I am not clear on how OpsPro handles empty cars. If I schedule an industry to receive an empty (E) boxcar, I would expect the program to find a E boxcar and route it to the industry. However, the documentation for OpsPro states "The program doesn't route cars with the default loads "E" or "L". So, if your schedule is requesting a car with the empty default "E", it can take awhile before that car shows up.". Why does OpsPro ignore (or defer?) the request for an empty (E) boxcar?
The documentation goes on to say that I can create a custom load called E(mpty) and implies that the industry would get a E(mpty) boxcar quickly just as if it was a load with implication that the boxcar would be considered loaded (thus routed) rather than empty (not routed or deferred).
If the answer is....the E boxcar will get to the industry eventually but not as fast as a loaded (aka...E(mpty)) boxcar, I can deal with that. However, if it means that OpsPro will never route an E and the industry will never get a E boxcar, then I am totally confused on why E (or L) even exists.
This brings up a related question....if a train stops at one location and picks up an E boxcar, will the train drop off the same E boxcar at the next location in its route that is requesting an E boxcar?
As a side note, I have been experimenting with this and I created some E(mpty) loads for boxcars but it is not clear how the program is treating these boxcars with a E(mpty) load if no industry is requesting a E(mpty) boxcar.
Obviously I am not clear on how to handle empties as I try to build schedules for my industries. Any help is appreciated.
Paul Davidson