Freight Train Types:
There are three types of freight trains you can run.
In the Edit Layout menu, on the Trains tab, where you create trains, you will see the four types of trains you can make. One is a passenger train, leaving 3 types of freight trains. (Note the colour coding, which shows up in the main list of trains for easy identification).
Unit trains are trains that will consist of just one shipment of one car type. The unit train is assigned the shipment and car types when you make the shipment. The unit train must start at one location and service only one industry. There are three in the demo. The two gravel trains, one from Owen Sound and one from Lambton are unit trains. Plus the grain train from Owen Sound to Toronto (Lambton). Often you will need to create a route just for these types of trains.
Switching Specific Industries:
In some cases, you will not want all the industries in a town to be switched by a train. Some industries you will want to be switched by one train, other industries in the same town switched by another train. For example, Durham has a gravel pit which is serviced only by the unit trains, not the local mixed train. This can be done on a per train, per industry basis.
Once a train is created, without doing anything else, it is assumed that the train will service all the industries in the towns that have been checked. To change this and remove industries from the train's list, select the train, then push button at the right top labeled "Tag Industries this Train Switches".
This dialog box appears allowing you to set three possibilities for a train switching a specific industry. You will notice that by default all the industries have "Yes" in the Switch column, one of the options. Choose an industry to change to one of the other two options. "...Does Not Switch Industry" means just that. You will note that the Gravel pit contains a "No" in that column. The other option "...Does Not Switch Industry but instead drops cars at..." means that the train does not switch the industry, but does bring cars that are destined for that industry. These cars are then dropped at the location, a yard, in the drop list, as per Durham Forest Products. The next train that does service that industry will pick up these cars at that yard and deliver them to their destination. This means that you will need to have those places where cars are to be dropped off in the program as a yard.
Clicking on a town in this list will apply the setting you choose to all industries in that town in one run.
This can become quite complicated and difficult to see the over all picture. The program has simplified this with a table. At the top of the Trains tab you will see that there is a smaller tab inside with two items. Create/Edit Tains and View Train's Industries. In this tab you will see below.
This view allows you to see which trains are switching which industries. You will be able to simply look across any industry and see which trains are switching it. In the examples cited above, you will see that in Durham and Chatsworth that train G1, the gravel train from Owen Sound, is what switches the gravel pits in both towns. You will note that the local mixed train, M715/716 does not switch the gravel pit in Durham. Nor does it switch Durham Forest Products. You will also note that this industry has no train to switch it. Thus this screen shows clearly that you can set yourself up to miss having a train switch an industry, and see what to do about it. Selecting a train's column and pressing the button top right will bring up the same dialog to tag the industries.
Commodity Trains:
The difference of a commodity vs a unit train. They ship one type of commodity only, but can do many shipments using various car types, and visit as many industries as you want. Thus you can create a commodity train to go around your layout in the fall and pick up cattle cars, for example. Or an oil train that drops cars at various locations. The demo has three commodity trains. There is a cattle drive train in the fall, which visits many different locations, picking up cattle on the way all heading back to Lambton where the train started from. The second is a hay train that does the same thing, picking up car loads of hay to send out west. Because both of these trains traverse routes, there is a global route covering the CP part of the layout. The third one is discussed below.
Sometimes, there are special trains that will move a commodity, while there are other trains that can also include that commodity. You can differentiate the two by creating a specific commodity strictly for the commodity train. You will notice in the demo that there are two commodities that involve grain. Grain and Port Grain. The Grain commodity is for the rest of the freights, where as the Port Grain is just for this commodity train. To have a commodity train that moves only one type of commodity, that other trains do not move, then you must make a unique commodity. Now for car types to actually carry that commodity, you will have to assign enough cars for that new commodity. You can have cars a mix of these two commodities by making the primary commodity for a car Grain, and the secondary commodity Port Grain
Commodity trains are set up by selecting the commodity the train can haul, but others do not. For example, there is a oil train that runs from Lambton to Owen Sound. It drops off tank cars of fuels so that the local branch line trains can deliver them. Thus Train 91 is a commodity train, but the branch line trains are not.
The sub tab of the trains tab has "Set Trains' Commodities".
This sub tab shows a table of trains in columns and commodities entered as rows. In intersecting cell of a train and a commodity will be either Yes or No. Double clicking a cell will toggle that value. Thus for Train 91, Petroleum is set to Yes, but all the other trains on that route have Petroleum as No. But the branch trains will have Petroleum included as Yes. This allows you to create come sophisticated shipments of differing commodities.
Those commodities in yellow indicate that they are new commodities that were not yet tagged to trains, maybe from imported from another layout. The program will automatically assign all trains to these commodities, but you will need to go through them to make sure.
Yards Visited:
Not all trains will visit all the yards on their route. Some yards are to be ignored by a train, or some yards are for pick ups only, or drop offs only for some trains. This has been included in the program. In the Trains tab the sub tab there has a Set Trains' Yards. This table shows yards in columns, trains in rows, and at the intersecting cell shows the relationship that train has to that yard. There are a number of fixed possibilities. From means the train starts from that yard. To means the train arrives at that yard. From/To means the train comes back to that yard. NA means the yard is not on the train's route. The white cells are subject to change. These cells indicate that the yard is on the trains route. Double clicking a cell will cycle through the following options. Yes (for the train uses the yard), Drop Off Only, Pick Up Only and No (train does not use yard).
