Great Chesterford Junction Part Two

Hi Gormo, have you considered varying part of the freight traffic by random selection of goods to be moved, be it type or quantity, as not all would be regular, e.g. agricultural machinery, timber, coal, or crop related.

The size and type of loads could be selected by e.g. dice and lookup tables.

Jim

 

Well Gormo, if I start a write up on my system for generating traffic which I have been working on sporadically for a few years now I think you would find that you have been given time off for good behaviour compared with my software based TrafGen system. This works on the basis of giving the area controller (muggins here) requests for moving wagons around based on simulating active customers and suppliers.

I did look at waybills, and using bar codes and even RF tags to track wagons, but those technologies are still too bulky for 4mm scale plus a horrendous cost for scanners at the yard entry and exit points.

Jim

 

I remember one of my colleagues who thought everything should involve computers. He suggested I control my layout with one and he would write some programs. I said what is the point of that, switch the layout on in the morning then go out for the day and ask it if it had a good running session when I got home.
The nearest a computer gets to my layout is if I take my iPad into the room.

 

Hi Brian.

Computers don't run my railway either, my traffic generator requests movements based on the companies I have set up and I respond to the requests by checking boxes against the requests presented as the movements are completed, when I have caught up I select update and the clock is advanced one time unit (currently 1 hour) and the company simulation runs and generates more requests as companies consume and produce products.

Movements include :

• Delivery of empty wagons from a BR pool to supplier, unless they are supplier owned, e.g. petro-chem.
• Collect loaded wagons from a supplier and deliver to the customer.
• Collect emptied wagons from a customer and return to source.

During which loading and unloading rates come into play between movements, extended if the wagons are bound for European companies to include travel abroad.

Orders are automatically created when companies need to re-stock and processed by the supplier companies that receive them. Movement requests connect the customers and suppliers by supplying wagons for shipping their products and in some cases the raw materials they use, companies can be customers and suppliers just as in real life. All can be configured by built in editors.

As my railway is based around a marshalling yard connecting industrial branch lines to the national networks most of a passing train's makeup can be of whatever I fancy, some will just pass it by, including passenger trains. The requested wagons are dropped off from the national trains or added via the marshalling yard.

Then the wagons are moved between marshalling yard and the local industry and docks.

My railway was designed to support watching the trains go by and be operational as and when I feel like, so timetabling of trains has never appealed, it does for many modellers but I gave up working to a timetable when I retired!

Jim

 

It has been, just about ready to go 'live' at last, it's certainly not been a task for the sane

Jim

 

I have sent Gormo a few documents regarding waybillss etc& operational methods = give him something to read before bed & help him sleep.....

 

Gormo, that is understood & timetables & fast clocks are probably not ideal for single operators - my layout plus the others I work at , all have 5-6 people plus a train controller/dispatcher to make sure all are following their bit of their schedule.

 

Hi Gormo, I have always seen that running to a free running clock or even a slow one is overly demanding especially when you are the sole operator.

The reason this is so IMO is that we, as the sole operators, are performing the tasks of what in practice is performed by many railway personnel in parallel almost 24 hours a day, we are also constrained on the number of hours we have to operate our railway per day.

Fast clocks are useful to avoid the long (boring) times between trains on a branch line, and also as we are limited to the very much under scale distances we have between stations, one fullsize mile in 4mm scale is far more than most of us can find the space for.

So in the case of the traffic generator (TrafGen) on my railway I just update the clock hourly, partly because it kicks off an hour of customer consumption and producer production. But if i was using a timetable then using as a sequence would be far more enjoyable, which is why we run our railways, IIRC

A limited form of timetable is nudging my way for when passing national network trains are due to pass by so I can ready outgoing wagons for pickup, but that too will be connected to time updates.

The idea of a wall mounted display appeals to me too and I have been looking into that and the various ways it may be connected to the PC running TrafGen, from directly connected to the PC via HDMI or HDMI over wifi, from a wifi connected tablet, I'm a devil for techie punishment

Jim

 

Hello All, 1 / Card waybill systems for Model railroads/railways have been around for a very long time, and Marklin of Sweden's YouTube video above is a good example. I personally recommend Bruce Chubb's book, "How to Operate your model railroad"(Kalmbach Books,1977,isbn 0-89024-528-2)which is still available second hand. Chapter 11 Freight Car Forwarding pp 133-154, is probably the best explanation I have read on freight car operation, and even allowing for its US prototype, the underlying principles and systems are pretty much universal. (This book could do with a reprint!)
2 / Bruce Chubb's book is very comprehensive, and includes a section on constructing a Working Time Table, Train Graphs (an essential Planning Tool), and North American Train Despatching, principally Time Table & Train Order Working / TT&TO, the latter which, in my view gives a clearer explanation than "Railroad Operation and Railway Signalling" Edmund J. Phillips Jr (MAIEE,MAEA,Affiliate member, Signal Section,AAR)Simmons-Boardman Publishing, New York, 1942/53, and still in print !), which is a standard American text on the subject.
3a / re Fast Clocks, I agree with Sol and Jim freight above, ok for multiple operators, and I think there needs to be provision to both Stop the Clock, and to be able to adjust the Speed, eg, Bruce Chubb did use a 6x Fast Clock on his original Sunset Valley (which the above book is based around), but I understand his latter iteration (at a different location) had gone down to 4x. I have had the privilege of working on two large layouts wth a Fast Clock, and whilst to an extent enjoyable, it does require concentration on the job at hand, so, in my view, you do not necessarily get time to enjoy the model trains, and the layout, as you would with a more relaxed operation. In my case, it was a similar experience to my day job as a Signalman, where taking in the passing trains was secondary to the job at hand.But, I do appreciate, and understand why a lot of modellers like to run a Fast Clock Time Table.
b / I personally think that a Sequence Time Table is quite adequate to run model trains without the added stress of a Fast Clock, but that is just me !
4a / An alternate suggestion is "Wagonflow 4" Harry Drummond (1986-1999), currently available from ( www.wagonflow.co.uk ) 26 November 2023 Windows 10 @ 1280 x 1024 resolution. "Wagonflow" was constructed by Harry Drummond using Delphi Language, and is currently distributed by WeTransfer, who also do Scaler Software, and FastClock Software, two other Harry Drummond programmes. The current lady owner is slowly working through Version 5, which will be in Java Runtime Environment / JRE, and in the interim, is also working on a simple upgrade to resolve issues with higher resolution displays, due to people now having access to larger screens than the Programme was originally designed for. (Wagonflow 4u ?)
b / In my case, it is on an older Windows laptop computer, though you can just as easily do a print out if you do not want to refer to a computer whilst running your layout."Wagonflow 4" is basically a traffic generator, and allows a Time Table to be inserted if required, and it also allows each wagon or block of wagons, to be given a set traffic pattern, eg M-W-F, will allow for a specified unloading period, and can accommodate a variety of destinations per wagon, or block of wagons, if desired. It also accommodates locomotives, and passenger workings. The above website is quite comprehensive, the advertised price is under $aus40-, or GBP 20-, so, in my opinion, a modest investment for a very good traffic generator which is both easy to programme, and easy to use. (I am not a computer person, so if I can do it, so can anyone else !) Usual disclaimer, I have no connection with, nor financial interest in, "Wagonflow", but I do recommend interested people view the website.
Best wishes and regards to all,Echidna.