The Mill Loop

[Tad_T]

When you get into Panel Pro, look at the Tools menu. Scan down to Operations Pro and select Settings.




Then you will be here:




Trains can travel in all four Cardinal Directions on the Mill Loop so we wil leave both direction boxes checked.

I'm in N Scale.

Maximum train length. Ops Pro defaults to a Maximum Train Length of 1000'. If you want your trains to be longer or limited to a shorter length, you need to adjust it here. This is a global setting for the railroad.

Our two staging tracks were 506' and 453'. I said that I would probably set them both at 450'. If we are running trains into and out of staging and use each track as a separate location, there is where we come up with our maximum train length. I'm setting them both at even lengths for now while we are doing our setup and initial testing. This can be updated later.




On the Max Locos per Train that is the default. I'm not fooling with it right now. Locomotives are not required unless you want them to be. Using locomotives adds a Whole 'Nother Thing. We're not going to do that on the Mill Loop. We are going to get the cars moving and make them go where we want them to go.

Car Types. Descriptive = Boxcar. AAR Codes = XM, XL, XP, etc. Personal preference.

You also want to check the box Add Operations Menu to Main Menu. Then you don't have to hunt for it.





Horsepower goes with Locos.

Switch Time and Travel Time will have to be determined while actually switching and traveling on the layout if you want them to be accurate. Notecards and stopwatches recommended. Multiple operators, if possible, multiple iterations, at least. This can be updated later. This is important if scheduling is important to you.

When you set up cars, you can add a built date. If you were running profiles with different eras, you could have Ops Pro exclude out of era cars.

I Like Auto Save & Auto Backup because Murphy.

We are not going to fool with Panel Options right now.  That is another Whole 'Nother Thing. We do plan to come back to this later.




And this is where you do these very important functions.




That gets us through Settings, I believe.

[Tad_T]

Look’s like the Bossman is coming to check up on the fellows.


He’s probably going to talk to them about keeping that wiring straight.

[Tad_T]

Looks like they’re bringing up more materials.






 Here comes that Bossman again, too.

[OldEastRR]

This yard comes off a wye, right? Therefore you don't need a runaround or escape track.

[Tad_T]

This yard comes off a wye, right? Therefore you don't need a runaround or escape track.

Yes, sir.

Two of the legs of the wye feed into the yard throat. The way the wye is constructed, if coming in on the Southwest/curved leg from the left, one could use the runaround formed by the two double crossovers, if necessary.

I’ll have a new layout drawing to post soon that will show how I have it planned.

[Tad_T]

This is where we are right now.



The feeders are all in. Now, I have to connect them.

[Tad_T]

The Operations Pro menu is conveniently organized in the order in which we need to proceed to continue our setup.



Just know, this is only the first pass. We will visit all of these again.

Our next thing we need to setup are Locations.

In Ops Pro terminology, Locations are places on your railroad that Trains visit to pickup or set out Cars and Engines. Locations can be cities, towns, or just places where trains need to work cars.

An important thing to remember is that Locations are the only places that have Tracks.

Basically, think of Tracks as places where cars or engines can stop. There are different types of track in Ops Pro.

We will add a Location and Track next time.

[Tad_T]

Looking at where I am on the Mill Loop, I was reminded of some things that my kids used to say when they were little.

"Well, maybe not really, really, all the way, so much, but it's kinda, sorta, almost close."






All the feeders are connected. I need to plug in my system and test everything.

[OldEastRR]

If you shorten the farthest from camera spur by one (or a half) Kato straight section, it'd give you room to install the prototype's photogenic complex of tanks and piping at the end of that building.

[Tad_T]

If you shorten the farthest from camera spur by one (or a half) Kato straight section, it'd give you room to install the prototype's photogenic complex of tanks and piping at the end of that building.

Yes, sir. I need to do that. That is the "New Mill," Paper Mill # 2.

That would also bring the front of the New Mill closer into alignment with the Tissue Mill, the bigger building in the foreground.  Looking at the mockups in position is helping me see it better.  There are more adjustments needed, I am sure.

[Tad_T]

If we shorten the track at the “New Mill,” Paper Mill #2, that would certainly allow us some room to model the vats and piping at the rear.




When we shorten the track, three 50’ boxcars no longer fit.




But, two 50’ boxcars and one 40’ boxcar do fit.



If we ever need full capacity from the New Mill, we need to make sure that we have some 40’ boxcars available.


Also I need to model the buildings in such a way to ensure the alignment of the fronts of the Tissue Mill and the New Mill are closer to the prototype.

[Tad_T]

Locations are places on your railroad that trains visit to pick up or set out cars and locomotives. Locations can be cities, towns, stations, or just places where trains need to work cars.







Click the Add Location button at the bottom of the Screen.



Each Location needs a unique name.

The Old Mill can be serviced by Trains that are traveling East and West.

Divisions are one of those Whole 'Nother Things. I don't use them.

I dislike the default descriptive car names. Others obviously like them. These are the car types that will show up on your Manifests and Switchlists. I'll be editing that later.

We are only working with boxcars right now.

There are four types of Tracks in Operations Pro. We are working with Spurs. Spurs are where cars are loaded or unloaded.

Click the Add Spur Track Button.







There is a lot going on here. A lot of the stuff in the middle we can't set up yet because other things need to be set up first. We'll have to circle back.

We named the Spur. We set the length at 60 feet. The reason we did this is so that only one car will fit while we are testing.

We placed the real data in the Comment section for future reference.

Click Add Spur Track.

And now we have a Location.




And then we have multiple Locations.

[Tad_T]

Now we need a Car.






Some think that this part sux.  You really do have to put in every car that will be operating on the layout. Click on the Add Car button.




You have to fill out this form for each car.




My road isn't listed. We'll have to add it. Click the Edit button in the Road box.




Type in your Reporting Marks and click the Add button.

Now this next part is something that you need to understand if you want to conduct realistic operations with Operations Pro. You have to use Custom Loads.



Click the Edit button in the Load box.

Cars will move with the default E and L loads, but they will not be routed. We can talk more about that later.



Now you also need to understand that a Custom Empty is a Custom Load. You do have to define a Custom Empty.  I only use one. Type it in and click the Add button.



Remember when I said that a Custom Empty is a Custom Load. The Load Type will default to Load unless you select Empty. This is important. If it is MTY make sure you select Empty in the Dropdown. Click the Save button.



You'll see above that I have added several Custom Loads for our Boxcar. They are not just for our Boxcar. They are for all cars designated as a Boxcar. You only have to set this up once for each type of car. Then if you change something, well, you know...

I recommend that you pick a common format for your Custom Loads.

You can see that I use L<Commodity> as the format for my Custom Loads. Use something that works for you.

If a Boxcar goes to the Bag Plant it gets L<Bags>.

If a Boxcar goes to the Old Mill or the New Mill it gets L<Paper>. They made lots of kinds of paper. I don't care to get into that. I just want to haul it.

If a Boxcar goes to the Tissue Mill it gets L<Tissue>. Same, same paper.

The procedure for adding Loads is the same as we did for MTY. Make sure to check the Load Type dropdown.



Road, Road Number, Type, and Length are required for each car. If there is not a Length that you need you can click the Edit button and add it like we did the Road Name.

We left the Location and Track blank for now.

You will notice that the Length entered for 9755 is 52'. That is what the stripe on the door meant. If it had a stripe, it was 52'. If it had no stripe, it was 50'.

There is some additional information that you can fill out for each car.

I have decided that all cars going onto the layout will meet certain standards. They will be weighted to NMRA RP weight. They will have operating knuckle couplers. And they will have metal wheels. I'm documenting that right here for each car on the Mill Loop.

Click the Add Car button.

[Tad_T]

Now we have a car.



Remember, you do not have to do this for each and every car. Just the first car of each type. There is a shortcut that I can show you when we add more cars.

[Tad_T]

I said I didn't like this.



This applies to the Descriptive Car Names. If you would rather use AAR Codes, that's a different setting. I'm sure that you can edit those in a similar fashion. I prefer using the Descriptive Car Names on my Manifests and Switchlists.

If you want to change this like I do, this is how.

Go to Cars.





Look to the far right and click the Edit button.





Click the Edit button in the Type box.



You can Add new Car Types, Delete Car Types, or enter text in the box that you like better and Replace the name of a Car Type. This is a Global change affecting all Car Types on your railroad.




Now it looks like this.