Sequential Pickups Problem Options

[tjbuege]

Hi,

I'm running version 4.2.11 of Activity Generator. In the documentation , it states that "if simple mode is NOT checked, you may be required to pick up the first, 5th and 8th cars on that spur". I am not finding that to be the case. More often than not, most of the pickups remain sequential, regardless of the state of this check box option.

Additionally, if I uncheck the sequential pickup option, I end up with an activity where cars are to be delivered to TWO destinations! Put another way, I am to deliver cars to both industry tracks, and to the final destination yard track. This is not a problem if I check the sequential pickup option.

What's going on here? Is this a bug? Or is there a problem with they way I've designed my template?

Thanks,
Tim

[nbeveridge]

Hi,

I'm running version 4.2.11 of Activity Generator. In the documentation , it states that "if simple mode is NOT checked, you may be required to pick up the first, 5th and 8th cars on that spur". I am not finding that to be the case. More often than not, most of the pickups remain sequential, regardless of the state of this check box option.

Additionally, if I uncheck the sequential pickup option, I end up with an activity where cars are to be delivered to TWO destinations! Put another way, I am to deliver cars to both industry tracks, and to the final destination yard track. This is not a problem if I check the sequential pickup option.

What's going on here? Is this a bug? Or is there a problem with they way I've designed my template?

Thanks,
Tim

Depending on the template design, number of cars to work and the track selected, you might still get all sequential car for pick up. For instance, if the track only holds a few cars (say 3) and you allow more than that per move (say 5), then you will likely get all three cars from that track, and thus they are sequential. Or if the designer set up the track to be "unit" pick up, such as at a coal mine, then the cars will always be sequential regardless of whether this box is checked. Try generating the same activity multiple times to see if it sometimes will be non-sequential. The more capacity on a given track, the more likely that the cars will NOT be sequential.

As for the other problem, we have seen this in the past, but I don't remember the exact circumstances. I do remember that if this happened, it was due to some unusual set up of the activity and I could not get it to repeat. I.e. when this turned up, if I exited AG, and then restarted AG, then even if I set up what I thought was the same activity, it would not repeat.

If you somehow get this to repeatedly happen, then please run the diagnostics with the activity. Then gather all the activity files plus the diagnostic reports and send them to Steve.