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Locked Operations - Question from a beginner #operationspro

 

Hi. I just joined the group because I am new to JMRI (and model railroading) and have questions about the program.

I have a location with one spur long enough to hold two flatcars. All my trains (so far) stop at this location. I have the move count set to two at this location and pick-up and drop off are enabled. The spur only accepts loaded flatcars. Also, random is set to off. However, the program creates switch lists which only have one move at that location when two are possible.?
The only thing I can think of is it has something to do with the fact that the train length in settings is set to the length of trains I will want to run when the layout is finished and I have all the rolling stock I will need (right now I probably have less than half). Does the program prioritize train length (that is to say try to keep the staging tracks being used full) over car movement?

I would love to hear any ideas any of you have about why this happens. Thanks

Paul
 

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Paul

A pick-up and a set out is 2 moves.. Set your moves to 4 and you s/b ok.

Jim E.

On 9/20/2019 5:08 PM, csxpaul@... wrote:

Hi. I just joined the group because I am new to JMRI (and model railroading) and have questions about the program.

I have a location with one spur long enough to hold two flatcars. All my trains (so far) stop at this location. I have the move count set to two at this location and pick-up and drop off are enabled. The spur only accepts loaded flatcars. Also, random is set to off. However, the program creates switch lists which only have one move at that location when two are possible.?
The only thing I can think of is it has something to do with the fact that the train length in settings is set to the length of trains I will want to run when the layout is finished and I have all the rolling stock I will need (right now I probably have less than half). Does the program prioritize train length (that is to say try to keep the staging tracks being used full) over car movement?

I would love to hear any ideas any of you have about why this happens. Thanks

Paul
 

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Paul,

?

Each movement of a car (spot) or (pull) takes one "move". If you want to allow both cars to be replaced with others, that will require 4 moves. Pulling one car and spotting another takes 2 moves.

?

Dave Beidle

St Louis
 

Thanks for the replies, guys. I probably did a poor job of explaining the situation in my original post so let me try to clarify

I have two flatcars. They do not travel in a kernel. Here a the possible scenarios.

1. When both are on a given train going to that location and loaded, I would like the switch list to have the train drop both off

2. When both cars (now empty) are on the spur I would like any train servicing this location to always pick both up.

3. If a train has previously dropped off one flatcar, I want a subsequent train carrying the other one (and it's loaded) to switch the empty for the loaded.

In all of these possibilities I can only see two moves.

Any thoughts? Thanks
 

Paul,

Set the build report option to "Very Detailed" (Info available here: ). Then build the train.

Browse the build report and do a find on the car number you think should have moved but didn't. You may have to repeat the find several times, but the build report WILL tell you why Ops isn't moving the car.

HTH,
Steve
"Breezlys"
 

Thanks, Breezly

I will look into this today and let you know how I made out.
However, the program is moving both cars, from staging to staging or to a yard. It's just not giving me the two moves at that spur when the moves are possible.

I'm confused but hopefully the build report will shine some light on it.

Thanks
Paul
 

What you want to do requires the location/spur to allow 4 moves.
The act of dropping a car is a move the act of picking up a car is one move so it takes 2 moves to drop and pick up a car
2 cars = 4 moves
 

Hello Paul,

JMRI Operations adds 4 feet to the length of each car to account for the couplers.? Make sure the spur length is long enough to hold both cars.? Hope this helps.

Cheers, Dennis Drury
Dayton, NV
 

Thanks for the reply, Bob. While I do appreciate the help you are the third person to tell me to set the move count to 4.
If you read my second post you will see that no scenario calls for more than 2 moves.?

Just to make sure there isn't a arithmetic mistake in the program I did change the move count to 4 but it did not help. Therefore this is happening for some other reason.

Thanks
Paul?
 

Thanks, Dennis. I have already checked that, in fact I added length to the spur to be safe :-)

It did not help.

Thanks
Paul
 

Breezly seems to think the answer may be in the build report. I am not familiar with these as a beginner but I will look into it and see it there is something in it that helps me find out what's going on. If I get to the bottom of it I'll let you all know what it was.

Thanks
Paul
 

Breezly,

I just built a train from a staging track which contained one loaded flatcar. There is an empty flatcar on the spur in question now.

I would expect the switch list would have me pick up the empty car and drop off the loaded one but it does not. It has me only pick up the empty but not drop off the loaded one.?

I viewed the build report for this train but didn't see anything that helped me find the problem. What did you mean by "do a car find"? Finding this car from the cars page only highlights it the car list. What should I be looking for in the report?

Thanks
Paul
 

Looks like I found the problem!?

In train build options, "allow cars to travel from origin to terminal" was checked. By unchecking that the switch list gave me orders to swap an empty for a loaded flatcar.

The only problem now is that the program must often find destinations for more cars than my woefully incomplete layout can accommodate so I'm getting a lot of "Build Failed" when I build trains.

I suspect the program will work better for me once I have a bigger yard and more spurs in place.

Thanks again for all the help. If anyone has any other info that might help...I'm here to learn!

Paul
 

By the way, Breezly. That setting was shown in the build report so you were right, the problem was identified there.

Thanks, Everyone
Paul
 

Hi Paul,

Great news you got it working.? To your issue with Build Failures, remember you can always put virtual staging tracks at each end of your JMRI Ops railroad to give all the cars enough space to go.? I did this as part of the planning of my railroad, then once the actual staging yards were built the virtual tracks came out.

Cheers, Dennis Drury
Dayton, NV

The miracle is this: the more we share the more we have.
Leonard Nimoy



On Sun, Sep 22, 2019 at 11:32 AM <csxpaul@...> wrote:
Looks like I found the problem!?

In train build options, "allow cars to travel from origin to terminal" was checked. By unchecking that the switch list gave me orders to swap an empty for a loaded flatcar.

The only problem now is that the program must often find destinations for more cars than my woefully incomplete layout can accommodate so I'm getting a lot of "Build Failed" when I build trains.

I suspect the program will work better for me once I have a bigger yard and more spurs in place.

Thanks again for all the help. If anyone has any other info that might help...I'm here to learn!

Paul

 

Paul,
I have been following this thread and one possible solution might be to set the train build mode to "aggressive mode".? This allows the software to take two (or more) looks at the siding.? It might help your situation.
Dave...
 

Thanks, guys. I love this program! However it¡¯s clearly going to take me a while to get used to it.?

Thanks again. I anticipate having more questions and maybe even offer advice at some point.?

Paul

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