Hi Jim,

I'm currently setting up my Multiple RR, with #1 CASO (local Cdn traffic),  CPR (overhead freight and passenger traffic), C&O (overhead freight traffic), PM (local Cdn traffic), and NYC (Overhead passenger and freight traffic).  In both cases, I've separated the CASO from the NYC and the PM from the C&O so that the high number of cars with these reporting marks do not overwhelm the two major yards on  the layout.  Empties with these marques are flowing nicely to their respective staging tracks and I don't want to fool with these.  In the multiple roads sections, I have not added any default/home yard for these two railroads, nor for the CPR as well.  I presume that new cars or redirected cars will continue to be sent automatically to the yard on the first screen (ie St. Thomas Yd, the main yard on the layout), they just won't be used for storage of empties.  And the NYC, CPR and C&O reporting marks will continue to be loaded preferentially on the layout over home road cars.

For passenger equipment, I have identified Detroit's Coach Yard as the passenger default on the first admin screen.  This will continue to be fine for me, as all the passenger trains of the CPR and the NYC visit Detroit daily.  Plus, I don't have any other convenient place for either of them. 

Do I have all this conceptually correct???

One issue is the schematic map.  There are two inches of blank space on the left side of the map, but on the right side, the vertical foreign branch from the last CASO station is right against the margin.  Could you give me an inch or two there so that I can read the station names and/or add another sub-branch?

Thanks

John Mitchell

Modeling the NYC (CASO), C&O (PM) and CPR in Detroit and SW Ontario

Jim,

No, none of the above is happening because I'm still in the early stages of setting it up.  I always ran it as a CASO (not associated with the NYC or any other railway).  Then I had branches for the CPR (freight and passenger), branches for the C&O (EW and NS), along  with the CASO branches to Leamington and Courtright.  All these Rwys ran over the CASO for their runs in Canada. 

Its a bridge Rwy,  so I have a lot of staging tracks - 5 for CPR Toronto passenger, 2 for Toronto freight, 5 for East NYC passenger and 6 for west NYC passenger, 5 each for NYC and C&O overhead freight in the west and east - 26 in all, but I think I've forgotten a few because some real tracks have two staging designations.  Thus, each has its own region and specific trains that tend to be fairly unique.  I've always been able to direct specific empties to specific tracks.  All the reefers go back to Det2s, no  matter where they end up on the layout or which Rwy delivered them.  NYC and C&O empties go back to specific stg tracks, as do the odds and sods of NE railroads.  Very much different from Andy, who empties out his main yard by sending empties on several trains to several staging tracks, but all in the same region.  Whereas my overhead freights have 15 cars, but only drop/pu 2-3 cars in the main yard as they pass thru Canada, so its better to have unique regions for each stg track  and its relevant train.

I kept the NYC separate from the CASO so that the NYC empties would flow to the staging tracks and not end up being stored in the main yard as empties.  The same thing happened for the C&O.  However, now that I have multiple Rwys, I need to separate the C&O from the PM, as I don't want all the C&O cars stored on the layout in the PM yard.

Now that I think about it, I  probably should set it up as CASO, PM and CPR as multiple Rwys on the layout,  then simply use the NYC and C&O as having trackage rights across  the layout.  I do have NYC customers, as well as extensive loco facilities in  Detroit, so maybe I should add it as a multiple rwy, but  there is no need for the C&O (nor for the B&O which has two passenger trains arrive in Detroit while going from stg to stg).

As you can see, I ran it as a multiple Rwy layout, so this is a welcome development in PT.

The bottom line is that I haven't seen PT doing anything yet.

But in going thru this setup, I'm noticing other things that are giving me problems (such as the right margin in the schematic map).  I'll  bring them up later with you.

Thanks  John