The railroad will utilize computer
generated waybills for traffic movement. Waybills are created by
matching "shippers orders" with matching car selections. The
software to be used is currently under development by myself, and is
based on an earlier DOS based program I wrote back in the early 90's.
That system was used with reasonable success on the previous
incarnation of the Louisiana Central. The program is about 75%
complete, with the only timetable being to reach completion by the time
trains are ready to roll.
This new Windows based software will hopefully overcome a few
limitations of the original program, as well as significantly increase
the flexibility and ease-of-use of the program.
Essentially the program utilizes pre-built "shippers" templates (the
orders). Each template contains the name and location of the
shipper, the commodity to be shipped, the frequency and volume (number
of cars) of the shipments, and the required (and acceptable) car
type(s). The template also contains information for the shipment
destination and eventual return of the car to whence it came. A
total of four moves can be set up, which will handle all the various
scenarios of car movement on my railroad.
There are also templates for shipments that originate off line for
delivery to local industries, and templates that will generate bridge
traffic across the railroad.
The program will select an appropriate car to match the template from a
database of available cars using an "ordered" search. Once
the match is made, the completed waybill is generated. Search
criteria include:
- Car must match shippers criteria (type, size and configuration).
- The location of the available car, with priority being a home road
car, otherwise a car from the nearest interchange.
- "First in/first out: if more than one suitable car is found,
then the one that has the longest time since last use will be
selected.
Naturally, the car selection criteria for cars originating off line is a
bit different:
- Car must match shippers criteria (type, size and configuration).
- The program will attempt to find a car from the railroad serving
the shipper.
- If none is found, then it will search for a car from a railroad in
the same region of the country as the shipper.
- If all else fails, it will pick any available off line car.
- "First in/first out: if more than one suitable car is found,
then the one that has the longest time since last use will be
selected.
The waybills are printed at the beginning of each session. Each
waybill will show the pickup point of the car, and the destination.
If the waybill has several destinations (most do), only the first
destination shows. Successive operating sessions will again see
the waybill generated, each time with its next movement (destination)
shown. The waybill is retired after a car reaches the final
destination listed on the template (its Home destination). This
can be on the system, or at an interchange point (staging) as
appropriate.
The program has the ability to generate a one-time waybill manually,
with either manual or automatic car selection. The program also
keeps track of whether a car is in service or "bad ordered", in which
case the car won't be selected for a waybill until it is returned to
service.
I'm currently working on the last (and most difficult) part of the
program; the code required to have waybills automatically generated
based on the criteria contained in all the templates. The goal is
to simply walk up to the computer and tell it to generate the waybills
required for that days session. Someday when I get the thing
completed, debugged and working in a reasonable manner, I may share more
details on the makeup, including screen shots. I may eventually
expand the program to include switch list generation, though that isn't
a high priority. "Why don't you just use one of the commercial
car-forwarding programs available?", you ask. I dunno..... I guess
because I enjoy trying to "roll my own".