There will be times when you will need, or want, to clean up your layout when cars get backed up or delayed. For example, if the yard at Orangeville starts to fill up with too many empty cars, then there would be no room for anything else there. If that happens, chances are that some other yard is lacking in empties. You will want to run some of those empties from one yard to another and restore balance to your layout. You may also want to pick up empties scattered at various industries, or manually deliver full cars to their destinations.
This program allows for five different extra trains. You can run these trains anywhere you want, and they are not restricted to any preset routes or train size. It is suggested that you select shipments logically and efficiently, unless you want to spend all day moving one train around!
From the main screen, click "Run Extra Trains". You can run four types: yard-to-yard empty transfers, empty industry pickups, full industry pickups, and yard full deliveries. You can also run any of those in combination as one train, as described on the first tab.
Select the tab corresponding to the type of special train you want to run.
Once at that screen you will see that there is a tab named "Car Spread" that will show you the number of both empty and full cars for each car type at each location. This will be handy to see where cars are located. When you view the full cars by location, you can click on any number in the grid and see all the cars of that type at that location. It will show you the car number, as well as its ultimate destination and the load it is carrying.
1) Yard-to-Yard Empty Transfers
To run an extra train to move empties from one yard to another (and keep them balanced across yards), select the tab "Yard Empty Transfers". You can also send empties to any industry. This is not a practice you should do often as the car will just be picked up by the next train through since it will be treated as an empty in an industry ready to be picked up. But you might find it useful in certain circumstances.
To create this train:
· Select yard from the drop list and you will see a list of all empties in that yard
· The center drop list will allow you to filter the list by car type.
· Check the cars you want to move.
· On the right top drop list select the Send to Yard tab or the Send to Industries tab. In the Yards tab select the destination yard and you will see all the empty cars in that yard. Selecting the town on the Industries tab and you will see all the industries in that town. Check the cars you want to transfer from the left list (shown above), select the destination as shown below and press the assign button. You can assign multiple destinations.
· Select a locomotive to pull the train. This list of locomotives will come from the originating yard. If no locomotives are found, the program will display locomotives in the destination yard. If there are no locomotives in either yard, select a destination yard that has available locomotives, then run another train to move the cars to the destination you wanted.
· Press "Make a Train".
The same Switchlist sheet and waybills will be printed as those for the Scheduled Trains.
You will not see the moved cars in the destination list at this time as the cars are on the train. Once this train is terminated, the cars will be at this destination.
2) Empty Industry Pickups
To run an extra train to pick up empty cars scattered across industries, select the tab "Industry Empty Pickup". Industries could start to fill up with empties waiting to be picked up, while scheduled trains may not have been able to pick them all up. Use this feature to run an extra train to pick up all the cars you select and return them to a yard.
To create this train:
· Select that tab and you will see a list of all empties and their industries.
· Check the dates when the empties are to be picked up, and how many days they have been at that industry. It’s your choice, but it is recommended that you select only those cars that have been sitting there the longest.
· Select the yard where you want to send these empties.
· Select a locomotive that is in that yard. If there are none there, then select a yard that does have locomotives. After the cars arrive there, do a yard-to-yard empty transfer.
· Press "Make a Train".
3) Full Industry Pickups
To run an extra train to pick up full cars scattered across industries, select the tab "Load Pickups". Industries could start to fill up with full cars waiting to be delivered, but scheduled trains have not been able to get to them all. Use this feature to run an extra train to pick up all the cars you select and send them to a yard. From there, you can use the "Load Deliveries" feature to get them to their destinations (or leave them for scheduled trains).
To create this train:
· Select that tab and you will see a list of all full cars and their industries.
· Check the dates when the full cars are to be picked up, and how many days they have been at that industry. It’s your choice, but it is recommended that you select only those cars that have been sitting there the longest.
· Select the yard where you want to send these full cars.
· Select the locomotive from that yard. If there is no locomotive there, select a yard that does have locomotives. After the cars arrive there, do a "Load Deliveries" to move the cars to their destinations.
· Press "Make a Train".
4) Yard Full Deliveries
To run an extra train to deliver full cars sitting in a yard, select the tab "Load Deliveries". You can use this feature to ship any car that is full to its destination industry. Occasionally, scheduled trains will not run frequently enough to move all cars to their destinations. Thus, yards will start to fill with cars that are not being moved.
To create this train:
· Select a yard
· You will be shown all full cars in the selected yard that are awaiting a shipment.
· Check the cars that you want to move.
· Select the locomotive from the selected yard for the train.
· Press "Make a Train".