TROPICANA DISTRIBUTION CENTER SWITCHING LAYOUT.

[TTRAK_andrew]

G'day All, Some answers to the quick questions that Stein has asked, but first two points:
1) I am making a referral to the May 2007 issue of Model Railroader magazine, which features an article on how to model a Tropicana Distribution Center like the prototype at Kearney, New Jersey. While I have to re-read it and double check my assumptions, the current operations draw from it.
2) In my answers I refer to some freight cars being `behind' others. By this I mean its location relative to the other freight cars and the switch that allows access to the warehouse. Imagine the switch into the siding, then the three doors of the warehouse. The door closest to the switch is door 1, the next door 2, and obviously the door adjacent to the end of track bumper is door 3. A car at door 3 is 'behind' the cars at both doors 1 & 2, and a car at door 2 is `behind' a car at door 1.

Are the two dots on any given car always the same color?
For most cars they will be, but 2 or 3 will be mixed.

Is only half a car load (one out of two dots) unloaded every time the car gets spotted at a door?
Correct.

If you roll the same load again for a given door, and there already is a car at that door with a partial load of the appropriate type - does that represent "no move" (you will unload the second half of that car), or will you pull that car and get a different car with the same type of load ?
Effectively it is a no-move. i.e. it may be shuffled to allow a car behind it to be moved in or out, but it will be returned to that door.

Does blank represent "no car" or "no movement" - i.e. if you already have a car spotted at that door, and it is not completely unloaded yet, will it stay or be pulled?
Blank will mean 'no product required', effectively `no car'. So in order to save switching time if the car(s) behind it don't need to be moved, then it may stay there, otherwise it goes back to the storage tracks in the normal movements of switching the cars behind it.

I appreciate these questions as they help to define more of the details of the intended operations, so please keep them coming.
One issue I have to resolve is when a particular door requires `red' product, and another door rolls `blank' but has a `red' loaded car on it, would the prototype just send the forklifts to the red loaded car rather than switch it, assuming that no other car behind it have to be switched. ie. it is easier/faster/cheaper to send forklifts an extra few meters for each pallet than have the switcher move the loaded car? Past and present warehouse workers/railroaders please help! While I intend to favor switching variety/activity over absolute prototype fidelity, I do like to know where I am stretching things.
Regards,
Andrew G.