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6:35 pm
May 11, 2015
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Hi Jim and All,
During the Lansing PT Weekend, I discussed the lack of LCL cars getting to the freighthouse from staging and I remember Howard suggesting that I put 3 cars in a closed loop between staging and the freighthouse for each route. I've yet to try that and would prefer not to if possible since it locks specific cars in that continuous loop.
I was wondering if you had given any thought to making some changes to the LCL waybills to get the load weight to a point that the cars would get loaded each time in staging. I have more than enough cars to handle these carorders.
Thanks, Andy
Best, Andy Keeney
Look out for #1 but don't step in #2!!
6:21 am
December 23, 2014
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Andy,
Please remind me ... What weight (and volume) were you putting in the waybills?
Thanks,
Jim
8:24 am
May 11, 2015
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3
Jim, when I list LCL as the commodity, they all automatically list 15.2 tons and 871 Cubic Feet on the waybill. When I try changing the weight to 30 tons, a popup window asks me if it is a LCL package, if I click "yes," it changes it to 30 pounds and one cubic foot. If I click "no," it lists it as 30 tons and 871 cubic feet.  In the past, I had not tried answering "no" since it was LCL. Not sure if answering "no" will take care of the problem for me. Do you know? Best, Andy Hosting the 13th Annual ProTrak Weekend, April 28th to May 1st, 2016 From: ProTrak.org To: nashville_road@yahoo.com Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2015 7:21 AM Subject: New Forum Post - ProTrak.org: [LCL Operations]
Best, Andy Keeney
Look out for #1 but don't step in #2!!
2:52 pm
January 3, 2015
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Andy,
I still recommend that you add a few cars to a waybill loop. Or at least restricted to LCL service.
Remember that some railroads (NYC Pacemaker) had special paint schemes and dedicated cars for their LCL service.
So get the paint booth fired up, design a special paint scheme and have maybe 4-6 cars for a 50-100 car series dedicated to your visible LCL service. You freight houses have room for more them one car and Gresham has room for a dozen or more.
Howard
3:23 pm
December 23, 2014
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Andy,
Here's what I just did:
- opened the waybill I wanted to be for LCL traffic.
- at the commodity, I went to the righthand pane and scrolled down to the commodity "LCL".
- double-clicked on the LCL in the righthand pane.
This put in "XM" for carkind, 25.4 tons, 1451 cuft.
I then scrolled to the length and from the dropdown selected "40 ft" (which will select 44-ft cars).
Is what you see?
Jim
4:55 pm
May 11, 2015
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6
Hi Jim,I just created a new WB and entered the data just as you did. Here is what I got. 1. Created waybill.2. At the commodity, I went to the righthand pane and scrolled down to the commodity "LCL".3.This put in "XM" for carkind, 15.2 tons, 871 cuft. (this is what I get for every WB that is assigned LCL. Is it possibly something that I did early on and just keeps repeating with each WB?) 4. The Length window is grayed out and it can't be changed. It already reads 40'.5. I select "any suitable car" for the waybill. If you are getting something different from me, maybe you can try creating a WB using my data that I gave you earlier to see if you get the same as what I get (above). Regarding Howard's suggestions, they are good and I will try them but I would like to see why I'm not getting any cars for these carorders at this time, when a few years ago, there was all kinds of traffic and sometimes too much for the freighthouse. Thanks, Andy Hosting the 13th Annual ProTrak Weekend, April 28th to May 1st, 2016 From: ProTrak.org To: nashville_road@yahoo.com Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2015 4:23 PM Subject: New Forum Post - ProTrak.org: [LCL Operations]
Best, Andy Keeney
Look out for #1 but don't step in #2!!
7:46 pm
May 11, 2015
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7
Jim, as a followup, I tried to use the figures for weight and volume that you have and found the following. I changed the weight from 15.2 tons to 25.4 and a window popped up asking if it is an LCL package, I clicked yes and it went to 25 pounds and "0" in the volume. So I tried it again adding a "T" to the weight and got 25.4 tons. I answered "no" to the LCL package question and the 25.4 tons remained.  I then added the volume that you listed (1451cu.ft.) and after clicking in the commodity window (just to get out of the volume window), another question popped up asking if I wanted the correct weight to volume for this commodity. I clicked yes and it verified that your numbers were correct. So, should I just go through and amend all the waybills to reflect these figures and do you think that it will correct the lack of LCL traffic that I have?    Thanks, Andy Hosting the 13th Annual ProTrak Weekend, April 28th to May 1st, 2016 From: ProTrak.org To: nashville_road@yahoo.com Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2015 4:23 PM Subject: New Forum Post - ProTrak.org: [LCL Operations]
Best, Andy Keeney
Look out for #1 but don't step in #2!!
10:05 pm
May 11, 2015
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Sorry for all the extra hieroglyphics when I use my cell phone to post messages. I hope that they are readable to you guys. I will try and post messages from my computer from now on.
Jim, did those last messages make sense to you?
Thanks, Andy
Best, Andy Keeney
Look out for #1 but don't step in #2!!
8:26 am
December 23, 2014
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Andy,
What I ~think you are saying is that if you initially select the commodity "LCL", the weight and volume are valid, but if you then try to adjust the weight/volume you get a question that results in small ("LCL package") weight values. i.e. you want to edit the values initially set by ProTrak?
(By the way, the values for weight/volume for a car-load of LCL are based on an analysis of the (uitable era) waybill sample. Those are typical 1950s values for the weight/volume.)
So, as I understand you want to be able to modify those values, without running into the "LCL package". That the case?
Jim
10:50 am
May 11, 2015
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Jim,
When I choose LCL as the commodity, it gives me 15.2 tons and 871 cu ft for each waybill that I create. It is not the same weight and volume that you stated that you get. Discussing this with you and Howard last Spring, you both believed that those figures were so low that PT was not assigning them to any cars in staging.
I can go into the weight and volume and change it to that which you have listed (25.4 tons, 1451 cuft) and see if that makes a difference. If car orders are than assigned to cars, then I'm all set.
Thanks, Andy
Best, Andy Keeney
Look out for #1 but don't step in #2!!
4:25 pm
December 23, 2014
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Andy,
When you modify the waybilled "weight", when the commodity is "LCL", you get a question/message that asks:
"Is this an LCL package?"
Answer "No", because this is not a package.
~~~
Explanation:
The program (ProTrak) uses either a carload of LCL, or a single package of LCL. A single LCL package has an upper weight limit of 500 lbs (dem's da rules). A car-load of LCL can weight anything up to 125 tons.
If you answer "Yes" ( to the above) you are telling the program (ProTrak) that you want this to be a single package.
If you answer "No" ( to the above) you are telling the program (ProTrak) that you want this to be a carload of packages.
OK?
~~~
If you answer "No", do the Michigan electrons keep the weight (in tons) as you entered?
Jim
Jim
6:38 pm
May 11, 2015
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Think I'm all set now, Jim. I was having trouble getting the weight and volume increased and wasn't answering the LCL package question correctly. Now, I can set both where I want them, thank you.
So last question, is the weight and volume that you listed (25.4 tons and 1451 cu ft) good for what I need, that is, is it large enough so the car orders should be filled okay coming out of staging, or should I go even higher with both?
Would weight and volume be a good discussion regarding waybills and car orders? Can you highlight how the weight / volume and rates effect the car order and use of the waybill? What are the things that we should be concerned about as we are entering them on the waybill?
Thanks, Andy
Best, Andy Keeney
Look out for #1 but don't step in #2!!
6:48 pm
May 11, 2015
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Jim, just an FYI. For the new session (not yet started), I'm looking at the Freightcar Inventory list to see if there are any cars in staging assigned to an LCL waybill. At this time, there is only one car coming out of New Orleans on train 116 going to the DTI LCL frt house.
I'm going to go through all the LCL waybills and increase the weight and volume on all of them and try reloading OV traffic in staging to see if that changes anything. Anything else you can think of that I should do to help get the car orders assigned?
Thanks, Andy
Best, Andy Keeney
Look out for #1 but don't step in #2!!
7:22 am
December 23, 2014
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Andy,
There is a listing of the car-orders, in the order that they are "called" by ProTrak.
You should look at this list.... car-orders/waybills at the bottom of the list, being the last to be called for car-loading, are the car-orders most likely to be >not< used. The list as at:
- "Edit / Show / Show number of car-orders at customers"
then
- click the button "Show Car-order list" - the purple (a special-function) button.
The waybills/car-orders are listed as they will be called during the car-distribution (assignment) routines.
The ordering is based on the first car-order (Waybill #1). If there are waybills 2, 3, 4 or 5 in a car-order, their weight/volume is not considered in the "prioritization". Only Waybilll #1. You could look at, in your car-orders, to see whether any "Waybill#1s" have a particularly small weight/volume.
Also, note the checkbox "Show waybill prioritizing options". Three options show: by station order, by inverse station order, and ignore the station order. This gives you some control over the priority of how the car-orders/waybills are called. Again, you could check to see if your LCL car-orders are down near the bottom?
Jim
7:18 pm
May 11, 2015
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Thank, Jim. I looked the car orders over and it looks like they are about 2/3rds of the way down each day's car orders. The weight is 35 tons and volume is 2000 cu ft. Do you think that I should just leave them there for now to see what happens?
I've updated the "NR-play" test folder with the current NR data and will run a computer session to see what happens and if more cars are assigned LCL car orders to the trains in staging for the next session.
Best, Andy
Best, Andy Keeney
Look out for #1 but don't step in #2!!
8:54 pm
May 11, 2015
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Jim, I checked the Waybills/Car orders not filled and all the LCL Waybills (31 on this list) all listed "length" as the reason for not being filled.
All the cars are listed with a 40' inside length that can't be changed. Just wondering if it should be less than 40' since that puts the overall length several feet over the 40' length.
Any thoughts, or more info that I can look at for you? I will forward a zipped file of my NR folder for you in case you would like to take a look at it.
Thanks, Andy
Best, Andy Keeney
Look out for #1 but don't step in #2!!
4:46 pm
December 23, 2014
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Andy,
I just posted an Update (still 320) for you to please try out.
~~~
Explanation: Briefly, the issue seems to be that there are several different measures of what a car length is. Besides the "inside length" and "over couplers" difference the loading routines use the "Rule 34" car-length. Rule 34 groups lengths of cars, so that e.g. a "42-ft" car, a "43--ft" car, a "43-ft 6-inch" are all considered a "42-ft" car. This "grouped car-length" was at odds with the car-lengths used by the "LCL Freighthouse" car-loading routine.
What have I done is make the LCL freighthouse car-length consistent with the Rule 34 car-length. For the Freighthouse, the car can be "overcouplers" 43 to 45 feet in length when the LCL waybill car length is "40 feet".
That is: for a waybill going to/from the Freighthouse, select "40 feet". For the car-length over couplers make sure it is 44 or 45 feet (which is what a 40-ft car with #5 KD couplers should be).
~~~
There are other changes that affect this LCL Freighthouse. We'll talk about them tomorrow. Before the football games.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Jim
5:31 pm
April 26, 2015
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Jim,
I am following along with you on this one.
I was having the same issue as Andy.
Thanks again and Happy Thanksgiving,
Bob
7:58 pm
May 11, 2015
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19
Hi Jim, Great, thank you much. Will download it and work with it the first chance I get. Will be tied up with family the next few days. Best, Andy Hosting the 13th Annual ProTrak Weekend, April 28th to May 1st, 2016 From: ProTrak.org To: nashville_road@yahoo.com Sent: Wednesday, November 25, 2015 5:46 PM Subject: New Forum Post - ProTrak.org: [LCL Operations]
Best, Andy Keeney
Look out for #1 but don't step in #2!!
10:55 am
December 23, 2014
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Andy, Bob,
Posted an Update, Thursday morning the 26th, which is now 321. This Update includes some refinements on the priority-list of car-orders, which shows the exact order in which car-orders are used during the Daily Summary.
Jim
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