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
10:57 am
April 26, 2015
Offline
For most of the 550+ paper sessions I've run since I first purchased ProTrak 10 years ago I've dutifully logged by ULMER number the car(s) at each of my customer SPOTS. On Jan 6-th I populated my SVL-RR for the first time with the output from my most recent paper session and had a rude awakening - my small Riverside Yard (RVS-Yd) is VERY full. In the above paper sessions I never paid attention to how many cars are in RVS-Yd. So that is where I need help, i.e. what can I do to get more room in my RVS-Yd?
RVS-Yd is a 5 track stub yard adjacent to an A and D track. My yard track capacities are roughly 9 / 6 /4 /3 / 3 cars
Operations:
- Monday only
- AM and PM Front Street turn
- AM and PM Newberry Turn
- PM Milton Turn
- 3 RVS-Yd to staging thru trains
- 3 Staging to RVS-Yd thru trains
- Yard switcher as needed to serve car float
- 36 ordered WB-s, plus 2 CIT WB-s
- 38 car orders for Monday
The other day I analyzed the cars-by-location printouts from the last 11 paper sessions I've run recently and found that on average I have 6.4 cars whose location and Next location are RVS-Yd. 2 cars were listed in all 11 sessions which sorta means to me that I could deactivate and remove these 2 cars from the layout.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm willing to change anything
thanks
Joe
6:42 am
December 23, 2014
Offline
Joe,
If I added correctly you have a standing capacity of 25 cars. Is that 1/4 or 1/3 of the total number of cars? Would seem adequate.
>... that on average I have 6.4 cars whose location and Next location are RVS-Yd
Those would be "storage" cars? Have you setup a "storage" yard for RVS, somewhere out in the country where these cars can be stored until needed?
Jim
8:02 am
April 26, 2015
Offline
> I added correctly you have a standing capacity of 25 cars. Is that 1/4 or 1/3 of the total number of cars?
I have a total of 78 cars on the layout. So about 1/3
>... that on average I have 6.4 cars whose location and Next location are RVS-Yd
Those would be "storage" cars? Have you setup a "storage" yard for RVS, somewhere out in the country where these cars can be stored until needed?
Never thought about nor really knew about a "storage yard". Typically would a storage yard be directly connected to the main yard? If so I don't have any room as my RSV-Yd is on a peninsula in the middle of the train room. (go to http://www.svl-rr.com, click on "Track Plans" and scroll down to where you see a bold title "Final Design"). BUT I do have presently 3 unused staging tracks. Would it be feasible to make one of those tracks be a "storage yard", or since these tracks are at the other end of my layout would they be to far away?
thanks
Joe
5:23 pm
December 23, 2014
Offline
Joe,
>Typically would a storage yard be directly connected to the main yard?
CP, at Calgary Alberta, hauled empty tankcars north of the city 10 miles. CN, in southern Ontario, hauls mty autoracks 40 miles east of the GM auto-plant to a passing siding. (Both examples personal experiences.) The idea, ala John Armstrong's book, was to store cars in a low-rent district.
So "No".
~~~
>BUT I do have presently 3 unused staging tracks. Would it be feasible to make one of those tracks be a "storage yard"
If you re-named it (or dual named it) a "y" (or a Yd). On the "yard" edit page, the dropdown for the storage yard selection list only "y" and "Yd" tracks.
OK?
Jim
12:37 pm
April 26, 2015
Offline
>BUT I do have presently 3 unused staging tracks. Would it be feasible to make one of those tracks be a "storage yard"
If you re-named it (or dual named it) a "y" (or a Yd). On the "yard" edit page, the dropdown for the storage yard selection list only "y" and "Yd" tracks.
Jim,
I do have a zone code (EN) for my staging area. The EN is left over from the days longs ago when I was "routing thru staging" and had those "Virtual reporting points" to make the routing thru staging thing work.
So if I make a reporting point such as EN02y and identify that as the storage yard for my RVS-Yd do I
a) have to run extra trains to move extra cars from RVS-Yd to EN02y, or
b) will ProTrak manage the assignment of cars to a new train whose routing will be RVS-Yd -> EN02y ->RVs-Yd ? I've noticed that Andy uses creative names for thee trains GSTORE and RSTORE; but I cannot seem to find the equivalent train names in your ProTrak folder.
I've reviewed the PTBM Q&A appendix and am uncertain wrt home road cars and whether they are sent to the storage yard by ProTrak. All of 78 cars show Return empty to - Home road via connections. Does that mean that they are "home road" cars or do I need to something more?
thanks
Joe
7:20 am
December 23, 2014
Offline
Joe,
>will ProTrak manage the assignment of cars to a new train whose routing will be RVS-Yd -> EN02y ->RVs-Yd
Yes.
Create a job that works, as above, and ProTrak will route storage cars appropriately.
~~~
A car will be directed out of storage when that car is assigned a car-order/waybill. That car will be listed as pickup.
OK?
Jim
7:24 am
December 23, 2014
Offline
Joe,
>All of 78 cars show Return empty to - Home road via connections. Does that mean that they are "home road" cars
No. That notation just means that the car is routed home - to a foreign destination (staging), return empty to an online customer or to storage.
Homeroad cars are those with your homeroad reporting marks... or a "system" car.
Jim
3:25 pm
April 26, 2015
Offline
>Create a job that works, as above, and ProTrak will route storage cars appropriately.
Jim,
This is beginning to make sense, thanks.
When I create my EN-XFR train in the next day or so since I've already run the DS for the session I am solo running in the train room, am I correct that in order to get cars on the EN-XFR in the next OP Session that I will need to do Operations / Switchlist / Preview switchlist and then use the "Add car" feature to get cars on the EN-XFR train immediately? In future sessions when ProTrak routes cars to the storage yard does ProTrak select cars to be routed to storage when a cars Location and NEXT Location both say RVS-Yd, or is there more to the car selection process than that? i.e. in my manual Add Cars process what do I look at to select which cars to add to the storage transfer train.
Is there any relationship between storage yards and Home road cars or did I read to much in the Q&A Appendix?
Joe
6:55 am
December 23, 2014
Offline
Joe,
>in order to get cars on the EN-XFR in the next OP Session that I will need to do Operations / Switchlist / Preview switchlist and then use the "Add car" feature to get cars on the EN-XFR train immediately?
As with just about everything in (oh-so-flexible) ProTrak there are many different ways to accomplish the same thing. Your thought above is certainly one way.
Once the train is established and in the line-up you could also run "Yardmater/Route cars at yards..."
>does ProTrak select cars to be routed to storage when a cars Location and NEXT Location both say RVS-Yd, or is there more to the car selection process than that?
When the destination is "Yd" yard ProTrak starts looking for a storage location. ProTrak also looks to see that there is no car-order/waybill assigned.
>in my manual Add Cars process what do I look at to select which cars to add to the storage transfer train.
With one Yd yard on your railroad, you would be looking for a car with a destination of "Yd".
OK?
Jim
11:57 am
April 26, 2015
Offline
Jim,
Curious action. Yesterday I created EN-02y to be a storage yard, and then made that the storage yard for RVS-Yd. Today I decided that I wanted to change EN-02y to EN-Yd which I was able to easily do. I then tried to update the storage yard for RVS-Yd. the drop down list of candidates did indeed show EN-Yd and EN-Yd showed up in the storage yard window after I clicked on EN-Yd in the drop down list. But back on the Yards and Interchange screen no storage yard showed up for RVS-Yd. When I used EN-02y as my storage yard that name properly showed up as the storage yard for RVS-Yd. If you still have my ProTrak folder you should be able to easily repeat what I've done here.
thanks
Joe
2:31 pm
April 26, 2015
Offline
Jim,
I'm in the process of printing out all the paperwork for my anticipated OP session on Friday and ran into something that didn't work as I had anticipated.
EN-02y is a storage yard for RVS-Yd,
EN-XFR goes RVS-Yd to EN-02y to RVS-Yd and has 5 cars on it all with Next = EN-02y
When I report EN-XFR at EN-02y the cars do not leave the EN-XFR train and instead return to RVS-Yd
Can you tell from this information what I've missed setting up? I'm sorta mimicking Andy's RSTORE train which did the same when I ran it down here in Orlando as my EN-XFR train just did. Do I need EN-02y to be a Yd so that I can dump cars off.
Joe
2:58 pm
May 11, 2015
Offline
12
Joe, I get the same thing quite often. Â Bob works the program at all my sessions and maybe able to add to this. What you can do is just run the train in the program and print the Cutlist for the returning cars and you can then Classify them correctly at RSV-Yd.
Best, AndyÂ
Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android On Tue, Jan 24, 2017 at 3:31 PM, ProTrak.org wrote:
Best, Andy Keeney
Look out for #1 but don't step in #2!!
5:21 pm
December 23, 2014
Offline
Joe,
>EN-02y is a storage yard for RVS-Yd
What track length do you have set for EN-02y ?
The program will setoff cars at 'y" track only if there is length available.
Jim
6:11 pm
May 11, 2015
Offline
14
Good point, Jim, I will have to look. Â A question, why does the train even take them to the storage yard if there is no room. Wouldn't the program hold them in the main yard until room becomes available? Â Best, AndyÂ
Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android On Tue, Jan 24, 2017 at 6:21 PM, ProTrak.org wrote:
Best, Andy Keeney
Look out for #1 but don't step in #2!!
6:14 pm
April 26, 2015
Offline
Jim
EN-02y is 400 feet long and my train had 5 44-ft cars in it
Joe
7:46 pm
May 11, 2015
Offline
16
Jim,DTI-03y (storage yard for Gresham) had a 34 car capacity. Not sure if the problem was too many cars but just in case, I've upped it to 67.  I will let you know if we still get cars bouncing between the 2.  Best, Andy
From: ProTrak.org To: nashville_road@yahoo.com Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2017 6:21 PM Subject: New Forum Post - ProTrak: [Yard to small - need help]
Best, Andy Keeney
Look out for #1 but don't step in #2!!
7:07 am
December 23, 2014
Offline
Joe,
You wrote above:
>When I report EN-XFR at EN-02y the cars do not leave the EN-XFR train and instead return to RVS-Yd
then you write:
>EN-02y is 400 feet long and my train had 5 44-ft cars in it
Did the cars have a destination of EN-02y?
Jim
8:00 am
April 26, 2015
Offline
>Did the cars have a destination of EN-02y?
Yes, they did. Do you want me to send my ProTrak folder up to you?
Joe
6:06 am
December 23, 2014
Offline
Joe,
>Do you want me to send my ProTrak folder up to you?
That would be good. (Beats me guessing!)
Jim
3:57 pm
December 23, 2014
Offline
All,
Joe shared his data and I wrote him this morning.
>Did the cars have a destination of EN-02y?
The cars did not. That was why they were not setoff at EN02y; they weren't going there.
~~~
In the data, there was one car routed with a destination of EN02y. Updating car-to-train assignments and running the transfer train caused this car to be setout at EN02y.
The data was fine and the program is fine.
Jim
Most Users Ever Online: 189
Currently Online:
5 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
