05-27-2012, 10:16 PM
TTRAK_andrew Wrote:The switching operation is concerned with delivering reefers loaded with various frozen Tropicana orange juice products from the two storage tracks to each of the three distribution warehouse doors as required. Each of the nine reefer freight cars that will be occupying the two storage tracks will have two `tags’ on its roof. The tags will have one of three colours to represent different products loaded into that freight car. A coloured four sided dice will be rolled for each warehouse door. On 3 sides of the dice will be the three colours of the tags, plus a `blank’ to represent no products required at that door. When all the required `deliveries are made, the appropriate tags are removed from the top of the reefer. As time goes by some cars will be full, some half full, and others empty. The operator’s challenge is not only to deliver the right loads to the correct doors, but to also steadily move the empty reefers to the rear of the storage tracks to make it easier to access the cars with loads.
Mmm - that is an interesting way of generating moves.
Some quick questions:
Are the two dots on any given car always the same color?
Is only half a car load (one out of two dots) unloaded every time the car gets spotted at a door?
If you roll the same load again for a given door, and there already is a car at that door with a partial load of the appropriate type - does that represent "no move" (you will unload the second half of that car), or will you pull that car and get a different car with the same type of load ?
Does blank represent "no car" or "no movement" - i.e. if you already have a car spotted at that door, and it is not completely unloaded yet, will it stay or be pulled?
Like your buildings and parking lot, looks nice! Also like the way you have the ground throws at the front of your layout - accessible and visually separate from the modeled layout.
Smile,
Stein