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
7:57 pm
June 14, 2015
Offline
Hi Guys.
I have escaped the snow at my place........yes I know everyone thinks that it doesn't snow in Australia but I can assure you it does. Freezing!
I have got myself on a plane and traveled 2000 miles to get warmer weather. Only trouble is that it isn't all that warm. The cold front traveled up behind me.
But it is warmer than home even so.
It has given me the chance to do quite a lot of Protrak manual reading. Boy I have to say this application is quite comprehensive isn't it. I do however think I am "getting it" even if I have to re-read sections over and over again.
I have read chapter 13 (a and b) and have come to the realization that mixed trains have not been covered. Given that every second train of mine will be mixed then how these are handled becomes quite important to me.
So........all you manual writers out there.........is there a mixed train chapter being prepared?
No pressure! Could you please finish it by close of business tomorrow please 🙂 hahahahahahahaha!
Now seriously, I would be very grateful if one (or more) of you experienced Protrak documentors could use your valuable modeling time to educate me I would be most grateful.
The ignorant Australian
Mark :-
9:47 pm
May 8, 2015
Offline
Hi Mark,
Jim Moir gave you a succinct answer to how to set up a mixed train.
In my answer, I also included how I set up a mixed train with one passenger car in a primarily freight train.
1. Set up a freight train, reporting at a yard, servicing customers along the way.
2. Set up a customer, serviced only by the freight train, that only includes a passenger type car with appropriate WBs.
3. Set up a second customer in the target city, then deliver the passenger car to the customer.
4. In this case "01" passenger stations are not used at all.
That works on my railway with a local freight train that picks up a wooden Combine that is moved from one customer down a branch to another customer, and back the same day using continuing in transit. Visit the Manual, 13B, which covers setting up car orders for a diner that only runs 5 days per week if you don't want your passenger car to run every day.
The reverse works also if the train is primarily a passenger train with a few freight cars, except the train is reported at the "01" passenger station instead of at a Yd or "y" point. It then picks up a WB'd freight car at a separate customer assigned to that freight train.
JOhn Mitchell
9:50 pm
May 8, 2015
Offline
That very last "freight train" should have read "passenger train"
John
10:20 pm
June 14, 2015
Offline
Thanks again John,
I do admit that I am barely following what both you and Jim are telling me re Mixed trains. But that is true for most if not all of Protrak at my stage of application understanding. That is all from reading and not much doing.
From a conceptual basis I guess it will most likely gell when I do it all for real.
Thanks for you patient assistance from a newbie. I will get it. (someday soon one hopes)
11:03 pm
June 14, 2015
Offline
Upon refection I still think that there is definitely a place for Protrak user manual V1.2 to have a Chapter 14 Mixed trains.
9:45 am
December 23, 2014
Offline
Two thoughts...... Although I ~think I know where you are coming from.....
"Mixed trains", themselves, can be covered in one paragraph, maybe one sentence. "A train becomes a mixed train by the car-orders for customers that the train serves."
Perhaps the missing chapter is "Basic ProTrak Concepts" ?
~~~
In as much a basic concept behind ProTrak is to keep everything as general (unrestricted) as possible, a-la the prototype, there is no setting to make a train a mixed train.
Rather: the waybill has a car-kind; the waybill is assigned to a car-order; the car-order is assigned to a customer, and a train serves a customer.
So: any car-kind and any waybill to any customer, for any train.
OK?
Jim
7:26 pm
June 14, 2015
Offline
I am so sorry guys. I am still looking at this through a fog.
So to paraphrase if :-
"A train becomes a mixed train by the car-orders for customers that the train serves." then if I understand you correctly a passenger train by implication is then a "A train that becomes a passenger train by the car-orders for customers that the train serves." Is that correct?
So under that sort of premise why does a passenger train need work to 01, why the distinction between a passenger train and a freight train at all. I know it is to stop intermixing and a mixed train by definition includes intermixing. See! Such a fog!
If they are in fact the same the why have Chapter 13 and not Chapter 14. My head swims with confusion. See a pea soup fog of gargantuan proportions is in front of my eyes.
Maybe you guys should stop trying to answer my confusion and leave me be to work it out for my self. I think I need to start setting up my system and along the way things will clear up. I feel like a bit of a fool.
But I will ask.......
Stations. In one part (and I don't remember where) of the instructions it tells me to use three characters to abbreviate that station name Colac to COL, then a Colac yard will be COL-01yd and a spot will become COL-15
But else where I saw that I could use up to four character as my abbreviation.
That is for Colac I could have COLC and then my Colac yard becomes COLC01yd (no - dash) and my spot will be COLC15.
Is that right? I would like to use the four character version if possible.
Also........I would like to thank each and everyone involved in this community, Jim and all you selfless individuals who toiled for many hours to produce the code and documentation that is teaching me how to operate this software. It is no small thing to explain to someone half way around the world how to use a complex piece of software like Protrak.
To those helping your fellow modeler I hope you feel appreciated because you are. More than you might know.
Mark
Most Users Ever Online: 189
Currently Online:
4 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
