Excel Switch Lists?

[ridinshotgun]

Instead of reinventing the wheel I figured to see if anyone has an already established Excel spreadsheet that is used for generating switch lists manually.

Our club is doing an operating session and I am looking for something where info can be manually entered into a list then printed so yard crews can make up the set outs and switch crews can use it to set out and pick up.

So does anyone have one they can share?

Thanks!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

The CRHS has just the thing for you!

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

1 pack of 50 is just $5.

https://conrailshoppe.com/reproduction-conrail-industry-switch-lists/

I designed these for my own use and figured the CRHS could benefit from the fundraiser.

I've also got the yard version of it too, if you need those. We haven't decided on if we're going to print those or not yet.

[ridinshotgun]

@Ed Kapuscinski

Those look nice!   

You don't have that available in an excel sheet do you?  We want to do computer printed since we are working with close to 25 people and hand written bills can be hard to decipher sometimes!

I can kick some dough to CRHS for it!

[wm3798]

Ed, are those just graphic reproductions for penciling in information, or is it a functional spreadsheet?  I think that's what the O.P. is after...
I've been trying to find one like that for some time.  Enter the various on-layout industries, their shipping needs (in bound or outbound) and car types required, and I suppose a database of available equipment.
Then, by some mystical formula, run a document that organizes the potential car movements into a switch list.
As I evolve the design of my small layout, something like this would be very helpful to eliminate the need for hand written car cards and waybills.

Lee

[Ed Kapuscinski]

@Ed Kapuscinski

Those look nice!   

You don't have that available in an excel sheet do you?  We want to do computer printed since we are working with close to 25 people and hand written bills can be hard to decipher sometimes!

I can kick some dough to CRHS for it!

I don't, actually. I did it in Adobe indesign because I'm a lunatic.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Ed, are those just graphic reproductions for penciling in information, or is it a functional spreadsheet?  I think that's what the O.P. is after...
I've been trying to find one like that for some time.  Enter the various on-layout industries, their shipping needs (in bound or outbound) and car types required, and I suppose a database of available equipment.
Then, by some mystical formula, run a document that organizes the potential car movements into a switch list.
As I evolve the design of my small layout, something like this would be very helpful to eliminate the need for hand written car cards and waybills.

Lee

They're actual printed forms. The originals were all handwritten, after all.

For a small operations like yours, they'd probably be great.

For something with a ton of operators, well, you might need to hire a clerk or two.

[ridinshotgun]

Ed, are those just graphic reproductions for penciling in information, or is it a functional spreadsheet?  I think that's what the O.P. is after...
I've been trying to find one like that for some time.  Enter the various on-layout industries, their shipping needs (in bound or outbound) and car types required, and I suppose a database of available equipment.
Then, by some mystical formula, run a document that organizes the potential car movements into a switch list.
As I evolve the design of my small layout, something like this would be very helpful to eliminate the need for hand written car cards and waybills.

Lee

Yes that is what I am after.  I have an industry inventory and car type needed for our subs.  While what we are doing won't be as involved as what you would like to do, since the transient nature of the layout doesn't make it worth that much effort, we still want to have the lists printed for ease of use.

I am sure it will probably be me that ends up with the clerk duties!  Maybe I'll require payment in WAWA coffee and tastykakes!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I am sure it will probably be me that ends up with the clerk duties!  Maybe I'll require payment in WAWA coffee and tastykakes!

Dude, their chocolate croissants are next level pastries. Like, one of the top 5 pastries I've had in my life. The right amount of crunch, the right amount of chew, and the right amount of... how the hell am I NOT eating one right now?

[GaryHinshaw]

Enter the various on-layout industries, their shipping needs (in bound or outbound) and car types required, and I suppose a database of available equipment.
Then, by some mystical formula, run a document that organizes the potential car movements into a switch list.
As I evolve the design of my small layout, something like this would be very helpful to eliminate the need for hand written car cards and waybills.

Lee

This is exactly what jmri OperationsPro does.  You start off entering a database of locations, cars and, optionally, locomotives.  Then you define routes between locations and trains to follow various routes.   Each location has a specific sets of spurs and/or class tracks, and you can name them after the industries/functions they serve, limit the cars types and loads they handle, specify demand, etc.  Once each car in the database is at a known location, on a known track, you build trains to define a session and the program generates train manifests, switch lists, etc.  It took me a good week of spare time to get up the learning curve on it, but it's incredibly flexible and powerful.  You can go as far as setting custom loads for all of your cars and/or spots and have them printed on the switch list to add a new degree of realism to your railroad.

And it's open source, so it's maintained and costs nothing.

BTW, it can interface with an Excel-based Manifest Creator program, but I don't know anything about that.

[ridinshotgun]

Dude, their chocolate croissants are next level pastries. Like, one of the top 5 pastries I've had in my life. The right amount of crunch, the right amount of chew, and the right amount of... how the hell am I NOT eating one right now?

No sorry the apple fritter is da bomb!  I used to chow down on fresh hot fritters at 5AM washed down with copious gallons of coffee after putting in a long night at the port.  Just before going back for a double shift!

[C855B]

First draft, based on Ed's CR example. I don't know what a DiCCS is, so I took artistic license and made it "Dispatch Center". Also tweaked a few other things:



Excel spreadsheet here: http://www.everywherewest.com/trw_switchlist.xlsx

Labels are in locked fields so as to not anger the fat-finger gods, the data fields are all normal. Sheet has protection turned on, but without password; turn off sheet protection to modify the labels.

[wm3798]

Again, nice to look at and print out to use, but nothing in the way of populating the columns automatically from a database.
JMRI might be the solution for a large complex system, but I'm A) not using DCC, so JMRI isn't in my lexicon, and B) I'm really not worried about it anymore since I just goof around and run Rivarossi steam around my circle.
But from what little I know of Excel (or perhaps Access would be better... but I don't use that any more regularly than JMRI) there should be a way to pull data from several lists and stack them logically in a report (read "switch list")

Any thoughts?
Lee

[C855B]

OP asked for something to use for manual entry. Done.

[GaryHinshaw]

I suspect Mike's file will suit the OP's request just fine, but I'm going to troll Lee a bit more. 

I've been trying to find one like that for some time.  Enter the various on-layout industries, their shipping needs (in bound or outbound) and car types required, and I suppose a database of available equipment.
Then, by some mystical formula, run a document that organizes the potential car movements into a switch list.
As I evolve the design of my small layout, something like this would be very helpful to eliminate the need for hand written car cards and waybills.

Lee

and B) I'm really not worried about it anymore since I just goof around and run Rivarossi steam around my circle.

Any thoughts?
Lee

I'm not really sure what you're after here Lee.  But let me reemphasize that Operations will do exactly what you are sketching in your first post, and it has nothing to do with DCC.  It just happens to be under the jmri umbrella, which is commonly associated with DCC because of DecoderPro.

A small roundy-round layout would be simple to set up in the program and it can generate some interesting scenarios even if you only have a handful of spurs and an interchange track  (as long as you're willing to swap cars on/off the layout occasionally).  As the person who really got me interested in ops in the first place, I think you would really dig it.  You do need to invest a bit of startup effort, but honestly, any package that does what you list would require that.  On the other hand, if you're truly happy running in circles, I'll just be quiet.   

[ridinshotgun]

First draft, based on Ed's CR example. I don't know what a DiCCS is, so I took artistic license and made it "Dispatch Center". Also tweaked a few other things:



Excel spreadsheet here: http://www.everywherewest.com/trw_switchlist.xlsx

Labels are in locked fields so as to not anger the fat-finger gods, the data fields are all normal. Sheet has protection turned on, but without password; turn off sheet protection to modify the labels.

That is the ticket right there.  Simple and I can jigger with it a bit in the heading department, so as not to confuse some of the simpler minds!   

Thanks a bunch!