05-25-2010, 02:32 PM
FedEx13 Wrote:I just thought it would be easy to play "trainmaster" for a few minutes before a operating session. Once you "log in" all your information to a switchlist such as: sidings, industries, runarounds, team tracks etc.., it would be a matter of a "delete a load" here or "add a empty" here to consistantly update your switchlist - again - like the prototype. how much in detail you want to get is up to you.
You don't need to enter all your cars to the switchlist at one time. Basically, treat it like a real railroad inbound interchange. Just add certain cars that are being interchanged to your road. Keep them on your current switchlist to show their progress around the railroad. Show when and where they are spotted, when they get emptied to be pulled and delete them once they are interchanged off your road.
You won't need to look at car cards anymore. You just have to carry your switchlist with you as you "play" along. Just like real train crews. It may sound a bit overwhelming at first, as with car cards, but once you have the master sheet, all you need to do is add and remove cars.
I understand how a switch list works, but from your text above, I am a little unclear on whether you intend to build up and maintain an up-to-date master list of where *all* cars on your layout are at any time ?
Also, I am not totally clear on how you decide which cars to spot and pull, and where to spot them.
For some reason, I am sort of tempted to generate the switch list in some pseudo-random way, instead of me picking where and what to move and then moving it. But that might be just me.
Stein