02-28-2012, 12:38 PM
After all the experimenting that I did with ShipIt! I finally just gave up on the program completely. Just could not get it to function properly and duplicate many prototype car movements, no matter how I set it up. Not only that, but I often found that some times the program would seem to just go nuts doing such things as sending 3 or 4 cars to a spot that could only hold one car at a time. No matter what I tried, I could never get the concept of hold cars/off spots/constructively placed cars to work right either. ShipIt! would send a car to the hold spot when it should have actually been spotted. I would also experience frequent program crashes while working with it.
I found it just as easy to make up my own simplified demurrage record form to keep track of when cars were spotted, etc., and a "fill in the blanks" modern looking switch list form and do that. It's more work then just pressing a button on a computer program, but at least the results are prototypical. Also allows you to assume the role of customer, freight agent, yardmaster, etc. Works fine for an industrial switching operation.
ShipIt! would probably work okay for many model railroad layouts if you're not that concerned about how the cars move, but it sure won't work for well for most switching layout applications.
Thought about the car card system and even purchased a batch of them, but it does take a lot of set up time (far more than ShipIt!) and as you mentioned, it's a real hassle to have a handful of those little simulated waybills in one hand and the throttle in the other.
Regardless, I hope all my experimenting and testing is of some value to others that may be considering purchasing the program.
I found it just as easy to make up my own simplified demurrage record form to keep track of when cars were spotted, etc., and a "fill in the blanks" modern looking switch list form and do that. It's more work then just pressing a button on a computer program, but at least the results are prototypical. Also allows you to assume the role of customer, freight agent, yardmaster, etc. Works fine for an industrial switching operation.
ShipIt! would probably work okay for many model railroad layouts if you're not that concerned about how the cars move, but it sure won't work for well for most switching layout applications.
Thought about the car card system and even purchased a batch of them, but it does take a lot of set up time (far more than ShipIt!) and as you mentioned, it's a real hassle to have a handful of those little simulated waybills in one hand and the throttle in the other.
Regardless, I hope all my experimenting and testing is of some value to others that may be considering purchasing the program.
Ed
"Friends don't let friends build Timesavers"
"Friends don't let friends build Timesavers"