Weekend Update 1/13/13

[VirginaCSX]

Mark,

Very detailed program. Two questions.  What holds the tags to the cars?  How do you (or the computer) determine when an industry needs a car and how many?

[Chris333]

I ain't scared of no scenery 



It's just a base coat and still wet in the epics.

[Puddington]

That rock cut is "da bomb" !

[MichaelWinicki]

A WillModels building...



This building was first hit with a flat-white primer and then "painted" entirely with weathering powders.

[JSL]

Blizzard last night and into today in Manitoba. Got a few more Switch Control Panels wired up.

[mark dance]

Mark,

Very detailed program. Two questions.  What holds the tags to the cars?  How do you (or the computer) determine when an industry needs a car and how many?

Hi VirginiaCSX...
Gravity holds the tags in place.  They are made from Evergreen styrene channel which fits neatly over roofwalks.  For the few cars which aren't open loads or have roof walks, gravity seems sufficient to hold them in place in my limited simulations of "rough car handling"...they seem to stay put well.

The Excel spreadsheet handles the demand generation and car requisition.  Each type of car for each industry spot has its own line in the spreadsheet.  This line specifies the "steady state demand", i.e. the number of cars of that type that will be required by that industry spot for each session, and the "variable demand" which is the variation which can occur in any session.  The variation is modified by one of four random variables chosen and set for each session.  If any cars are required by that industry spot the spreadsheet then decides where they need to come from...and if there are choices, the choice of source location is made by an algorithm which has a random component as well.  Same thing occurs on the output side because every load one session becomes an MT car the next and vice-versa.

There are 3 standard car types which Nelson yard (a division point) is expected to have on stock: 40' XMs, chip hoppers, general purpose gons, general purpose flats, pole/log skeleton flats, and 2 bay hoppers.  These are the car types used by the vast majority of originating industry and I look to fulfill the demand from MTs of this type in Nelson first.  If an industry spot requires a non-standard car, or if Nelson does not have enough of these cars, then requisitions are placed on the next CP division point up the line - Cranbrook staging which represents points East (i.e. I move the unallocated tags from the Nelson cup to the Cranbrook cup ) .  These requisitioned cars are brought to Nelson on an inbound train from Cranbrook staging and likely will make their way to the industry that needs them in the next session.

Hope that helps.  It may sound a bit complicated but in reality it is just a *single* line in Excel with a bunch of standard formulas in it.  I then just copy it as many times as I need and modify the standard paramters in each line to tweak the results for what the prototype demand and supply would look like to that industry.  The rest of the spreadsheet is just summations of this information cut in a variety of ways so you can see the results and decide if it would be workable...or whether another set of random numbers should be run. These summaries are what I use to retag.

It has been a very interesting mental exercise trying to recreate realistic car movements while keeping things simple...and not having to read or use car numbers.  I just hope I feel this way in a few months!
 
Hope that addresses your questions...and I don't get my Railwire license revoked!

md

[engineshop]

For my Swiss HO metric gauge railroad, I finished the prototype for the station departure signal. It is cut out of around 30 pieces of lazerboard. Unfortunately I glued the 3 color signal face up-side-down but it works.

[bbussey]

Hi Max!
It's the trucks they use on their H21 hoppers.

Great job Josh.

MTL Andrews trucks can pass for PRR Crown trucks as well, and they also are available in brown I believe.

[chuck geiger]

I ain't scared of no scenery 



It's just a base coat and still wet in the epics.

SELL ME THAT LAYOUT!!!!!!! or at least think about it...

[Dave V]

Chris,

I see that layout and think Maryland and Pennsylvania RR with a nice modernized 4-4-0 pulling a single turtle-roofed baggage car and open platform coach.  Very nice!

[nkalanaga]

Chris:  Another like for your scenery.  I've seen a lot of cuts like that here in eastern Kentucky/western West Virginia.

[up1950s]

Chris that is beautiful . One thought , I am assuming they cut out that dry gulch so the tracks remain dry . If so who vacuumed out every single piece of rock from the cut ? Wouldn't there be rubble from it in the gulch , at least some along the banks and much smaller pieces in the gulch bed itself adjacent to the cut and down stream from that .

[chuck geiger]

Chris,

I see that layout and think Maryland and Pennsylvania RR with a nice modernized 4-4-0 pulling a single turtle-roofed baggage car and open platform coach.  Very nice!

The MA and PA articles in MR in the 60's got me into this....

[Chris333]

Chris,

I see that layout and think Maryland and Pennsylvania RR with a nice modernized 4-4-0 pulling a single turtle-roofed baggage car and open platform coach.  Very nice!

We can do that someday


Layout is freelanced, but when I started it I was gonna run Ma&Pa equipment on it.

The rocks are Cripplebush rubber pieces blended with sculptamold. This is just a base coat of scenery to get the foam covered. I still have static grass, trees, bushes, under brush, rubble, etc. to add.

[Dave Schneider]

Pud,

Love the RS-10. Looks great in the Maroon and Grey and the weathering is very nice.

Chris,

Wonderful scenery. Looks beautiful.

Best wishes, Dave