Hi all,

About a year ago, Jim added a very helpful new feature for the "yardmaster/station master - passenger".  It shows the schedule of all the passenger trains passing thru a particular station, plus the cars at the station.  The destination is shown for the cars, but not the relevant train nor are they in standing order.

Detroit01 is a major passenger facility, with 2 daily trains visiting the facility.  Some are thru trains (18), but they each typically drop or PU one or two cars in Detroit.  Others terminate or originate in Detroit (10 CPR trains), each with 7 to 10 cars going to customers in Detroit (coach yd, commissary, REA, Mail). 

So this means some 100 cars daily pass thru Detroit.  Consequently, I have a switcher in Detroit that services all the customers and the 01 station. 

So, the question  for the agenda for the upcoming weekend at Jim's home is:

1) How does PT determine what cars are picked up by the switcher???  It seems random at the moment, especially with option two which updates PT at midnight for cars placed the same day.  And option one won't work for passenger traffic (See previous emails).  Does PT pick up the cars from the customers based on when the relevant train departs?  Does it pick up all the cars for one departing train at one time??

So, here's how I would like it to work:

A) for originating trains, about two hours before departure, all the passenger cars are brought into the station to the departure track in the correct order and hooked up to station electricity, heating, lighting, etc.  Air lines, brake lines, etc are coupled.

B) About 1 hr before departure, the head end cars are delivered to the departure track, coupled on, with brake lines, air lines, etc joined to the passenger cars and then tested.

C) About 1/2 hour before departure, the engines are brought in from the engine facility, coupled up, and tested.

D) Most passengers load at this point.

E) Departure on time!

The question then is, how do I set up PT to make this happen??  PT delivers cars to Det01, but not as a train of cars.  It also appears random that the cars and head end cars are mixed in together on the Switcher.  And all the cars for a particular train are not picked up at the same time from the customers and delivered at the same time to a specific track in the station.  It's essentially cherry picking the list of cars, but how do we get them on the train list for the switcher?

For thru trains dropping cars, here's how I think it should work.  Topic for Jim's weekend.

A) Switcher is in position close to arrival track, then removes the cars, which are normally on the rear of the train.  There may be additional work if the cars are buried in the middle of the train and/or if head end cars are removed. 
Air and brake hoses will need to be tested if the train is broken, then re-coupled.  ie two independent switchers may be necessary, as a station stop is usually only 10 to 15 minutes in such cases.

B). For thru trains picking up cars, the appropriate cars are put into position near the arrival track and usually put on the rear of the train.  Air/brake testing is required after coupling up.

Let's talk at the weekend.

John