Using The ShipIt! Computer Program On An ISL

[FCIN]

Divide the spur into two industries, one for the extra spots and one for the mill. The extra spots receive "grain 1" and ship "grain 2". The extra spots receive product "grain 1" from staging. There, "grain 1" is "unloaded" and then the empty car is "loaded" with "grain 2" at the empty spot. The feed mill receives "grain 2". So, the extra spots will ship grain 2 to the feed mill. ...
Let me know if It works.

Gary;

I set up ShipIt the way you suggested - two individual spots for the feed mill that I'm calling Mill and Hold. I set up a shipment of Feed from the Yard to the Hold spot, then created a shipment from Hold Spot to Mill spot. Shipments of Feed from the Yard to Mill spot, I gave a higher priority then the moves to/from the Hold spot. Then began generating test sessions...

Here's a simple diagram of the industry set up:    
Test Results (I hope this is clear)

### Denotes incorrect car movement
The letters inside the brackets show car positions at the end of the operating session, where:
[M - car at Mill spot, H - car at Hold spot, X - nothing on spot]

Start Fresh - ShipIt placed a car at both Mill spot and Hold spot [M, H] - Okay so far...
Session 1 - Load from Yard To Hold spot - Load at Hold spot moved to Mill spot - Empty pulled from Mill spot [M, H] - Off to a good start here!
Session 2 - Cars at Mill and Hold spots both pulled as empties to Yard [X, X] ### - I'm assuming that ShipIt pulled both cars due to the initial set up placement, but actually, the car on Hold should have been a load to move to the Mill spot.
Session 3 - Empty from Yard to Hold spot [X, H] ### - Now ShipIt is filling the request for the load from Hold to Mill which should have been done in Session 2. Nothing is spotted at Mill.
Session 4 - Empty from Yard to Hold spot - Load moved from Hold spot to Mill spot [M, H] ### - Now we move the car from Hold to Mill, but again move an empty to Hold for loading, which really should have been an inbound load.
Session 5 - No activity
Session 6 - Load from Yard to Hold spot- Load moved from Hold spot to Mill spot - Empty from Mill spot to Yard [M, H] - Car movement is what I want to see.
Session 7 - No activity
Session 8 - Load from Yard to Hold spot - Load from Hold spot to Mill spot - Empty from Mill spot to Yard [M, H] - Looking good!
Session 9 - Load from Yard to Mill spot - Empty from Mill spot to Yard [M, H] ### - This time, the Hold car did not move. Guess you could justify this by saying that the inbound car from the Yard was needed before the car on Hold.
Session 10 - No activity
Session 11 - Load from Yard to Hold spot - Load from Hold spot to Mill spot - Empty from Mill spot to Yard [M, H] - Good car movement again.
Session 12 - Load from Yard to Mill spot - Empty from Mill spot to Yard [M, H] ### - Again, the Hold car was not moved and a new inbound load was spotted at the Mill.
Session 13 - Empty from Mill spot to Yard [X, H] ### - Here we pulled the car from Mill, but let the Hold car sit.
Session 14 - Load from Yard to Hold spot - Load from Hold spot to Mill spot [M, H] - Okay, Hold car moved to Mill spot and new car placed at Hold.
Session 15 - Load from Yard to Mill spot - Empty from Mill spot to Yard [M, H] ### - Spotted car at Mill, but again did not move Hold car.
Session 16 - Empty from Mill spot to Yard [X, H] ### - Hold car still has not moved to Mill.
Session 17 - Load from Yard to Hold spot - Load from Hold spot to Mill spot [M, H] - Okay, Hold car finally spotted at Mill and a new Hold car takes its place.
Session 18 - Empty from Mill spot to Yard [X, H] ### - Again, Hold car does not move and nothing is spotted at the Mill.
Session 19 - Load from Yard to Hold spot - Load from Hold spot to Mill spot [M, H] - Hold car spotted and new inbound car placed on Hold. Correct car movement on this session.
Session 20 - Empty from Mill spot to Yard [X, H] - And again, Hold car does not move and nothing is spotted at the Mill.

Starting with Session 6 - a pattern developed that is working correctly about 30% of the time. As you can see (I hope) too many times, the Mill has nothing spotted for unloading, when there is a car on Hold that should be spotted, but isn't until the next session or even after two sessions.

I have generated a total of 50 test sessions so far and have not again seen an empty moved from the yard to the Hold spot for loading, but the pattern of correct car movements occurring only about 30% of the time continues. I'm not sure what, if any adjustments can be made to get a consistent pattern of always having a car spotted at the Mill whether or not there is a car on Hold and if there is a car on Hold, getting it to move to the Mill spot, before a newer inbound car is spotted at the Mill, or worse yet, having a car on Hold and nothing spotted at the Mill. Even reducing the load time for the Hold car did not seem to make any difference. So it's probably back to having the Mill with 2 car spots and if 2 cars are spotted and pulled at the same time, then so be it.

It was a good idea, but just seems like I can't get it to work in a prototypical manner. I was really hoping that this would work as I can see you having the same situation with your Mountain King Potatoes industry. If you have cars spotted for unloading and some waiting to be spotted, you wouldn't want to spot newer inbound cars ahead of the waiting cars, especially dealing with perishable commodities.

So will I use ShipIt as the basis for my operating sessions? Perhaps, if I just forget about some of the random type moves I'd like to duplicate. Car movements on and off line are pretty random, so that part works well for me, but for now, it looks like the only way I can duplicate certain types of car movements is to just handle making up the switch list myself.