Paul,
The program works in two ways, random movement, or with purpose.? Cars with "E" or "L" default loads move randomly.? This is the simplest approach, the program finds a car, and then finds a track somewhere in the train's route that is willing to accept the car.? Some folks don't like this type of car movement, they want to see cars move with a purpose.? So the program allows you have all cars move randomly, or all with a purpose, or any combination of the two.?
When you create a custom load for a car, that's the first step in creating car movement with a purpose.? When you create a schedule for a spur, you create demand for cars with custom loads.? A custom load can be either a type "Load" or type "Empty".? Cars with either load type move the same, the only difference is how the program calculates the train weight, and how the program reports the number of car load and empties in the train.
I strongly recommend that when starting out with the program that you use the random method, no custom loads, no schedules.? You simply decide what type of cars a track can service, the number of cars that can be serviced (track length) and then you're done.? You will have the most car movement with the random method.? Later you can introduce custom loads and schedules for some of your spurs and see what the results are.? In most cases you will decrease or prevent car movement .as you will reduce the options the program has for moving cars.? For example, you might have an interchange.? You find a nice track that can hold several cars and decide it would be nice to see the exchange of cars via the interchange.? But if for whatever reason, you end up with most of your car having to pass through the interchange, that can be a bottleneck.? Now you have to figure out the ebb and flow of cars through the interchange, just like the prototype.
My experience with many operators is that they can't tell the difference between random and car movement with a purpose, In most scenarios, the operator only sees a particular car once, he doesn't see it traveling across the layout.? And in most sessions a car is only moved once.
Dan
