Daley Train Log
Page 92
I would like to see if I can get a satisfactory set of sessions for Ship It! today. I seem to have a working system, but there are a number of features of the switching lists and car movements that I would like to improve.
The first step will be to delete the cars that I have in the rolling stock database that I have not yet reviewed and carried out maintenance on. This will have two positive effects. One is that it will bring my operations in synchrony with my Filemaker Pro database. Two, it will make the overall system that much simpler and give me a better opportunity to understand what is happening.
I have 20 rolling stock and 1 caboose in my Filemaker Pro database that are "operational" and all of which are from the 1950 - 1970 era.
I have deleted 2 cabooses from my Ship It! database and now only have 1 (CN 74009). I have 5 diesel locomotives in my Ship It! database, two of which are un-motorized. That leaves 3 that can be used for switching and/or running trains. I will use CN 1706 (a GP7 unit) for my local freight runs.
Now to have a look at my rolling stock and see which cars should be deleted from the Ship It! files. I have deleted a total of 13 cars and added 3 cars to my rolling stock records for Ship It!. This now corresponds with the records that I have in my Filemaker Pro database.
I will now try to set up a running session in Ship It!
This is okay at first glance. The starting locations of the cars seems okay. Session 1 then executed successfully. Now to have a look at the reports.
There is a minor problem with the information on the caboose. It is minor in the sense that the caboose does not take part in any of the pickups or drop offs, but it is annoying that the system seems to think the caboose is in the Jasper Yard when it should be in the Coaldale Yard, and vice-versa. Okay. I have that fixed. There was a setting for the Trains that indicated where the caboose would be picked up and I cleared that information.
To continue ...
It seems to be working, but I am not sure of the significance of all of the entries in all of the reports. One possible problem is that I thought I had set the max train length for both #500 and #501 to 8 cars, yet #501 apparently had a train length of 10 or 11 at some points on the journey. This may be a case of me not understanding the reports.