I have a few questions about how to:

1 How do I get AG to place a diesel or sets of diesels on service, fuel and pocket tracks. I have several of these on the FBL route and would like to fill them diesels not tank cars.

2 They're a couple of tracks that are not marked or named, how do I mark or name them.

3 Some of the freight cars designations in AG's TDB file are different than the ones I have in my A.M. were is the file that tells me what these abbreviations mean so I can adjust my definations so I get the right cars on the right tracks. T.I. A.

With regards to the above:

1) I believe you would have to place the diesels on those tracks in the master activity yourself and also modify the CSV files so no cars would be placed there. I recall that when creating the CSV files, AG strips out the engines and only lists the freight cars. Otherwise, I would use AG to create an activity, and then use the Activity Editor to customize the activity.

2) Those tracks would have to named in the Route Editor. Not a task for the faint of heart. You need to locate them first by finding the co-ordinates of the sidings, Longitude and Latitude. Then use those numbers to locate them in the RE. Name them and then save the route. If you do this, make sure you make a backup copy of the route first.

3) On the main screen for AG, click the Show All under the "Rolling Stock available on your Hard Drive section" portion of the window. The Car Type column is where you can change the Type. The drop down menu should show you all the types you have in your program. If you don't see the one you want, just type in the new car type you need to createt. I usually save the file and close the program. After restarting the program, the new type of car you entered will now be in the drop down list if you want to change more cars. As for the car type codes in an AG Template, I use a basic code for most cars just as is listed in the AM Manual. I do use my own naming convention when creating templates for anything beyond that. I also use that same convention in AM. If I run across something I don't like, I modify AM temporarily to make the changes.

Jim

AG won't place diesels etc. on tracks unless the template designer put them there. Cars, locomotives, etc. CAN be placed in templates if no "pickup event" is assigned (please see the documentation or the video tutorials on template creation).



This is not an AG issue, it is something that the route designer omitted. You can name sidings by inserting a new "siding marker" using the MSTS Route Editor. If you do this, then when you use AG to create the csv file, AG will recognize the sidings you've added.



AG and AM are two different programs and use these for slightly different purposes. For AG, the car types are set by the template designer. It really doesn't matter what code the template designer uses, the important thing is that the designer is consistent. In the template, the designer will place cars and identify what 'type' they are, using his own nomenclature. Some may use the AAR standards, coding a box car as 'XM', others may use BX for a box car. It doesn't matter -- AG will place cars that were set up as type 'BX', or type 'XM', on those sidings that the template designer set up as shipping that type of car.

For AM, you can use any naming convention you like. There is a default to get you started, but you needn't stick with that. And there are a lot of cars that aren't covered by the default anyway. The important thing is, that YOU know what the codes mean. So use something easy for you to remember. Use the screen "set car types" to set up the type codes for specific cars. You can view the car (if you have the 'Shape Viewer' program) and then set the type for that car. So call a box car XM, BX, or anything you like.

But what if the template designer called a box car 'XM' and you are calling it 'BX'? It doesn't matter. Activity Master (AM) will replace any cars in an activity, or template, that are of a type AS DEFINED BY YOU, with other cars of that same type, again, as set up by you. So if there is a template with a lot of box cars in it and it happens that the template designer coded all those as 'BX', but you code box cars as 'XM', this isn't a problem. Activity Master will find all the box cars in the template, based on what YOU define as being a box car, with other cars on your hard drive that you have coded as a box car -- which in your case will be cars coded as 'XM'. For more on this see the Video Tutorials on Activity Master in our Video Tutorials section, http://www.skylinecomputing.com/video_tutorials.htm

Enjoy,

Steve