Railworks America

Hi all,

So I'm taking a brief break from working on scenery (need a break from planting trees and what not) and I've been working on a spreadsheet with industries on my route. I'm then listing how many car spots they have and then a range from 1-max for that customer. I'm also listing the types of cars they receive and how often. I got the idea from this site: https://vanderheide.ca/blog/2018/01/04/ ... -waybills/

I am however coming to the point where I'm trying to populate what road freights get what cars from what customer. So I'm running into issues there since CSX and NS don't have any of that knowledge publicly listed. So I have to guess. Since my route predominantly covers NS I'm more worried about the cars that would travel along the NY/NJ - Enola and west route. CSX I'm populating for Conrail and Some CSX traffic over the Trenton, and River Subdivisions.

All in all, since I've done all of this...is this overkill just to do scenario creation? Just wondering...

(P.S. If anyone wants to see the excel sheet please let me know...might be helpful? )

Ken

If you're into run8 at all, people over there actually do similar things as user guides to help the common folk like me know what train symbol carries what and what goes where.

The system was in Model Railroader (about 25 years ago I think). I used the system for my HO Model Railroad and I ensured that guest operators did too. I placed little boxes on the backscene by every source/destination including in the yards. An important part of the instructions was "wait" meaning unload/load time. The cards had 4 sets of details and each time a car was moved it was turned over or reversed and turned over. It worked well although some of the guests turned the cards wrong way (once and only once!).

Here's a nice Switchlist Generator that is easy to use. I've used it for several years and have made a number of tweaks along the way. Try it out and see what you think.

Harry

Google Drive Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Sx730e ... sp=sharing

harryadkins wrote:Here's a nice Switchlist Generator that is easy to use. I've used it for several years and have made a number of tweaks along the way. Try it out and see what you think.

Harry

Google Drive Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Sx730e ... sp=sharing

I'm lost when it comes to listing the tracks. I have some customers that take unit trains and was wondering how that would work out. I don't want to have like 80 lines for one customer. How do you set up something like that?

Not commonly known by many and perhaps one of the best freebies available to a model railroader or V scale modeller, is that the most complex switch list software which used to cost hundreds, Protrak (https://protrak.org/wpt/) is now free after the passing of it's creator. His family was gracious enough to allow its distribution for free given the large community following it has. The software has been around for almost four decades and is what many serious model railroaders and clubs used and still use. It is in many ways as close as you can get to the real thing in terms of simulation. I purchased the software more than a decade ago which quit working with windows 10 64bit and I ownly recently discovered that the free copy they put up on the site with the creator's passing actually works with 64bit systems. Originally when I purchased the software the creator provided me with a custom package which eliminated most of the model railroading aspect as I explained exactly what I wanted to do with his software before purchasing to see if it would fit my needs for Railworks / TS20xx before outlaying such a large expenditure. The software's creator Jim, was a very devoted guy to his software and the hobby itself and was continuously updating the software prior to his passing.

I can say provided you read the massive amount of documentation that is provided and have a clear understanding of the program, it will be the only switch list software you ever need. It is a very complex program to understand and has a steep learning curve however once you learn how to use it and setup your own route, it is an amazing tool. For those serious about giving Protrak a try, read a bit of the cut down manual (it is called the Recipe Book) which basically sums up the other 950 or so pages of documentation into 82 pages. Next give the demonstration railroad that comes with the software a whirl and run it through a couple of sessions, printing off the paper work to gain an understanding of what you are working with and change the format to a style you like. From there I would suggest modifying the demonstration railroad that comes with the software with simple learning projects, such as adding a new customer, a new freight car, adding a new locomotive, changing the routing of an interchange and eventually adding a branchline or second mainline with it's own industries. If you are going to use the software to eventually convey your own TS Classic route there are some tricks for getting the software to work with a real full length railroad.

1. Use HO Scale, there is no 1:1 scale setting so you need to recalculate everything in inches. Example real world mile =5,280ft which is converted to HO by the following formula (5280 x 12)/87 = 728.27 inches, or 1 HO mile. If you have a timetable for the route you want to convey, copy it into Excel and you can make a template which makes the calculations for you between mileposts and sidings along with converted spur and siding lengths. If there are any who are serious I can provide some examples on how to do this with my own templates.
2. Set the fast clock to 24 hour, you are recreating a real world railroad not a model railroad.
3. Setup a Excel spreadsheet with your customers and approximate carloadings a week for that customer.

A suggestion, start small with this program as taking on too much can lead to being overwhelmed and frustration when something goes wrong. The software is incredibly complex and can be unforgiving sometimes requiring regular backups of routes before making major changes.

I downloaded the software but it wants a CD key. They don’t provide one when you download it. So how do you get one?

I live along the Lehigh Line in New Jersey, I could potentially provide assistance to you as far as customers and what cars they get.

Read the readme file, it provides the username and CD Key or the below which is cut and pasted from the readme file, or steps 6 / 7. Also a special install note as this is not listed in the readme and should be, do not let the program install to the default path as it will become a virtual file. You need to change the path at the time of install to C:\Protrak\Protrak in order for the program to operate otherwise none of the data you enter or use will be accessible. Make sure you follow all the other instructions included in the readme including registering the necessary files otherwise the program will not work properly.

6. Enter 4542-7953 after 501- in the CD key number field
7. Enter Joe Brann in the Your Name field, do NOT enter your name. The remaining fields do
not have to be filled in

Thank you!

EngineerJohn wrote:If you're into run8 at all, people over there actually do similar things as user guides to help the common folk like me know what train symbol carries what and what goes where.

Sorry for this late added reply...

I'm on "the depot" for Run8 and I love how they have the "Depot Plus" is set up and I'm basically trying to mimic that for Train Sim Classic. I want to give the whole thing some purpose. Like for example I can say a customer on XYZ route needs a car from ABC route and you can in a way "track" it from route to route.

For example... I have a train that originates on the Pittsburgh line... My route picks up on the tail end of the Pittsburgh Line going into Enola. You can have the car get set out in Enola (or the surrounding yards) then get picked up and moved east via the Harrisburg Line to the Reading Line and then delivered to the customer on lets say the Bergen Line via Croxton Yard.

That's at least one idea I have.