Mark Stafflrd said
Hi All,

 

I am working my way through the Protrak manual and I am installing the Actonvale Passenger Station.  All fine I might add.

The instructions tell me that ALL passenger trains MUST arrive on track 01.   Thats fine too except........

I have an unusual prototype (a real situation) where all the main line trains....both passenger and freight came into its terminus on platform 01 (the one with the passenger station on it) and a branch line that connected to the main line in our station entered the yard from the same direction as our main line, parallel so for a bit before the trains entered our station.

All branch line trains  both passenger and freight would arrive on track 02.

In both cases they would stop at their respective roads, track 01 for the main line and 02 for the branch even if the other train was not in the station always.  

But not only that....... But after arrival they would let the passengers alight the train then (get ready for this one) they would move forward, enter a balloon loop and re enter their own receiving road now facing in the opposite direction.   I am told that for the uninitiated traveler many many were seen to race after their train around the balloon loop thinking that their train had left earlier than the published time table time only to discover that the train hadn't left at all.   It had just set it self to go back along the same line that it had arrived from.

Carriages were then switched between the two trains after the engines had been taken to the coal and water point to receive their engine servicing.

So where does that level me?  I admit I do have an extremely unusual situation, but on the other hand that this mode of operation is precisely why I am modelling this particular station.

I do have Passenger trains arriving on line 02.   How do you think I should get around this one Obi One?

Mark 

Hi Mark,

I have quite extensive passenger operations on my layout (27 or so individual trains daily), with four major passenger stations, all with multiple tracks, up to 6 tracks or platforms.  I also have 4 smaller stations with double main lines and one mainline station with only 1 mainline track and one siding.

However, the number of tracks at the station is quite immaterial in PT.  Its how you set up your operations at each station on your layout.

Lets go back one step.

A passenger station is defined as 01, just as a yard is defined by Yd.  Both have infinite capacity (or trackage).  PT accepts that if you put thru 100 passenger trains in a one hour period, then PT assumes you know what you are doing and have the requisite number of tracks on your actual layout to handle that number of trains.  Its not like staging, where trains actually reside for a period of time and the length is defined.  (Well that's not quite true, as Andy recently defined one staging track in PT as having a more or less infinite length so that several trains could reside conceptually on the one track in staging.  The reality was that he actually put individual trains on 5  different tracks of limited length on his layout).

So, I never worry which track a train arrives on, nor whether it is on a mainline or in an actual passenger station separate from the mainline.  Only that it arrives, possibly with several other trains at the same time.  If 10 trains arrive at a station at the same time, I know that Ive screwed up the scheduling big time if I don't have 10 tracks on my layout, PT doesn't tell me.  So, PT assumes that you know what you are doing.  OK (question mark).  (PS Ive got a new computer with a new keyboard and I think it is set up with a bilingual keyboard ie è or é is French and I don't know how to find the question mark or the apostrophe or how to change the bloody keyboard!!!!  Instead Im writing replies to the forum)

Now, lets get to your situation, as I think that I have a similar operation on my layout.  Im still a little confused about your description.

Train A arrives with Engine A on an appropriate track at Station01.  Passengers are dropped at the station.  Train A then leaves the station01 and loops around, then returns to the station01 (This could be on any appropriate track on your layout).  Then the engine is released and proceeds to the servicing area.  (By the way, on the layout, PT doesn't care how you turn the train around, just that you can physically do it.  Its only in staging that it cares which of the two methods are used).

In the meantime, Train B arrives with Engine B at Station01 on a different track, which then does the same thing as above and returns to Station  01, where Engine B separates from Train B and goes to the Service area.

Finally, Engine B attaches to the passenger cars formerly on Train A, reloads the passengers and proceeds down the Branch.  Meanwhile Engine A attaches itself to the passenger cars that were formerly on Train B, reloads its passengers and returns on the Main to its former starting point.

Conceptually, this is a turn with Train Ax leaving Town x, going to Station01 and then returning to Town x as Train xA.  The engine A would stay with the train the whole way, unless you physically changed it in PT while at Station01.  The same thing for Train B, it is a simple turn from town z to station01 and return. 

Now, just like freight cars, what happens to the passenger cars is controlled by the WayBills (WB).  So, if you load a WB from town x to town z, then the car on Train A will be added to the consist of Train B for the trip to town z while it is in Station01.  The same thing for passengers travelling from town z to town x, the car will be added to Train A by a switcher or by the road engine in Station01.

What I don't understand is why the passengers don't walk across the platform and physically get on the passenger cars on Train B (question mark, question mark).  I can understand if they were Pullman passengers and still had a long night ahead of them, but not if the Branch trip was short or if they had coach seats.

I have a CPR train and a NYC train arrive in Detroit at 2:00 am.  OUt of the ten cars on the CPR train, several terminate in Detroit, but three CPR sleepers and a long distance coach are transferred to the NYC train (while the paying customers sleep) for the subsequent trip to  Chicago, arriving the next morning.  The same thing happens the next evening in Detroit on the return trip, where the joint NYC and CPR train is split up, with the CPR cars added to a CPR train which then departs for Toronto on its own tracks,  while the NYC train (with additional NYC cars added in Detroit) heads off for Buffalo and New York City.  I don't worry about the passengers, they are handled by the WB.  In PT, they are not milling around on the platform, although I do have some Preiser HO figures standing on the platforms for years without actually getting on any train.  They don't care and neither do I!!!

I have the station master put the two trains on adjacent tracks in Detroit01 to facilitate switching, but I don't care which tracks he uses of the six available tracks.  I know in real life, the NYC Wolverine always used track 4, but you know, the passengers in PT are real smart and wont get confused.

So, in my case, the CPR train is a turn from Toronto stg to Detroit01 and return to Toronto stg.  The NYC is a mainline train running from NY City stg to Chicago stg via Detroit01 at 2 am and returning to Detroit01 at 11pm before heading back out to NY City stg, so it too is a turn, just not in Detroit01.

To put it simply, trains are trains with an engine and a conductor.  They are controlled by the Schedule and the locations which you enter for each schedule. ie where the train starts, stops, turns and terminates.

Cars are controlled by the WBs and PT assigns them to the train(s) which take them to the destination on the WB.

Passengers are ephemeral, just like the loads in closed freight cars, we don't see them, but PT knows if they've been sleeping and whether they've been good or bad.

John Mitchell

Modelling the NYC, CPR and C&O in Detroit and SW Ontario.