Hi everyone,

I have a NYC local travelling between two yards A and B in each direction.  Yard A is the main yard on the layout and pretty well all the empties flow thru here to the customers on the layout, as well as being the connection for all the loaded cars going elsewhere in the world. Yard B is two tracks and is primarily the destination for its local industries.  It also serves as the interchange for a C&O local turn, which means that it has cars destined for delivery by WX-2 on its way to Yd A.

Local XW-1 is the first on the schedule, travels east from Yd A and drops off empties (and a few loaded cars) at the customers on its way to Yd B.  But it also picks up loaded cars and drops them at its terminus in Yd B, which are then placed on WX-2 (the eastbound local) for delivery back to Yard A. This means that WX-2 is often at it's length and tonnage limits, so it leaves cars in Yd B.

To improve this situation, I have reversed the schedule of the two trains (but I will have to revise the schedule of the C&O turn as well).  At some customers, I have changed the primary switching train to WX-2 and the secondary train to XW-1, but at others I have left WX-2 as the secondary train.  It really depends on the flow of cars for each customer.

;Before I start a new computer ops session, is this likely to do what I want?? ie cars being dropped in one direction and then picked up the next day by the local going in the opposite direction.  Or, not a lot of cars going in the wrong direction.

Are there any other changes necessary?  Is this the best way?  I could make it a turn, which theoretically would not pick up cars going in the wrong direction.  But they are big jobs on the railway in both directions and I would prefer to keep them separate if possible.

thanks 

John