Part 2

I want to make sure that the grain hopper is being routed as I expect. In the last blog posting, I had the train pick the car up from the cassette and drop it off at the bakery. So, I run the train again and examine the generated manifest.

This looks good. The train picked up the now empty grain hopper and returned it to the cassette.

I notice that the grain hopper state was changed from loaded to empty. This is an automatic function when a car is dropped off on a spur track. If the car had been empty when it was dropped off, its state would have been changed to loaded.

I use the Move Action button in the Trains form to move the empty grain hopper to the cassette.

To make sure that all is working well, I schedule the train to run again and examine the manifest.

The train has no work! That’s not what I was expecting at all. So, I take a look at the Train Build Report:

One of the rules when using an interchange is that a car that was dropped off by one train may not be picked up by the same train. In other words, interchanges are used to exchange cars between trains.

So, it looks like I have a couple of choices:

1. I could create a second train to operate on the same route.
2. I could use something other than an interchange to model the cassette.

I don’t want to schedule another train for this simple bakery turn job. I don’t think that’s how a real railroad would do things. So, I look at my other options.

JMRI Operations supports 4 major track entities: spurs, interchanges, yards and staging.

I used a spur track at the bakery. Spur tracks accept picking and dropping cars and will toggle the car state between empty and loaded.

The interchange track is not doing what I want.

A yard track is used to hold cars until they have been assigned to trains. Yard tracks will not toggle the car state between empty and loaded.

A staging track is used to hold a complete train that has been assembled beyond the modeled layout. Staging tracks will also not toggle the car’s load state.

In the real world, car loads are generated at one industry and consumed at another. There is a cycle set up between the suppliers and consumers of goods or materials. In the bakery turn, I have only modeled half the cycle. I need to model the other half.

That is, I have modeled a loaded grain hopper being shipped to the bakery and the empty be taken from the bakery but I have not modeled the grain hopper being refilled with grain.

Since I want the grain hopper’s state to be reset to loaded, I will need to use a spur track.

So, I change the Cassette location from using interchange tracks to spur tracks. Also since spur tracks can accept both dropping off and picking up of cars, I should only need one spur track.

I make sure that the grain hopper is set onto this new spur track and that its state is set to loaded. I also make sure that the locomotive is set onto the new spur track.

I run the train again.

This looks good. I run the train for a couple more cycles. The grain hopper is being loaded at Cassette and emptied at Bakery. This is just what I wanted.

Now, let’s see what happens if I add another car to Cassette. I decide to add a tank car...

... and I run the train.

JMRI found the two loaded cars at Cassette and shipped them to Bakery. I run the train again.

It also found the empties at Bakery and shipped them to Cassette.

So, I add all the other cars to Cassette.

And I run the train again.

Wait a minute. I had 10 cars at Cassette, why did JMRI only move 6 of them? I look at the Train Build Report.

Aha! The train is able to handle 7 cars including the locomotives so, it can only handle 6 freight cars but Cassette is only allowing 5 pickups and Bakery is only allowing 5 set  outs, so only 5 cars may be moved.

On the next train, the other loaded cars are shipped to the Bakery.

Hmmm… Why didn’t the train pick up the empties at the Bakery?

The clue is the line that reads “Train departs Bakery Westbound with 0 cars…”. The Cassette is East of the Bakery, so JMRI will not add the Eastbound empties to the Westbound train.

To fix this, I added another Location to the Bakery Turn route to say that the Bakery Eastbound is now part of the route.

Now the train picks up empties at the Bakery and returns them to Cassette.

The manifests are getting to be larger now. I wonder if JMRI can help me in reading them. Under the “Tools” menu is an entry named “Manifest Print Options”.  Selecting this causes a form to be displayed which has a great many options for the format of the generated Manifests and Switch Lists.

For the moment, I select that pick ups are displayed in red and set outs are displayed in blue.

So, in this blog entry I have managed to create a cycle between Cassette and Bakery that is serviced by one train and moves cars between those two locations. I have also added the full complement of cars required by the Bakery location and have made the manifests a bit easier for me to read.

Plastic not grain?

Hi David,

FWIW, after I posted that blog several professional rails contacted me stating that, in all probability, the silo and hopper in the photo are for plastic pellets not grain.  Apparently a number of these bakeries produce their own packaging hence the need for pellets.  I can't say one way or the other, that was just their view on things and is probably right.

Lance

I wondered about that.

It would be easy enough to change the car from covered hopper (grain) to covered hopper (plastic).

I guess that means the Bakery gets its flour trucked in. Or would if come in bags in a boxcar?

I'm also planning on using some of the boxcars for shipping baked goods from the Bakery to the Cassette if only to show how that would be handled in JMRI.

I like that, even now, JMRI is showing it taking about 1/2 hour to service the Bakery making your point about small and simple does not mean dull.

BTW love your books, I have all of them.

Another JMRI Operatios User

No Limit on Car Types

New Wrinkle

Good questions David but I'm not clear on the boxcar contents.  I do know the tankers are vegetable oil.  I wonder if vegetable oil is like corn syrup and comes in different grades?  Here's a new wrinkle.  When I visited in 2011 it was indeed Entenmann's Bakery.  However, upon returning in 2012 the structure had been repainted and had a new tenant, Trujillo and Sons, another large food producer. The car mix appeared the same though.   Trujillo has a good website so you may want to google them.  I'd also do a drive by on Google Streetview of the street side to see if that offers any clues.

In terms of time to work the industry my guess is that it would likely be far more than 30 minutes.

Lance

JMRI works great!

I have been using the JMRI OPS program on my layout for about 3 months and I find it works great. It does everything I need. I was using car cards, but soon threw them in the garbage. Steep learning curve, but it is best to start small and add more cars as you get used to the program. I thanks Art Houston for helping me with the program.

This is the only program I have found that is very flexible. If you can do it with car cards, you can do it with this program. Like Art says it is free.

Keep on track "N"

Paul

JMRI is Free but Great software

I know that sometimes "Free" software = Junk software. Thats not the case with JMRI, theres a lot under the hood and I encourage anyone with an interest to dig around in it. There is DecoderPro which most JMRI users are aware of. PanelPro too. Lesser know are SoundPro ( name might have changed by now ). Virtual Sound Decoder, and lots more. Not trying to hijack this thread. Operations are high on my list of things to do and I'm loving this blog topic.

Thanks,

Rob Teed

Made it this far too.

Thanks again David.  I made it through part two as well. 

Edit:  Actually, ever since I got over that initial hump I've been spending a great deal of time with it today.  Using my own layout as an example and how I envision it would be switched.

I've added a small yard, a brewery, a freight house, and a sawmill. 

I've set up a Turn for the Saw Mill.  Basically logs arrive on the car float, which I set up as a Spur so that empty cars can be reloaded or vice versa.  The log cars are delivered to the saw mill and flat cars with finished lumber get returned to the car float.  Eventually I envision that some of that finished lumber will get shipped "North" to a North Cassette I also set up as well. 

I also set up a Local that picks up cars from the yard, delivers cars to Brewery and a Freight House (while picking up empties or loads) and then continuing North to the Cassette. 

I figured out how to attach a caboose to the trains as well which makes things a lot more fun and interesting.   

For the return trip South from the Cassette I've set up an Afternoon Train which returns to the layout and switches the industries again.  (This also returns the locomotive and caboose sent North off the layout) 

Things seem to moving quite well the only limitation being my meager inventory of rolling stock.  Something I shall have to remedy in the New Year. 

I have one more spur I plan to add to the Local but for now I need to give the grey matter a rest.  Maybe this weekend I'll take another crack at it.  I'll try and see if I can get a couple ideas I have to work to make things a bit more specific.

For example; Ideally I'd rather not send empty log cars to the north cassette, these should always return to the float to pick up fresh cut logs for the Mill.

But that is all for tonight.