This will be the longest step to complete, as it depends on the number of cars you have on your layout. The program will automatically assign its own internal car numbers as you create each car type. That is, you add rolling stock to the database by indicating how many of each car type you have. If you are running in Absolute Dispatch Management mode, you will need to change these numbers so that they correspond to the actual car numbers used on your layout. If you use the other two modes, however, you can then ignore these numbers. Note that car numbers must be unique. You cannot have two cars of the same number. The reporting marks are considered part of the number, and are not separated. However, the program does track reporting marks and allows you to preset reporting marks for any car numbers you create.
To add rolling stock to the database, you do so on a per-car type basis.
· The simple car types used in the demo are as follows:
o BX for boxcar
o CH for covered hopper
o FC for flat car
o GD for gondola
o RF for reefer
o CT for cattle car
o HP for hopper car
o TK for tank car
o CC for cement car
o OR for ore car
· Create a car type
o Enter a car type code.
o Enter the full car type name
o Select from the list if their usage is for freight, passenger, caboose/vans, or MOW.
o Enter how many cars of this type you have
o Enter the railroad name to be used for these cars (defaults to your road name)
o Press "Add Car Type".
You will notice that the program will generate a car for each one you said you had in your layout. If you are running the program in Absolute Dispatch Management, you can now click on each car and assign the genuine numbers you want to use, otherwise you may just keep the ones created by the system. Any cars created here will be assigned as empties at the default yard, which is where all new cars must start. As a result, this means you will have to place all your rolling stock into the default yard to start, well sort of. You have the option of telling the program where each car actually is in the administration section.
Each car can also be tagged with the primary commodity it will be loaded with. You can pre-select that commodity before creating the cars, and those cars will get that commodity.
The list in the top right corner of the rolling stock types has some added information that will be useful later. During the testing of creating shipments, I was concerned that there was not going to be enough car types for all generated shipments. This list shows you the ratio of the number of car types to the number of cars needed for shipments that use those car types. It will assist you in knowing whether you should acquire more of a specific car type, or even to sell off some cars if you have far more than are needed to fulfill the shipments you have. The ratio should normally be less than 1, otherwise you have more shipments that need that car type than you have cars of that type.
This list is colour coded for 6 possible situations, indicated below the list. This will be helpful to know where areas of weakness exist, or where you have too many cars of a given type. You will also note the Get column which suggests how many more cars are needed.
Clicking on any car type in this list will display all the cars you already have, and then allow you to add more of that type, as needed. The question is, how do you go about deciding how many cars are needed? The answer to that is dependant upon the frequency of the shipments and the number of trains involved to complete a shipment. Here is an example.
National Silicates ships 3 loaded boxcars of industrial glues every day. To fulfill this requirement, there needs to be 3 empties sent from Lambton Yard to Orangeville yard. The next day, M756 moves the cars to the industry to be filled. Once the cycle is in full swing, there will be three loaded cars to pick up. M756 spends the night in Teeswater returning the next day as M753. By design, train 90 does not run to Lambton until all the local branch line trains return to Orangeville, so that means 90 and M753 run on the same day. So counting the number of days involved for a complete cycle: 89 + M756 + (M753 & 90), which is 3 days, times three cars. Thus to fulfill this one shipment 9 cars on the layout are needed.
You could do this for each shipment to ensure you have the right number of cars.
Once the cars of a type have filled the bottom list, you can select each car and change their number from the default number the system selected. You can only change a car number from the system assigned, once you assign a new number, you cannot change it. See Administration for changing car numbers.
Select the primary commodity the selected car is to ship. You can add new commodities at any time. Selecting a commodity first, and all subsequent new cars created will get this commodity. "Anything" is the default commodity. Thus, you can create 10 hoppers to just ship coal, and 10 hoppers to just ship sand.
There is a check box that says "Show Number of Types Needed" just above the bottom list. Selecting this will show a grid of car type vs. commodity. There are two sets of numbers at each cell. The first number is the number of shipments that use that commodity of that car type, the bottom number is the number of cars you have . For example, the cell intersecting Food Products and Boxcars has 2/5. This means that there are two shipments that need boxcars that can carry food products, and the demo layout has 5 boxcars that can ship food products. Thus we have enough cars to make all these shipments. Numbers in red indicate that you do not have enough cars to ship the commodity (as you've indicated in the creation of the shipments). Of course, no shipments will show here until you actually create the shipments your layout will run. You will find this very helpful in balancing the number of cars needed for each commodity and shipment of that commodity.
One thing you might want to do is to actually enter more cars that you have, but would like to have in the future. These other cars will retain the pre-numbered designation until you get more cars. It would, however, be a great way to have a placeholder for cars that you should get in the future. One of the reports is of pre-numbered cars only, which can be used as a check list of what you need to get the next visit you have to your favorite hobby store.
In the Inventory form you can make all these pre-numbered cars inactive at once until such time as you physically get each car. This way the pre-numbered cars do not get on any trains.