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Dale's Depot

Daley Train Log
Page 121

Wednesday December 29, 2010 Lethbridge, Alberta

5:50 am

I am feeling optimistic this morning. The changes I made yesterday seemed to work and I now have a set of reports that should help me improve the overall balancing of the cars on the layout.

The Balancing Summary Report

• Overall quality of balance: 93.4
  • This goal is have a value of less than 1 so this is not very good. But this is the first time that I have paid attention to this value.
• Grand total of cars requested on average per session: 41.4
  • I think this is a good value, although the Deluxe Balancer manual says "But the number listed is only accurate if the grade given in the first line (i.e. the overall quality of balance) is less than 1".
• Layout design quality grade, actual cars: A
  • The highest possible grade is AAAAA. Thus I am presently at the lowest level.
  • The grade is based on the principle that the total number of cars on the layout should not exceed 50% of the storage capacity of the layout.
• Layout design quality grade, minimum cars: AA
  • This refers to the grade if the layout were adjusted to reflect the minimum number of cars appropropriate for this layout.
• Layout design quality grade, maximum cars: A

8:30 am

I am now going to try making a few adjustments and see if I can notice the effect on some of the reports.

The Balancing Summary Report

• Overall quality of balance: 92.0
• Grand total of cars requested on average per session: 35.4
• Layout design quality grade, actual cars: AA
• Layout design quality grade, minimum cars: AAAA
• Layout design quality grade, maximum cars: AAA

The three quality grade indices have improved. Good. This was likely the result of changing the capacity setting for the Coaldale Yard from 6 to 50.

I still have not figured out why CN 1244, a Buffet/Lounge passenger car, is sitting at the Coaldale Station instead of being part of Trains 100 & 101.

I changed most of the siding types for most of the industries from "siding" to "industry" (which is what they should have always been). Then I reran the Deluxe Balancer and received the following:

The Balancing Summary Report

• Overall quality of balance: 92.0
• Grand total of cars requested on average per session: 35.4
• Layout design quality grade, actual cars: AAA
• Layout design quality grade, minimum cars: AAAA
• Layout design quality grade, maximum cars: AAA

This is much better, and is getting close to quite acceptable.