In Progress Traffic Generator For The Sechelt & North Coast Railway

[ENR3005]

Greetings All,

From my previous posts you have likely read of my painfully slow route construction due to a lack of time with my desktop due to being away. I thought I would show you the Excel Traffic Generator I have been building off and on over the years. The generator is now fully functional and capable of generating scenarios (not TS2016 scenarios, I still have to manually build with the information provided, it just tells a story) along with train lists, switch lists, editable motive power assignments and company balance sheet that is strongly based on summary report I have for a real BC / Washington based railway. When I started working on this Traffic Generator I wrote out a list with specific goals which I wanted which I will list below. This is still a work in progress as I work out some bugs but I thought I would show you where this is going. Basically this generator can generate one year worth of scenarios which the end user then can manually build in TS2016. I have included a few shots of my progress. I will post more as I finalize the Traffic Generator.

1. Ability to produce random realistic scenarios for a shortline operating in the 1990 to 2016 period. - Completed
2. Provide 365 days of scenarios complete with summary information such longest and shortest train length during period, customers served, commodities carried, carloads per customer broken down by commodity. - Completed
3. Allow historical AAR information to reflect traffic volumes over a 12 month period. This allows the railroad to operate with the ups and downs of the economy along with supply and demand of products during specific months of the year. - Completed - Currently 2015 is used .
4. Create actual switch lists, train lists and yard lists based on real railroad reports. - Completed
5. Create actual switch list for Ferry loading which would be based upon weight of cars to balance the ship during loading and unloading. - Not completed WIP
6. Be able to use random freight car numbers from the TS2016 database for switch lists but also be able to track what has been picked up and set out the whole year. - Completed
7. Allow a 1990 to 2016 roster of locomotives to be randomly selected based on five specific periods. Rosters are to be generated by builder along with a custom roster option. - Only EMD completed at this time, GE drafted but not done
8. Have the generator automatically assign motive power based upon tonnage however the end user is able to designate what power is to be used on specific trains including DPU's and road slugs.
9. Provide a working balance sheet for each generated scenario. The sheet is adjusted by car loadings, motive power used which could create higher maintenance costs if larger power is used, fuel consumption, labor based on train crews required and ROW of buildings, etc. - Completed - not fully tested but appears to function properly

ENR3005

[harryadkins]

Thanks for your good work. I have used a simple Excel Switchlist Generator for over a year with several routes. Will your generator have an open framework so we can use it with other routes? If so, I hope you will include a basic guide to setting up new routes.

Harry

[ENR3005]

Thanks Harry, unfortunately it was not designed with an open framework in mind and was built around my route's needs. I have attached a image (you can actually read the print if downloaded) of the actual generator work sheet which shows the first week only. The actual generator worksheet is huge at 943 rows x 403 columns. There are a full 52 weeks and another summary section required for collecting information for the switch lists. The most difficult portion of generator to understand which I spent months working on to a functional level, was how to get randomly generated freight cars not to be seen again for several days plus their service history. You wouldn't have the same cars you delivered to a spur yesterday dropped of in the yard today to be delivered to the same spur. I wanted the spreadsheet to keep track of what was dropped of yesterday or last week if a pick up was required. This alone would probably scare off most from modifying as it requires a significant investment of time. That being said, the generator could be modified provided you have a good understanding of excel. It has been built in modular sections which all plugin into the generator work sheet, all the other sheets pretty much supply or read information to it. I have added a subdivision and two spurs with little trouble since I setup the original generator with little invested time following what I have built upon.

Chris