Hi,

I have just started to use AG (V. 4.2.2) and can attest to its ease of use and utility. However, I am having a minor problem which I suspect I am responsible for. I am working on an activity for NEC4 in which a train is assembled in yard SOURCE tracks. The cars are scheduled to be set out at a variety of WORK TRACKS. I would like to pick up some cars from the tracks that I am working to bring back to the destination (which is the yard that served as the SOURCE). However, I cannot get a work order that includes pick ups from the same tracks that I am setting cars out on. I've tried a variety of settings on the Customize Activity Screen (Maximum Total Cars = 30; Maximum pick ups = 6; Maximum set outs = 6, for example), but am still unable to get set outs on the work tracks.

Any thoughts regarding this would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Gary

In the current version of AG, it is not possible for a source track to also be a destination track. Steve and I have discussed the need to do this, especially for "turns", which sometimes originate and terminate on the same track. As your example shows, it is desireable also for a yard job. The logic to make this work is problematic, however, but Steve is a very resourceful programmer, so maybe someday he will make it happen.

In the meantime, perhaps you can create a yard activity starting on track A, working track B-C-D, and ending on track E. Not quite the same, but almost.

Thaks for the response, Norm. If you create a train from cuts of cars in a few source tracks, is it possible to deliver those cars to the tracks that you have chosen to work and also pick up cars from those work tracks? For example, I'm creating the train the SOURCE tracks) at Bayview Yard. I'm delivering cars for set outs to the Baltimore Steel plant (the WORK tracks); I would also like to pick up some cars from the steel plant. The activity would end as I depart the steel plany and reach 20 mph.

I suspect that I'm not doing a very good job of explaining myself.

Yes, if you check tracks for work, then AG may do a pick up and/or set out on that track, if the randomizer chooses that track. Setting a track for work does not guarantee that the track will be worked. It does not guarantee a set out. It does not guarantee a pick up. The randomizer may skip the track altogether. It may do a pick up and not a set out. It may do a set out and not a pick up. It may do both a pick up and a set out.

In addition, if the track can hold multiple cars (most can), then the randomizer will choose how many cars for set out, how many for pick up, both independent of the other (except for the impact of track length and starting condition -- AG will not place more cars on a track than it can hold, nor pick up moe cars than start there).

I had thought that it might be the randomizer. In some cases, the activity is relatively easy; other times, it can be a nightmare. That's what makes it all so interesting.