Welcome to the ProTrak User Community Support Forum . The forum is designed around the chapters in The Manual. Please post your questions in the appropriate subforums. You may "Subscribe" to topics and reply by email.
Log In
Register
Home
Topic RSS
4:52 pm
April 26, 2015
Offline
I have a coaling tower that I setup via the service track screen. It is located in my main yard RVS-Yd and it's SPOT code is RVS-08. Since RVS-08 is within the RVS zone I believe I did not need to set up a reporting point for RVS-08. Is a correct understanding ???
I set the "storage capacity" of the coaling tower to be 200 tons. The HT coal hopper can only haul 78 tons. RVS-08 is serviced by my Riverside Yard Switcher RVS-SW train which I set up with two reporting points RVS-Yd and RVS-Yd. Presently I have an HTcoal hopper which for two sessions has a current location as RVS-SW with Nect Loc = RVS-08. All this seems good so far, BUT the HT coal hopper never gets dropped off at RVS-08. Can anybody discern what I need to do to make this service track SPOT get serviced? Has any else used Service Track features?
thanks
Joe
8:05 am
April 26, 2015
Offline
Joe,
Check your SPOT length.
Bob
7:14 pm
April 26, 2015
Offline
Bob,
Thanks for the help. My coaling tower, RVS-08, SPOT length is only 10 feet and my Coal Hopper car length is 44 feet. BUT---the other day while playing around I added an RVS02y reporting point. So now my Riverside Yard is both a "Yd" and "a little y" reporting point yard. I then changed the routing on my RVS-SW train to RVS-Yd / RVS02y / RVS-Yd and my coal hopper got delived to the coaling tower. In the next session it was picked up and sent down to staging to be refilled. I've seen this cycle 2 or 3 times now in the papaer sessions I've been running lately. When I went to check on my coaling tower SPOT length before responding to you, I was a little aghast that things had worked with the less-than-car-length SPOT length. I will lenghten the coaling tower SPOT length.
Lesson learned a "Yd" yard does not accommodate set-off and pick-ups within the zone. One needs "a little y" reporting point to do set-offs and pick-ups even when the customer SPOT is within a "Yd" yard zone.
Joe
3:28 am
May 8, 2015
Offline
Hi Joe,
i have a variety of industries and yard functions that are serviced properly by a repeating switcher within a “Y” yard that are all working well. IE no need to set up a “y” yard alongside a major “Y” yard.
These include coal delivery, sand, ash removal, clean out track, RIP track, coal dealers, freight houses, express tracks, REA and USPS, etc etc. These are in multiple “Y” yards on my layout and work flawlessly in all of them.
but they do need a train that services them, not the yard switcher job that does the classification work in the yard. It of course can use the same engine, just a different job. I use a never ending train (x-Yd, x-Yd), but you could alternatively call an extra as required.
John
10:43 am
April 26, 2015
Offline
John
GREAT news as I always thought that you could do set-off and pickup from a Yd yard. I'll go back into my ProTrak folder and a) remove the "little y" reporting point, b) change the SPOT length to 100-ft or so, and c) remove the RVS-02y routing from my yard switcher. My initial problem could have been because my SPOT length was so short but then that begs the question as to why things worked when I had the RVS02y reporting point.
Would you please be so kind as to send me down your ProTrak folder so that I can see how you have service track SPOTs setup. Joebrann@AOL.com, subject Johns folder
Thanks
Joe
11:41 am
May 8, 2015
Offline
Hi Joe,
I’m currently in southern Spain on winter vacation and don’t have access to my PT folder. We will be back next weekend, but give me a few days to recuperate from the jetlag.
john
12:44 pm
May 11, 2015
Offline
7
The closest thing I get to "jet lag" is "tractor lag" when I drive out to the back of my property and back! ;-)Â Happy St Paddy's Day!! Best, AndyÂ
Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android On Sun, Mar 17, 2019 at 12:41, ProTrak.org wrote:
Best, Andy Keeney
Look out for #1 but don't step in #2!!
3:12 pm
April 26, 2015
Offline
WHOOPS, mea culpa, mea culpa MY Mistake in the conclusion in message 3 above.
After John's encouraging words I retrieved a saved ProTrak folder from the current paper-session study I was doing and set up my Coaling Tower to be serviced by the RVS-SW train, and made the routing for that train to be RVS-Yd, RVS-Yd, i.e. w/o any "little y"reporting point and ALL worked fine. My SPOT length for the Coaling Tower is/was 196 feet. (I do not know where the 10 feet length came from that I mentioned in message 3 above.) So my understanding is restored that a Yd yard can be a reporting point just like a "little y" yard.
In the study I was doing I was running parallel paper sessions with ProTrak Ver. 348 and Ver. 348. Ver. 348 gave me consistent results for the deliver and pickup of my HT car at the Coaling Tower. Ver. 352 did not give me any consistent results. I had announced last August that Ver. 348 was my preferred version; and I absolutely do not recall why I switched back to do two more post-August real OP Sessions w/Ver. 352. Ver. 348 is again my standard version of ProTrak to use on the SVL layout.
Two observations wrt using Ver 348 and 352.
1) If you are moving a ProTrak folder from being processed with Ver 352 and then process it with Ver. 348 (and probably earlier versions also) you will have to rebuild ALL you car orders. Per Bob Butler's suggestion last year I built a file listing my Customer SPOTs, the WB-s assigned to that SPOT and the number of cars ordered. So rebuilding my car orders under Ver. 348 was a relatively easy task. My SVL rr is a small rr.
2) Jim M changed somewhere between Ver.348 and Ver. 352 the location of at least the "Report" button on the Reporting Movements screen, and the Preview Cutlist and Classify and Print Cutlist and Classify buttons on the screen that comes up when a train arrives into a Yd yard.
Joe
Most Users Ever Online: 189
Currently Online:
13 Guest(s)
Currently Browsing this Page:
1 Guest(s)
Top Posters:
Nashville: 248
Joe-SVL: 243
casowest: 95
Jim Brewer: 92
Mark Stafflrd: 58
Bob: 53
Fred: 43
John V: 43
jjoyce1: 32
Peter Jackson: 27
Member Stats:
Guest Posters: 0
Members: 259
Moderators: 0
Admins: 5
Forum Stats:
Groups: 3
Forums: 13
Topics: 432
Posts: 1815
Newest Members:
Fred52, ferretjack, Frank, bcole_-8@rogers.com, frich1230, waffle2@mac.com, innovativerc@gmail.com, KRFARRINGTON, George Giles, NandWSRY55Administrators: earlyrail: 71, friscomike: 130, webmaster: 1, hunter48820: 23, Jim Moir: 489
