I have what I consider a medium-sized, primarily switching focused layout (about 14'x15' plus 2 6-track staging yards in another room) with about 10 trains on the schedule. In my case, as a lone wolf, I run a complete train before running the next one so I do not have meets or multiple trains in service at the same time.?I have tried a few different methods of building them in JMRI Ops. I have tried building a single one and running it then building the next and so on. I have also tried building them all, then running them in order, then repeating that process. Lately, I have wondered if I should build a train immediately upon completion before running the next one.??

What makes me wonder what actually is best os that as JMRI only creates loads and destinations when the train is built, therefore a lot of cars at any given time do not yet have anywhere they are destined for. I have a few yard tracks with no restrictions and several yard tracks set to specific routes for pickups so when a train comes into the yard JMRI will assign cars to specific tracks for easier sorting. The issue is that since many cars have no destination until the train is built, some of the cars that come in end up in the general tracks and then need to get moved to the assigned tracks after a train is built.?

Ross,

You might want to consider making your yard a classification yard.? That way cars dropped off to your yard would be sorted by departing trains.



Dan

That is what my yard has, classification tracks set as such in the program. That is how I have some tracks with routes so the cars get put in them. I left a couple with no destination just so the cars don't get dumped into the same tracks with the assigned cars and I have to do a lot more moves to get them sorted. However, some cars arrive with no predetermined destination, hence the reason I am asking the question.

But cars need to be *going somewhere* to be properly sorted in a classification yard to get onto outgoing trains.

His train is terminating in staging with cars that are going "off layout". The issue appears to be that the car forwarding system he's using doesn't assign them new locations until a new train is "built" by the system from staging.

There's a couple ways staging can be dealt with:

1 - you assign new destinations/loads to cars in staging, and then get the appropriate cars onto trains (involving some shuffling and fiddling around of cars)
2 - another popular method is you take all the cars from a train that arrived in staging, assign all the cars in that train new on-layout destinations so that the new train is ready to go with all the exact same cars.?

One very obvious point is that staging and sorting yards are very different things and don't work the same. You can't really achieve both things with the same yard.

Switching/sorting of cars does not happen the same way in staging.

I'm a little confused as to how you're handling your yard when you mention cars coming in without destinations and getting sorted. It sounds like you're doing classification here, but your trains built in staging should really come onto the layout with all the cars going somewhere.

Chris

We too have a yard with both classification and yard tracks. If I make that yard have only classification tracks, will the cars with no destinations receive destinations before being classified? Or will those unassigned cars be spread across available space?

Cars without a final destinations can be assigned to tracks at a classification yard.? The cars will be assigned a "destination" not a "final destination" after the train is built.? Note that there's an option for C/I tracks to only accept cars with a "final destination".? If set, only cars that have a final destination are allowed to be set out on those tracks. This prevents cars without a final desination from being placed on the C/I track.? This option is under "Track Destinations" for a C/I track.

Ross,

OperationsPro moves cars in two ways, random and with purpose.? ?You can mix the the two methods. The program "knows" that you want to move cars with purpose when you assign that car type a custom load.? There are only two destinations for cars with custom loads, spurs with schedules, or staging.? So if you want all your cars to move with "purpose" you need to assign a custom load to each car type, and also select the options from your staging tracks to assign cars out of staging to spurs and/or staging.? With both options selected, you should find that all of your cars out of staging will be assigned a "Final Destination" which will cause those cars to be routed by the program.

The other choice which is a bit easier, don't give the program the option to place a car on a "general" track at your classification yard.? Now those cars will be placed on tracks that have been classified by either trains or by destinations or even both.? I'd try the easier option first.? Then when you build a train, you should find that cars for a train are all on the same track if the classification yard is one that sorts by trains.? If the classification yard is sorted by destinations, you should see that the program only pulls cars from the C/I tracks that have destinations serviced by the train being built.

Dan

开云体育

Dear dan

Tony,

I have to disagree with everything that you stated.? The program can pretty much do everything you described.? The program can use up to 5 trains to move a car from one location to another, and will use up to four C/I or Yard tracks to accomplish this.? Note that the use of "Yard" tracks to route cars is optional, and can be found in the "Options" window.



Dan

Tony
I feel your use of the term "yard" might be getting in the way of understanding the program. I have my main classification yard all set to forward cars to their next destination. That next destination is probably another classification yard. Another train grabs the car and sets it out at a spur for loading or unloading it's custom load. Both of the class yards have no "yard" tracks They are all classification/interchange tracks. The tracks can interchange between trains or other railroads. It is in how you set it up. I have many class/inter tracks set to interchange between trains of the same railroad. I also do not tell the program what track to set the cars on. I let the yardmaster do that. The car just has a destination on it and it is up to my yardmaster to group all destinations together.
Questions? Just ask.

later

Dave
Trempealeau WI

To add more information, I have about 120 or so cars "live" in the system either in the staging tracks or active on the main layout.

Right now I have no trains built and all previous runs terminated. If I pull up the cars page I find only about 15 cars with destinations listed, most of which are ones with a "return when empty" set. Therefore most of the cars previously dropped off at the classification yard have no listed destinations. I would expect that most every car that is not in staging should have a destination, shouldn't it?

If I build trains it then assigns destinations to cars, including those in the classification yard. This is the crux of my question, shouldn't all cars have destinations BEFORE they go to the classification yard so they can be put into the proper classification tracks upon dropping off? Or am I doing something wrong?

All spurs have schedules and custom loads although the schedules have both custom and the standard "e" and "l". Should I NOT assign "e" and "l" to spurs? Should I totally remove "e" and "l" from the cars loads?

Ross,

While your expectations are reasonable, they aren't quite right. In real railroading cars normally move with a purpose.? In our model railroad, cars move to create work for us.? It would take considerable effort on your part to guarantee that all cars in your classification yards would have a "Final Destination", or in other words, the cars move with a purpose like a real railroad.? It can be done, but in my opinion, not worth the effort.? Your not doing anything wrong, that's how the program works, cars are assigned to trains when built, given a destination, thus creating work for you or your operators.

The default loads of "E" and "L" tell the program to not route the cars.? So if you schedule is requesting either load, the cars will not be routed to that spur / schedule.? The only way a car would show up is when the program is looking for a destination for the car and finds that the spur / schedule is willing to accept it.? You can't remove those load names (L & E) from the cars, but you can ignore them completely by providing a schedule for every spur that doesn't use the L & E load names, and configuring staging to always place a custom load in the car when it leaves staging.? Note that custom loads can be a type "Load" or type "Empty".? So you can route "empty" cars if you want to.

There are two destination fields for a car, the next location a car is going to, which is given to the car when it is placed into a train.? That destination is simply called "Destination" in the program.? A car can also have a "Final Destination".? That's the field used to route a car. A final destination is given to the car out of staging if properly configured to do so, or from a schedule, and as you've stated, if the car has a Return When Empty address.? A schedule can optionally place a custom load in the car, and / or give the car a final destination.? Either one will cause the car to be routed.? The program when building a train finds a car with a custom load and no final destination, will search your spurs and staging, and if there's a match, will assign a final destination to the car.

Dan

Ross said "Right now I have no trains built and all previous runs terminated. If I pull up the cars page I find only about 15 cars with destinations listed, most of which are ones with a "return when empty" set. Therefore most of the cars previously dropped off at the classification yard have no listed destinations. I would expect that most every car that is not in staging should have a destination, shouldn't it?"

Keep in mind that the default Car view does not show Final Destination.? There could be many cars with Final Destination that have not been assigned a Destination because they need a train to be built that will take them somewhere.? Final Destination is where the car will change it's load, while Destination may just be the next stop on the car's journey (or it could be the last).

I just checked the stats for my Club's Layout (where we use JMRI): we have 170 cars in service on the layout and while none currently have Destinations, 141 have Final Destinations.? Before the last Session, 31 cars had Wait of 1, 2 or 3.? All Trains were Terminated at the end of the last session.? In that October session, 103 cars were moved, 30 moved on more than one train (in that session), 26 had the Load Changed, and 52 had their Final Destination changed.

Phil in gorgeous Young Harris, Georgia, USA