I’m new to OperationsPro and have spent several days searching the Messages trying to find a discussion about an Operation Scenario that matches mine but have not had any luck.

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Here’s my Railroad’s configuration: Cars/Locos are stored in “Pigeonholes” in a “Fiddle Area”.? There are several Tracks that Trains can be assembled on using the Cars/Locos in the Pigeonholes.? Currently there is (1) Town that is ready for Operations, it has 15 or so Industries (Spurs).? A Train (“Local Turn”) is built in the Fiddle Area, sent out on the Railroad to service the Town, returns to the Fiddle Area with any Pick Ups, and the Cars/Locos are returned to the Pigeonholes.

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All the Spurs at the Town have Schedules and Custom Loads and Empties (“Merchandise” and “MTY”).

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What I am struggling with is how to I configure “Staging” and/or “Yards” Tracks?? Do I use “Yards” Tracks that hold all the Cars in the Pigeonholes?? How does a Load Change occur?? When I tried this, if the Schedule called for “Merchandise”, no Cars were found because all the Cars in the Pigeonholes are “MTY”.? Do I need a separate Route/Train to get the Cars from the Pigeonholes to a Staging Track for Load changes?? If so, how does the Program know what Cars are being called for by the Schedules in the Town?

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At some point in the future there will be more Towns/Spurs serviced by other Local Turns and maybe eventually an on-line Yard that the Locals will “Turn” from vs the off-line Yard and then Transfer Trains will be used to get Cars from the Fiddle Area to the on-line Yard.

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Thanks for any help, Jon

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I have a simple and basic question about updating JMRI for the Operations in Panel Pro. I never had a problem updating over the years, but now I am confused. (My current JMRI and Java versions are listed below: I do understand the sequence and Java version issues for updating)

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Two years after moving my layout to a new location I’ve finally finished layout revisions and reconstruction and made all of the changes needed in JMRI operations—everything is working well. However, now I’m three or four JMRI updates behind. I understand about the need for sequential updates from 4.2 to 4.24 to 5 and to 5.8, and possibly to 5.10. And I know at which points I have to update from Java 1.8.0.301 to Java 11, and later Java 17.

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But all the update instructions mention one very basic step that I don’t understand and am very confused about. I cannot find a detailed explanation in the documentation. The upgrade notes all say you should store your configuration under a new name. Never had to do that for an upgrade before, and I don’t know exactly what that means or how to do that.

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In the current general JMRI installation instructions, under the heading “Upgrading from Earlier Versions of JRMI” it says the application will copy its existing configuration to a new Profile. So I’m confused about where or how I’m supposed to be changing to a new name. Since I will be doing three or four upgrades to come closer to the current program status, will that result in three or four profiles with different names for my layout or configuration? Please help me sort this out. I know this may seem very basic, but I’m confused and don’t want to screw up. I would rather understand things clearly up front. I did find some instructions about selecting between existing profiles, but that’s not my issue now—it’s how and when in the process of updating versions do I rename and store my configuration. Maybe I’m confusing terms for configuration, profile, or My JMRI railroad name. Wish I were smarter on this stuff.

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Thanks for any advice you can provide.

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(p.s. Once, many years ago, some of my JMRI files were corrupted during an early Windows 10 operating system crash. That was pretty scary, and it took several attempts with help from others, including Dan Boudreau, to get things running again at that time. That help was fantastic, and it the saved hundreds of hours of work on my JMRI setup. Ever since then I’ve been very cautious with updates and changes. JMRI is so great, and it’s the only reason I stay in the hobby!)

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Thanks,

Bill Schmitt

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