more modern technology to drive my operations.
There are several commercial soft-
ware programs, all of which work by randomly selecting cars for movement from one location to another based on the criteria set by the modeler. The com- puter remembers where all of the cars in the system are located and where they should go next. After reviewing several options, including seeing them in use and discussing them with model- ers, I chose Caroute by Decapod Sys- tems (
www.decapodsystems.com),
be-
cause it best fit my desired type of operation, generating switchlists for a mix of through and local trains. Caroute generates a switchlist simi- lar to the one a freight conductor would
The train is passing Wagner Feeds (top), named in memory of an early mentor, Glenn Wagner. Next, the train arrives in Wickham (above); the yard there extends “westward” in the left
foreground. Once
the train is back together (below) it passes beneath Sugarloaf Mountain as it heads to Brookview Yard. Greycourt Yard and the Erie interchange are in the foreground.
carry or the waybills in manual card systems. In Caroute, each car has a list of up to 20 possible destinations in the order designated by the modeler. Dur- ing an operating session, the program designates cars to move from their cur- rent location to the next destination on the list.
Set up
selves (seldom used today), index cards with sliding paper clips to drive car movement (simple but workable) and
RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
commercial car card systems (in reality a more sophisticated version of the above). However, I wished to utilize
The steps involved in setting up the system are first to establish a list of towns, east to west, as-is typical for most computer operating programs. Towns may be split into two parts for
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