Hi guys,

As I installed in W8.1, most everything went well. 

However, I lost my current data in the process, but was able to recover data from an email that I sent to Jim much earlier this year.  So, I've been slowly reviewing and updating many elements of the program to prepare for an ops session early this fall.  Great fun to do while it rains at the cottage.

A few things I've noticed:

1. All my personal additions to the AAR descriptions were lost, so I've been adding them back so that they agree with the hundreds of WB's that are already in my data.  Jim, on the passenger car WB's, your list of car types is repeated.  In addition, several of them are incorrect from  my perspective.  ie PB is not a baggage/mail/express car, it is a steel long distance coach.  In checking my NYC and CPR name types, all the coaches are PB, not PA.  I believe the PA to be an  older type (pre 1920 or so), many of which were used subsequently as commuter cars.  PC in my era (mid-fifties) is a Parlor Car.  PS may be for railway use, but for the rest of us, PS is a sleeper.  And of course, my written description is at home, not here where I'm  writing this.

2. In checking my train descriptions, I often have trains (X/Y) that run staging A to staging B in one direction, lay over for a period of time, then run staging B to staging A in the other direction, all on the same day.  As a freight train, they work the main Yd in both directions; as a passenger train, they work the main large passenger station in both directions.  In other words, cars are added and dropped in the most sensible location in the train by the yardmaster - sometimes not so sensible.

At the bottom of the screen, it says "Turns at - in staging B", all correct.  In staging, you have a choice - either it comes out of staging the same way it went in, or else the power is run around the train, such that the order of cars is entirely reversed.  One half of my staging tracks are one type and one half are the other type.

Now, silly me, I always responded with what happened on my layout at staging B, ie the turn point.   PT seems to believe it should be what happens in the very last staging at the end of the day, apparently so that it knows the order of the cars coming out after the 24 hour update.  But, I use manual blocking in staging, so this is of limited use to me as is.

First, do I have it right??

What are my alternatives, so that the Yd after stgB does not get a complete re-block as part of his duties, not a happy camper.  I do not manually reblock in stgB. maybe I should.  Or, I could tell him to ignore the blocking completely after stgB, as it is primarily an overhead train and I will fix the blocking at the end of the day.  That seems to be a viable solution.  Correct??  How do others handle this?

Great fun to get into the minutia of PT again!!!

John