Quick addendum to Freight House Traffic

 I did a quick calculation of the number of cars that will cross the layout between freight houses, each session. 68.

Obviously this is a lot, and what I foresee is that some of these cars will not move every session.

Additionally I’m not actually sure that these cars will make their trip in one session. I’m assuming that some cars,  for various reasons, will dwell in a yard, having missed a connection. Others will get in trains that will, for whatever reason, fail to complete their run, or not get worked upon arrival.

This leads to the question if say 25% of the cars are still in transit when I re-stage, will this cause a glut?

So do I need to not only check the various car spots at originating freight houses, but do I need to take a look at yards and trains in transit, and get car counts from there?

Slow handling one session, followed immediately by a second session of fast transit times might yield 125% car spotting’s in the second session.

On AIR1 I simply left these situations alone and let them work themselves out. Often it took multiple sessions (I remember one particularly bad string of sessions where coal hoppers were really out of balance) to iron out.

On AIR2 I’m thinking I’m going to fix any of these problems during staging, in effect presenting an evenly balanced layout each session. Pulling cars or trains off the layout during staging. Presenting a fresh start each session. 

I want it to be fun. I’ve been doing this long enough to know that small problems that creat “fun stress” will happen every session no matter how well it’s planned. I’m not sure the crew will notice if I’ve “helped” the traffic flow even out.

I often read contributors to the OPSIG state that they are going to build “problems” into their sessions. I think this is misguided (To be honest I think it’s a tremendously bad idea). Problems will surface every session. Cars will miss connections, engines will break down, turnouts will fail, paperwork will get lost, and cars will get misrouted. And all that is on a good day.


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