Generating traffic for a switching layout

[steinjr]

(edited - moved some industries around)

Hi guys --

I am working on the operating scheme for my layout, and have started working on lists of car spots and inbound and outbound loads for my industries:

Overall track schematic and CLIC diagram:



Track plan:



Industry no 101: Metropolitan Petroleum Products:

Receives:
tank cars of oil
boxcars of chemicals in barrels
boxcars of packaging materials
Ships:
boxcars of packaged petroleum products

Spot diagram:


1: receiving
2 (near and far): shipping
3: loaded tank cars
4: tank car clean-out track

Special instructions:
a) Two empty cars cars may be spotted at door 2 for loading - one at the near track (5305), and one at the far track (5304). If car at near track is pulled without new car being spotted on this spot, re-spot car from far track to near track.

b) Unloaded tank cars from track 5305 must be cleaned before returned to the yard. Pick up any cleaned cars on track 5312, then re-spot unloaded tank cars from track 5305 to track 5312 for cleaning.


Industry no 102: Omaha Road Freight House

Receives:
LCL freight
Ships:
LCL freight

Spot diagram:


Special instructions:
Each of the three doors to the freight house has two spots - a near spot (on track 5321) and a far spot (on track 5304). Cars (both empties and loads) may be spotted on any of the six spots, but spots on track 5304 may only be used if there is a car in the corresponding spot on track 5321.

Industry no 103: Burma Vita Co
Produces and ships Burma shave and other toiletries.

Receives:
Boxcars of chemicals
Boxcars of packaging materials
Tank cars of chemicals
Flatcars of machinery

Ships:
Boxcars of packaged products

Spot diagram: see diagram for industry 102

1) Receiving/shipping
2) Receiving/shipping

Special instructions.
a) Loaded tank cars with chemicals must be spotted by door 1 on track 5322

b) Loaded cars with machinery must be spotted by door 2 on track 5322

c) Additional boxcars may be spotted on track 5321 if there is a boxcar in the corresponding spot on track 5322. Be aware that this blocks access to the freight house

Industry no 104: Cardozo Furniture Co
Receives:
Boxcars of lumber, fasteners, glue, packaging materials

Spot diagram: see diagram for industry 102

Spots:
1) Receiving

Special instructions.
a) Try to not block track 5321 (the freight house track) when spotting cars for Cardozo.

Industry no 105: Land O' Lakes Plant
Ships butter and dairy products in refrigerated cars

Spot diagram:



Special instructions:
None

Industry no 106: Distillers Distribution Corp.
Receives wine and spirits by rail for local distribution.

Receives:
Reefers of Wine and spirits

Spot diagram: See diagram for industry 105

Spots:
1: wines
2: spirits

Special instructions:
a) Beware of pilferage and breakage - once unloading has started, cars must not be re-spotted until completely unloaded.

Industry no 107: Produce Terminal

Received fresh produce in refrigerator cars. Some are unloaded directly into trucks (on track 5306), some are unloaded into the terminal building (on track 5303).


Spot diagram:






Industry no 108: North Star Milling Co

Spot diagram:



Industry no 109: Williams hardware

Spot diagram: see industry no 108


Industry no 110: River Avenue Team Track

Spot diagram:




Industry no 121: Barge Oil Terminal

Spot diagram:



Industry no 122: Barge Grain Terminal

Spot diagram: See spot diagram for industry 121


Industry no 123: Barge Terminal Transfer

Spot diagram: See spot diagram for industry 121



(to be continued ...)

Smile,
Stein

[foulrift]

Stein-I am trying out a program at Dallas Model Works.Once you enter info about industries, rolling stock and the types of loads involved,it will generate a switch for each day of the week.You can even post pictures of your industries and rolling stock.I also think there is an advanced area for generating car cards.
You may want to check it out.
Bob

[steinjr]

Stein-I am trying out a program at Dallas Model Works.Once you enter info about industries, rolling stock and the types of loads involved,it will generate a switch for each day of the week.You can even post pictures of your industries and rolling stock.I also think there is an advanced area for generating car cards.
You may want to check it out.
Bob

I registered at Dallas about a year ago - my layout is layout no 41 there: http://www.dallasmodelworks.com/myrailroad.asp?ID=41

I still haven't made up my mind if I like the waybill generating mechanism he is using.

We'll see - first I need to get industries (re-)named, spots labeled, inbound and outbound loads named and that kind of stuff.

Smile,
Stein

[Gary S]

Stein, thanks for sharing and looking forward to the next installment. I'm glad to see what others are doing, it will help me with my operating scheme. Thanks!

[steinjr]

I still lack some details on types of traffic expected for some of the industries, but I will get back to that.

Next step is to try my hand at generating traffic. I intend to use a concept described by Linda Sand - pick a random scenario from a list of possible scenarios for a "destination" (a destination is either one specific car spot, or a track or group of car spots, if it doesn't matter which specific spot in the group a specific car is spotted at).

We will take the Burma Vita Co as an example (see the first post in this thread for spot diagram and special instructions for this customer).

I will make 16 scenarios for each spot

Spot 1:
Scenario 1 through 5: No change
Scenario 6 through 9: Pull car(s) at near and far spot, spot tank car
Scenario 10 through 12: Pull car, spot new boxcar
Scenario 13: Pull car (if boxcar at far spot, re-spot to near spot, as per special instructions for customer)
Scenario 14 through 16: Spot boxcar (may spot at far spot if near spot taken by boxcar, try again if no available spot)


Spot 2:
Scenario 1 through 8: No change
Scenario 9: Pull car (if boxcar at far spot, re-spot to near spot, as per special instructions for customer)
Scenario 10: Spot boxcar (may spot at far spot if near spot taken by boxcar, try again if no available spot)
Scenario 12 through 15: Pull car, spot new boxcar
Scenario 16: Pull car(s) at near and far spot, spot flatcar

I throw dice or have the computer pick a random number between 1 and 16 for each spot. Say I get a 7 for spot 1 and a 3 for spot 2. That means "pull car(s) from spot 1, spot tank car at spot 2, leave spot 2 unchanged". Depending on whether I have one or two cars spotted at spot 1, it means one inbound car (a tank car) and either one or two outbound cars (of whichever types were spotted at the industry).

If I get too many inbound or outbound cars generated relative to how many I can handle (max three inbound trains - about 20-22 inbound cars, plus a few left in sidings during the night), I can change the mix of scenarios, to have more "no change" scenarios.

Needs some more work. But what do you guys think - will it work?

Smile,
Stein