05-07-2014, 09:32 AM
I always like the color, lighting, and photography on your layout. On the videos, I like the variety of your freight cars and what you've done with weathering. As I said on an earlier post, the sound works well, because it's not much different from the sound dubbed into DVDs from the 1970s. I also like how you keep challenging yourself to do more!
A slight comment on how you name the local. This isn't universal, and there are always going to be exceptions, but a train ID with end points as letters, like KM, would tend to be a manifest. I believe the union agreements with manifests tend to limit local-style pickups, and for general efficiency, you don't want a train that has to get between end points within 12 hours to spend a lot of time switching. Locals tend to have different identifiers. I don't know what local iDs were like on Penn Central. On the UP, they have an "L" prefix and a yard ID, plus a number. Someone else may be able to help with what local IDs look like on other railroads -- I think they had a "W" and a yard ID on Conrail.
Because I worked a lot with computers when I worked for a living, I've always liked computer-based switchlist generators, but that's a personal preference. Especially if you have a fairly small number of cars and industries, a manual system like yours works fine and is as adjustable as any other.
A slight comment on how you name the local. This isn't universal, and there are always going to be exceptions, but a train ID with end points as letters, like KM, would tend to be a manifest. I believe the union agreements with manifests tend to limit local-style pickups, and for general efficiency, you don't want a train that has to get between end points within 12 hours to spend a lot of time switching. Locals tend to have different identifiers. I don't know what local iDs were like on Penn Central. On the UP, they have an "L" prefix and a yard ID, plus a number. Someone else may be able to help with what local IDs look like on other railroads -- I think they had a "W" and a yard ID on Conrail.
Because I worked a lot with computers when I worked for a living, I've always liked computer-based switchlist generators, but that's a personal preference. Especially if you have a fairly small number of cars and industries, a manual system like yours works fine and is as adjustable as any other.