at Dave’s was the long time operators had the waybills memorized. It would be nice to have new and random way bills for each session.

Oh, it’s just not as easy as it looks! (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-foot-in-mouth.gif)

Anyway, take a look here. Hope THAT helps.

#19

I figured out that when your clicking on the “operations” tab in PanelPro you are opening Operations Pro. It is part of the PanelPro Suite.

Thanks Ken and Bruce.

#20

Devon Sinsley said: One thing I noticed at Dave’s was the long time operators had the waybills memorized. It would be nice to have new and random way bills for each session.

Hey, I can’t help it that I’ve been running at Dave’s for 15 years… That said in the real life some jobs do the same thing day after day, but other jobs have a variety. As I’m planning for Ops on the future layout, I’m aiming for randomized repeated variety (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-surprised.gif)(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-yell.gif)