CMTM/Car Movements

Latest revision as of 23:58, 3 February 2010

==Car Movement and Traffic Management System (CMTM)==

Car Movement
The Car Movement portion of this system directs cars to and from industries. To begin this process, determine the traffic generated by each industry. Analyze one industry at a time. Begin by noting the incoming shipments first. Then identify the outgoing shipments.

NOTE: The CMTM System is designed to accommodate seven sequential days of operations. It is recommended that you plan your operations based on multiple days operations. When the session begins, you are asked to select a day for operations. The day selected determines which movement records will be used by the system for the session.

Here is an example industry analysis for Quinn Foundry. Note, the home road interchanges with the Soo Line and the Milwaukee Road

E4 Quinn Foundry A1 (destination station, industry, track, spot)
Input - pig-iron - one Gondola every Monday from PortalEast takes 16 hrs to unload then return empty to PortalEast
Input - scrap metal - one Gondola every Wednesday from PortalWest takes 12 hrs to unload - return empty to PortalWest

E4 Quinn Foundry A2
Input - sand - one Boxcar every Tuesday from PortalNorth takes 8 hrs to unload then return empty to PortalNorth
Input - coke - one boxcar every Thursday from PortalSoo takes 8 hrs to unload - return empty to PortalSoo

E4 Quinn Foundry B2
Output - castings - one boxcar every Monday and Wednesday from ECS-Huron, 8 hrs to load - PortalWest
Output - castings - one boxcar every Tuesday from ECS-Huron, 8 hrs to load - N1 Ideal Mfg Co - ECS-Huron
Output - castings - one boxcar every Thursday from ECS-Huron, 8 hrs to load - PortalCMSTP
Output - castings - one boxcar every Friday from ECS-Huron, 8 hrs to load - PortalNorth

Notes:
1. Empty home road cars are stored on an ECS (empty car storage) track. There is one located in Huron, hence ECS-Huron as the beginning location of the output traffic.
2. The boxcar going out on Tuesday goes to an industry on the route, Ideal Mfg at station N1, and after it is unloaded there, it goes to the empty car storage track in Huron.

Based on the last four lines of planning, there will be seven records created in the database to simulate this traffic. Four that reflect the moves described and three more records to bring the empty cars that go off route back onto the route a few days later. These return records will have a beginning location of the portal from which they left the route and first destination to an appropriate ECS track. See Appendix A for a sample.

Once you have this scenario for each industry, you can begin to create the CMTM Database. This database will be stored in the string-table of the CMTMSystem config.txt file. It is recommended that the data be entered into a spreadsheet and later, transfer the data to the string-table. Using a Movements Record Spreadsheet for the database creation allows you enter the data by industry and then sort it as needed. For example, sorting by beginning location will tell you how many empty cars of each type you will need to have on your ECS tracks, or how many of different car types will need to be included in trains emitted by a specific Portal.

The database has a specific structure that must be followed. The first five fields define the record number, days the record is active, the beginning location, car type and company. The remaining fields define the cars movements. Each movement is defined by 4 fields. You can have as many movements as you choose. The last movement should be either to a portal or an ECS track.

The column headers on the spreadsheet are as follows:

Record Number
Each line represents a data record, the numbering starts with the letters cmtm followed by a sequential number, starting with 0. This field becomes the string tag in the string table.

Days Active
This field defines the days that this record will be actively used. There are 7 days available. To be active, numbers 1 - 7 must be included in the field in numerical order. If the record is to be inactive on a specific day, enter an x in place of that day’s number. Make sure there are NO COMMAS separating the numbers and/x’s when entered in the database. Example: 12x45xx represents days 1,2,4 and 5.

Beginning Location
This filed is the name of the portal from which the car enters the railroad OR the Empty Car Storage track from which it begins its journey. If it is a Portal, the name must begin with Portal followed by a unique identifier such as PortalWest. This must be the EXACT name given to the portal in Surveyor. If it is an Empty Car Storage track, the name must start with the prefix ECS followed by a unique identifier such as ECS AUS. This must be the EXACT name given to the ECS track marker in Surveyor.

Car Type
This is a two or three letter code in CAPS that specifies the type of car. The first letter is always X. See Appendix C of this document for a complete listing of freight car types. Most cars available on the Download Station have this field correctly filled in. It can be found in each freight car’s config.txt file as “category-class“. (The only problem I have encountered is XB and XBG. XB is for Box Car/covered van while XBG is box car/covered van for general service. Most of the box cars I have encountered use XBG but there is an occasional XB, which when targeted for local service, can present a problem. Just make sure all box cars that you use have “category-class” set to whatever you enter into the database.)

Company
This field defines the company that owns or leases the car. This is used to get the appropriate cars routed to the Empty Car Storage tracks. All records for cars bound for the Empty Car Storage track must have data in this field. The company name must be exactly that used in the company line of the config.txt file of the intended car. If not used, enter an x.

Destination 1
Destination 1 - specific location to which the car is to be delivered. This can be an Empty Car Storage (ECS) track, a Portal or an industry.

Dest 1 Load Status
use empty or load to indicate the car’s status on its way to this destination. This is used to change the mass of the vehicle for train dynamics and to make the load visible on open top cars. Cars must be enabled for commodities for this function.

Destination 1 Delivered
Always enter “x” in this column. The system puts a delivery time there when the car is noted as delivered by the driver.

Destination 1 Time
Defines the time in hours that the car takes to be loaded or unloaded. Minimum time is 0 hr.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The following columns are defined as above
Destination 2
Dest 2 load status
Destination 2 Delivered
Destination 2 Time
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Destination 3
Dest 3 load status
Destination 3 Delivered
Destination 3 Time

Multiple Destinations
While most car moves go from a portal or an ECS to industry to off-route destination, there are other moves that can make operations more interesting. A non-mechanical reefer has to go to the ice-house first, then to the loading industry, then to it’s destination. Some cars may need to be weighed after they are loaded and before they are put into a train to leave town. Do you have a scale track in your yard? How about a RIP Repair In Place) track? Throw in a record or two each day to have a car repaired. It can be a loaded or empty car, in through or local service.

If you have a specific car movement sequence that requires more moves, just add additional sets of four columns as needed. LCL service (less than carload) has been implemented on the Huron Central. Each way-freight has a box car that is set out at the freight depot when it arrives at each town and is picked up before leaving town. The load/unload time is set to zero for these moves. When it arrives back in Huron, it’s destination is the freight depot with a 1 hour load/unload time, then it’s destination is PortalEast. This movement record has 9 moves.

Home road and leased train cars
Most industries will use box cars, gons or flats, but some industries require more specialized cars or may have their own. For instance, a packing plant hay have it own fleet of reefers. When these come onto the route as empties, they should be placed on an ECS. To make this happen, make sure that the car’s config.txt file company name is exactly the same as used in the CMTM Database (the CMTM string table). Many cars have the full name of the railroad spelled out in their congif.txt files. I find it more readable to use only the letter abbreviation CNW or CBQ. This means you must change the config.txt file for those cars, but I think it is well worth the effort. (DO NOT USE “&“ IN THE COMPANY FIELD).

[edit] VERY IMPORTANT - ALL FIELDS THAT HAVE NO DATA MUST BE FILLED IN WITH “x”. ALL RECORDS MUST HAVE EITHER DATA OR AN “x” IN THE FIRST 12 FIELDS

See example in Appendix A - Sample of String-Table.

Operations:Car Movement & Traffic Management