Model Railway
a. Layout
b. Locomotives
c. Cars
d. Operating
e. Summaries
Photos
Daley Train Log
Page 95
I have just finished entering the data for the Products database.
I am now running both Windows xp (i.e. Ship It!) and Mac OS X (i.e. Dreamweaver) at the same time. A mouse click on the appropriate window moves me between the two programs. Very nice. This now works well since I added another GB of RAM memory to my laptop.
The Ship It! software produces a large number of reports. Here is an indication of what I have done so far.
AAR Codes Report
The American Association of Railways (AAR) has established the following convention for all North American railroads. I have 17 different types of cars on my layout at the present time.
Reviewing this list gave rise to a question about the two different types of hopper cars I have for delivering coal. I would like to run a coal unit train with 6 cars that all look alike except for the unique reporting number. I have just reviewed a web page that gives details about different AAR codes and I think that the code HTS would be appropriate for describing these cars.
"HT" -- An Open Top Self-Clearing Car, having fixed sides and ends and bottom consisting of three or more divided hoppers with doors hinged crosswise of car and dumping between rails (3/29-4/99).
Where cars are equipped with permanent racks for stowing parts or are specially modified or equipped to provide for loading of a particular commodity, the letter "S" should be affixed to the applicable designating letters. A note should be included in the Official Railway Equipment Register to show the particular special equipment proposed for the car (1/49-4/99).
Done. The Ship It! software made it very easy to reclassify the 6 hopper cars from HD to HTS.
Locomotives Report
This report lists all of the locomotives that I have on my layout. The value for capacity refers to the number of cars that a locomotive can pull.
Rolling Stock Report
This is a 4-page report that lists all 62 cars that I have on my layout at the moment.
Industry Report
This is a list of all the Industries that are located on my layout.
Products Report
This lists all of the products that will move from one location to another on the layout.
There are still two more tasks to be completed. I need to identify all of the shippers and consignees for each of these products. This is a non-trivial activity as it involves a number of technical details related to how long it takes to empty a loaded car, how many car loads an industry likes to receive per shipment, how often an industry likes to receive a shipment and a priority factor for rating different consignees. The important point is that it is the consignee requests that drives the movement of cars.
This has been a productive morning!
Track cleaning is also progressing. I have now cleaned all of the track for both Black Diamond and Distillery Row.
The Black Diamond clean-up opens the way for a trial run of a coal unit train. which will go from Black Diamond heading east to Coaldale. This will involve some switching within the Black Diamond area as well as 5 loops of the Outer Mainline before heading into the Coaldale Yard. Since the coal mine (Mercoal Mines) is a separate area off the mainline, I have never actually tried switching within this area, and the 6 hopper cars have never really been tested for operation.
That leaves 4 sections for track cleaning: Pine Ridge, Prairie Dog, Queenston and Wild Rose.
While doing this I noticed some minor repairs are needed on the Jasper station (gable) and the oil platform (railing). A number of trees also need some new shrubbery.
I was able to clean the track in both Pine Ridge and Prairie Dog. Only Queenston and Wild rose to go and I will be finished with this task.