I'll put in a 'guarded' good word for RailOps. By far, most of the railroads I operate on use it. There is a Yahoo website for users to vent their problems and work-arounds. I have a basic version, that I started to use before, I got so busy with other things. I think it will work for anybody with any hopes of operations either single or with a dozen operators. It seems to run on any junker PC--I've used two of them--one vintage and the other very vintage. Like anything else in our computerized world, a couple of friends who are total geeks can make that system hum along perfectly after making some adjustments after a couple of trial runs.
The downside is that it takes awhile to understand how it works (I've just started on that) and like someone has mentioned it keeps track of the cars and their locations, so messing with that can cause confusion. Over the years, when I've photographed various layouts that do regular operating sessions, the setups I've done have messed with the 'order of things'. I remember Frank Titman trying to remember where we had pulled cars from. The other downside is that the original guy who wrote the software has sold it and now customer support seems to be a problem with the new owner. That being said, in my area, I've got plenty of folks who have helped me get it setup and running. Being a Mac guy hasn't helped me either--PC stuff just doesn't make sense to me! When you get into the setup of things like deciding routes, switching moves, and potentiality conflicts; it probably takes a lot more time than the program itself. Much of that is a timing issue--most hosts have things setup to where several crews can do "the work" in a few hours, but that takes a lot of work to figure out. Imagine a beginning crew getting a complicated switch job, while also ducking into the hole for fast passenger or reefer trains. Thus one crew might take three hours to accomplish a local while other crews get done in half that time. At that point the host might rearrange the amount of work to balance the time. I've heard of some hosts becoming irritated when problems develop, while others just take it in stride with perhaps an eye to tweaking the program for later sessions. Maybe I can get it going after the new year! Bob Werre Bob Werre On 10/21/11 5:02 AM, Bill Rigsby wrote: > > Ed, > Where does on find this RailOp program, and is it possible to > reverse the order of a consist if one sent a train to staging, then > reversed the power, and caboose? > Like Bill, have also inventoried everything on MS Excel. > Bill > > > --- On Thu, 10/20/11, Ed Kozlowsky <[email protected] > <mailto:soldado7264%40yahoo.com>> wrote: > > From: Ed Kozlowsky <[email protected] > <mailto:soldado7264%40yahoo.com>> > Subject: Re: {S-Scale List} RailOp > To: "[email protected] <mailto:S-Scale%40yahoogroups.com>" > <[email protected] <mailto:S-Scale%40yahoogroups.com>> > Date: Thursday, October 20, 2011, 4:48 AM > > > > Bill, > I haven't begun operations in S yet, but I used RailOp for years on my > HO layout. I loved it and will use it when I get to that point again. > It also makes a great inventory program. You have to key in all the > information about your rolling stock anyway for the car forwarding > part to work, so you get an inventory for free. I especially like the > fact that it doesn't care if you are alone or have 10 operators. Very > user friendly. It doesn't work well for you guys who like to just "run > trains" though, because it keeps track of where all the cars and locos > are. If you run random trains, you'll have to either put everything > back where it was when you're finished, or update the program. I don't > know of any computer generated program that's any different. > > Ed Koz > Sanford, Maine > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
