Anyone have a line on this? I read somewhere that people were using it like waycards. I've searched the net but so far have come up with nothing
I run the "Ship It!" software. In standard form, you print out switchlists. There are options for waybills. Look for Albion Software. www.albionsoftware.com
Well that software certainly looks the goods i just still have to try and get my head around something like that. I'd love for someone to be able to come over to my house and explain the operation of waybills etc. I have read Paul Templars system but still need some on hands experience. Have a look at this thread for more information on Pauls system http://www.trainboard.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=13&t=000265
I understand the use of waybills. What I don't understand is, how do you read the tiny numbers on one single box car in a yard full from six feet away? I can't even read them from a foot away? Do you paste a lable on the roof or something?
The "Ship It!" software is very intense, and it will take some time to get it running. Don't misunderstand me, it's not hard, just detail oriented. You input all your towns, industries, products shipped, AAR types, you have to have matching "shippers" and "consignees", trains, and train schedules, and all your rolling stock. The big advantage of all this is it makes you really think about your railroad. Wher you start, where you are going, how you get there, and what are you doing along the way. When hunting for specific cars in a yard, it's not that hard, as you put all the data in, so you tend to remember what cars are what. Also, the action of the cars is not always random. In a yard, certain cars will rotate faster than others, but you will quickly see patterns and will have certain areas where the older cars will gather. If you'd like more help or info, just let me know.
If I understand you, Mopac1, it really isn't car specific then. If you have 9 box cars in your yard, any box car can be pulled out to fit a train order. You do not have to really get the Great Northern Box, it could be a Frisco box car then, so long as it is a box car and not a tanker?
Watash; It's just the opposite, "Ship It!" is car specific. And it can be as specific as you want it. For example, on my layout I ship computers, air compressors, appliances, hardware supplies, and other things in boxcars. Therefore, "Ship It!" tracks each car, not only by place, but time as well. You tell it how long it takes to load / unload each product. It then tries to use each car to it's maximum potential (just like a real reairoad). If boxcar A is done unloading at a consignee, it can then be picked-up by a train going in the proper direction, and dropped-off at a shipper as an empty to be loaded. Several time I have been instructed to pick-up a car at one siding, only to drop off the same car at a different siding in the same run session. Then you can get VERY specific. I have several types of tank cars, some of which I have designated for specific products, like tank car-gasoline (TAG). That way this car will only be used by the refinery (shipper) and it's consignee (gas distributor). I do keep a magnifying glass handy for visitors, but when you input all the cars yourself, you'll very quickly know which car is which. And since the program knows where the cars are, it narrows your search, so if you were looking for MP 1242 (tank car), it's one of only 6 at the refinery, and you're not searching all over the layout for it.
I've seen the ShipIt! program in use, and you're right- it's detail-oriented. What I do on my layout is use a switchlist I photocopied from an issue of Model Railroader (Kalmbach gave permission for all to copy if desired), and since I do staging & swapping cars on & off the layout & out of staging, I've divided up my car types. I have a list of which shipper gets which type of car, and how often a certain shipper gets serviced (has to do with commodity). For me, it's a matter of matching car type (or types) to the shipper, and reaching in my car collection to get the proper car. I rotate them, so I don't use the same car so soon. I may look back at the Ship It! program, to see how this can fit in my scheme of things.
Yes I know I dug this up from over ten years ago....but, I am finally starting to really play around with this software and plan to use it in near terms for my Minnesota Commerical Layout (MNNR) which is a small around the walls 9x12 mainly switching layout that has a small yard, some industries and a two track staging yard to represent the world away from the actual layout. I understand that shippers and receivers need to be setup to mach up with each other but I wonder if I have to do this for interchange traffic. My layout operations consist of off layout industries served by the Minnesota Commercial (these have been setup in ShipIt) and both on and off layout interchanges with BNSF, CP, Twin Cities & Western, CN, and Union Pacific. So do I need to setup each every business (shipper / receiver) that is off the layout and served through interchange traffic? If the answer is yes....holy cow that is allot of work even for this small railroad, what the heck is it going to be like when I setup ShipIt for my attic layout focus on BNSF, CP, and Twin Cities & Western? The Class 1 railroad traffic could be intense. I guess I could setup an industry as CP interchange for example and list all of the goods shipped and received by the industry "CP Interchange". The next tricky part would be to figure out the loading and unloading times (how long will the car be away from the layou). Off layout traffic will first go to my two track staging yard and then to a fiddle yard (under layout shelving for relative quick turnaround times, and other shelving outside the trainroom offic for longer turnaround times). I have an idea of how I want operations to take place on the layout as the layout was designed with this in mind. I am just trying to wrap my head around how to set this up in ShipIt to control movements with what I have in mind.
I think it will require a shipper and receiver even between interchanges. There is a lot to ShipIt! In fact, it is really modeling a transportation system. You could model a coast to coast route and your layout would be only a part of the whole system. Still, you would be able to track products through all stages of the route. Unless we have a present user of ShipIt!, I would try the Yahoo Group.
hi When I decided to try operations, I looked at a few software and database programs. There was ship it and a few other programs. In the end I decided to keep it simple and just start with card cards and waybills. I guess it depends on how big your layout is, how many cars you have, and how many stops (industries and yards) you have. And also how much time you want to spend on the computer to start with. I made car cards for about 40 cars and waybills to cycle around under ten industries and interchange yards and that is enough to keep two people occupied for one to two hours with two trains plus two other trains going "through" all the time. Unless you are settled on using Ship-it, consider other options and maybe starting simple first.
Thanks for the feedback, I will probably use Ship It as I really do dig the whole idea behind it. But, to start with may take your advice and setup car cards until I get everything set in Ship It. For certain I will run some mock operating sessions before I make the track perm on the layout just in case something does not make sense. I already made a couple changes to the track because of bugs discovered during operations.
I have two friends who are beginning to use Ship-It on their layouts. We've had two operating sessions on one layout and its working well. The kinks are being worked out and we've only worked part of the layout. Both of these layouts are huge, I'm talking gigantic basements filled with lots of track. The one that has Ship-It running is the simpler of the two with about 80-100 cars and 5 or 6 destinations so far (probably 5 to 6 times more of each need to be input). The other layout is very complex having 5 prototypical railroads operating on it. The owner has part of the fleet entered- 480 cars so far and again will probably start with one or two of the railroads operating with Ship-It to get the kinks out. The generation of switch lists is working well and its providing a reason for trains running. There's a lot of up front work to the program. The thing that I found interesting is that you must input all the places, ie: industries, yards, sidings, etc, with great specificity to make the program really function well. The benefits of planning out all destinations is already apparent as we operate on part of the layout. My layout can't justify the time or expense of this program. I'm going to give the Operations portion of the JMRI software a try to see how that works. I'll probably start with car cards while I get things running in JMRI. Dave
I'm thinking about Ship It software and wonder if you made any progress on your install. The layout I'm building is a two level 18' x 40' with lots of sidings and an eleven track main yard. I have about 250 freight cars on the layout now with room for more. I was thinking the card system would be lots of work and Ship It would be the way to go. Your thoughts.
