After further thought, it wouldn't make much sense to count the lead as a temporary destination, since the loco(s) would have to be included. I guess you could fudge (shorten) the length of the lead as JMRI knows it, so there would be room left over on the real lead for the loco(s). Thanks for posting this, I've learned some more about JMRI from it!
Okay, so this is one idea on how to extend the Wood Yard Lead. I also thought about just extending it straight over/into the shelf that I plan on building around the layout frame. Also, Locations in JMRI. Andy, you may know all of this already, but I bet that some folks don't. These are the locations that are in JMRI Operations Pro for the All Day & Night 4'x10' Layout. If you look at the Locations Screen, you will notice that the only Locations that you actually enter are locations where cars actually come from or go to. You could think of them as Destinations or Origins. All of the mainline, leads and other tracks are just not entered into the program. You can adjust the actual running time between each location in the Routes Edit screen for each Route that a train runs. So basically, the program leaves it up to you on how to get the cars from Location to Location. This is done via Train Routes which is a whole other topic. Destinations or Locations in JMRI do not actually have to correspond to actual physical tracks. The Crossett Ark Interchange only has two actual tracks. The straight sections are 46.3125", or 46 5/16 inches, or 617.5 N scale feet. That is a total of 1235 N scale feet. If you look at the Crossett Ark Interchange on the Locations screen you will notice that it has 5 tracks for a total of 2495 feet. That doesn't seem to add up, does it? Let's look at the Location Screen for the Crossett Ark Interchange. You will see that I have five tracks modeled for this location in JMRI even though there are only two actual tracks. The AD&N Arrival track and the To AD&N are actually the same physical track. The To ICG, To MoPac, and To Rock Island are actually all the same physical track. They are different tracks virtually, but in real life on the layout they are all the same two tracks. You will notice that the tracks are all different lengths, too. There is a method to this madness. The virtual tracks are never in use at the same time. The reason for doing this is so that when you set up Trains and Routes, it is easier to control traffic flow when you keep the virtual Locations discrete and separate from each other. Yards are a whole nother Location foobie, as well, in JMRI, Staging, too. We can talk about other Location hijinks, Trains, Routes, Staging, or anything else, if anyone wants to.
Tad, I use JMRI, but so far just for programming decoders (Decoder Pro,) and for running Panel Pro to communicate with Engine Driver running on my phone (my SPROG DCC system has no built-in user interface). I understand what JMRI PP does and can do, but I'm worse than a PP operations neophyte; I'm a PP ops virgin! I have started a prototype of my next layout that has (hopefully) some potential for operations, and planned to use that to inform tweaks (if not wholesale redesigns) before the "final" version. Can you recommend an online tutorial or other resources for planning operations with Panel Pro?
Andy, The best one that I found is here: https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/using-jmri-operations-a-worked-example-part-1-12192026 https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/using-jmri-operations-a-worked-example-part-2-12192035 https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/using-jmri-operations-a-worked-example-part-3-12192076 https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/using-jmri-operations-a-worked-example-part-4-12192117 https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/using-jmri-operations-a-worked-example-part-5-12192206 It may be a little dated now, but the concepts are the same. And another, but work through the other one first: https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/another-jmri-operationspro-worked-example-12204918
