11-10-2011, 04:24 AM
Justin;
I'm assuming that we're working with your latest industry set up (the peanut butter plant) so will try and give you an example of how you might operate it, using this diagram:
Cars marked with a black 'X' are to be left where they are (respots), those marked with a blue 'H' are hold cars to be spotted later, those marked with a red number are to be pulled and sent to the interchange and finally those with a yellow number are to be spotted. Here goes...
Since your inbound traffic is being interchanged from another road, then the inbound cars would likely be mixed up as far as their final destinations on your line. Today on the interchange (from left to right) we have a covered hopper of sugar to hold, a box car of peanuts to hold, a box car of peanuts to spot, a box car for the trans-load and a tank car of vegetable oil to hold.
At the peanut butter plant, we have an empty covered hopper and an empty tank car to pull off the short track and two empty box cars to pull from the long track along with a box car of peanuts, a covered hopper of sugar and a tank car of vegetable oil to be spotted.
There are several ways you could work this and as you can see, it can be quite complicated. I'd probably start by getting hold of the inbound cars from the interchange track then pulling the outbound empty (5) from the trans-load track and shoving it to the end of the interchange track out of the way. Then I'd spot the inbound load (5) on the trans-load and line up my three hold cars for the peanut butter plant on the trans-load track and the car for spot 2 at the end so they'd be out of the way for now.
Next I'd pull my three cars off the short track, set the two outbound empties on the interchange track then I'd line up my two cars off the long track along with the re-spot (leaving the car for spot (1)) and spot those three cars on the short track. Next I'd go back to the long track, couple up everything except the end re-spot car and working between the interchange track and long track, line up my inbound car for spot (1), the re-spot, grab my car for spot (2) off the trans-load track and leave the two outbound empties on the interchange.
Once I had my cars lined up to be spotted on the long track at the plant, I'd pick up my three hold cars off the trans-load track, couple them to the cars to be spotted and then spot everything on the long track and drop the three hold cars.
Last move would be to couple everything on the interchange track and shove to the end of the track. Using this scenario, I'd say it would take 60 minutes to get this work done and that's without having to add any sort of "fluff" other than just switching at prototype speeds and waiting a second or two between moves.
Hope this example is understandable for you. It's far easier for me to actually do the work then to try and describe it in print!
I'm assuming that we're working with your latest industry set up (the peanut butter plant) so will try and give you an example of how you might operate it, using this diagram:
Since your inbound traffic is being interchanged from another road, then the inbound cars would likely be mixed up as far as their final destinations on your line. Today on the interchange (from left to right) we have a covered hopper of sugar to hold, a box car of peanuts to hold, a box car of peanuts to spot, a box car for the trans-load and a tank car of vegetable oil to hold.
At the peanut butter plant, we have an empty covered hopper and an empty tank car to pull off the short track and two empty box cars to pull from the long track along with a box car of peanuts, a covered hopper of sugar and a tank car of vegetable oil to be spotted.
There are several ways you could work this and as you can see, it can be quite complicated. I'd probably start by getting hold of the inbound cars from the interchange track then pulling the outbound empty (5) from the trans-load track and shoving it to the end of the interchange track out of the way. Then I'd spot the inbound load (5) on the trans-load and line up my three hold cars for the peanut butter plant on the trans-load track and the car for spot 2 at the end so they'd be out of the way for now.
Next I'd pull my three cars off the short track, set the two outbound empties on the interchange track then I'd line up my two cars off the long track along with the re-spot (leaving the car for spot (1)) and spot those three cars on the short track. Next I'd go back to the long track, couple up everything except the end re-spot car and working between the interchange track and long track, line up my inbound car for spot (1), the re-spot, grab my car for spot (2) off the trans-load track and leave the two outbound empties on the interchange.
Once I had my cars lined up to be spotted on the long track at the plant, I'd pick up my three hold cars off the trans-load track, couple them to the cars to be spotted and then spot everything on the long track and drop the three hold cars.
Last move would be to couple everything on the interchange track and shove to the end of the track. Using this scenario, I'd say it would take 60 minutes to get this work done and that's without having to add any sort of "fluff" other than just switching at prototype speeds and waiting a second or two between moves.
Hope this example is understandable for you. It's far easier for me to actually do the work then to try and describe it in print!
Ed
"Friends don't let friends build Timesavers"
"Friends don't let friends build Timesavers"