Operations software

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pmwtrain

Member
Firstly, I apologize if I didn't post this in the right place.

My layout is a long way from needing any such software but I've been looking into it because I find it very interesting. I first found JMRI and more recently, RailOP. The only website I found for RailOP seems like it may be defunct.

Does anybody know if RailOP is still available?
Do any of you use either of these programs? If so; what do you think of it?
Would anyone like to suggest another one?
 
JMRI Operations
Ship It
Shenware
ProTrak

JMRI Ops is free and one of the few packages I got to work fairly easily. ShipIt has a fair number of users. Protrak is very prototypical and very detailed and has a long learning curve. There are other defunct or nearly defunct ones I have tried and won't even mention. Pretty much all of the systems have a learning curve and require a certain amount of "tweaking" to get them to do unique things that pretty much every model railroad seems to require.

Disclaimer : I personally use CC&WB and have an Access database I built to generate them
 
Great info, Dave. Thanks.

I haven't heard of those others. If JMRI is free, that's probably the one I'll try first ;)

You may or may not know Arthur Houston has a multiple part series on YouTube on JMRI. From watching those I thought it looked complicated so I'm encouraged to hear you didn't have a lot of trouble with it.
 


I've been using JMRI Operations (a.k.a. "PanelPro") for the past couple of years to generate manifest and switchlist documents for later use during op sessions. It is great for helping me avoid accidentally putting the same car# on two separate manifests during the same time slot.

I won't attempt to use the software in "real time" during an op session, because I don't want computer glitches cropping up and spoiling the fun.
 
It can if you want it to, as long as you don't change [in the software] the locations of any locos or rolling stock. I believe you can set some locations to "flip" the loaded/empty status of cars once they arrive. I haven't really looked too closely into that, since I always manually rearrange my rolling stock by taking some off of the layout and putting others on. I try to avoid having my guest operators always see the same trains time after time...
 
Sounds great. Now I just have to finish the track, wiring and buy a couple of thousand dollars of loco's and cars...might be a while:D
 
Our club used Ship It and Pro Trak in the past, and they just didn't work for our layout with 3 offline staging yards. For years we have been using a home grown program written in Basic that worked fairly well, but you had to manually set back cars that would not fit on the sidings at the industries. That part has always been problematic.

Early this year we switched over to JMRI and are currently fairly happy with it. It does have a few idiosyncrasies, but we've found ways around them or put up with them. We have scrolls at our 2 main yards that allow us to use tractor fed paper, which makes it very convenient for the yard operator.

With JMRI you can make changes in the location of cars between sessions, then save it before you run the new operating session. I am setting up my railroad to also use the JMRI program. I would give it a rating of B+ overall.

Joe
 


Thanks, Frederick. It will likely be some time before I'm ready to use operations software but I think it's another great advancement in the hobby.

Remember your offer when I'm asking you about this in a year ;)
 
pmwtrain said:
Thanks, Frederick. It will likely be some time before I'm ready to use operations software but I think it's another great advancement in the hobby.

Remember your offer when I'm asking you about this in a year ;)
Click to expand...

You can download any of the "colors" of TrainController and try them out.

There is a simulator mode which allows experimenting with running trains, etc.

It can control actual hardware but shuts down after 15 minutes.

You can use the trial versions for quite a while but there is a total time limit.

Frederick
 
I'm trying to add turnout control via JRMI at this point. I don't really need it for much else, honestly, on my layout. But I have to say, so far I'm extremely underwhelmed with everything but the price. There is very little actual step-by-step documentation on how exactly to use it for any specific purpose, and you kind of have to just browse around random things until you stumble on something that might help explain things. There's no manual that you can just look at an index (even online...like I said, it's scattered around and disorganized as heck) and find what you need. This normally wouldn't be a big deal, because honestly I've not had to resort to a manual to figure out a piece of software in any real depth for years and years. However, JRMI also has a user interface that is severely lacking in any help feature integration and is not the least bit intuitive. This was written by programmers for programmers, and they apparently have never found anyone to come in and make it user-friendly for the average (or even slightly above average) computer user.

The price is right, because honestly the public at large would never pay for it despite its really great abilities. It's just too hard to get anywhere with. Having said that, I'm going to do a little more browsing and see if I can at least figure out that one functionality before spending a hundred plus on the only other decent option. There really ought to be something between zero and what is it...$120 or something? That's just a ridiculous price point for the BASIC half-featured version of a piece of software. If they'd put a decent price on it they'd probably run JRMI into the ground in months. Go figure.
 
I'll second Frederick's post about Train Controller Silver. I tried to use JMRI but was to overwhelmed by the "science" behind it. I can utilize various kinds of software, from elaborate spread sheets in Excel to higher end video editing software, but JMRI had me stumped.
TCS price has come down since I bought it a few years ago. Frederick helped me get started in setting it up and I took off from there. The TCS works with windows for each asset on the layout. The windows have tabs for each of the categories of the railroad assets and makes it easy to toggle the features.
The video below shows some of the signals on my layout. This video is about two years old. The scenery has progressed quite a bit since this was shot. They certainly add a facet of reality to the operations.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnUywHd-tN4
 
MikeOwnby said:
There really ought to be something between zero and what is it...$120 or something?
Click to expand...

What software are you talking about for $120?

Many folks question the price of TrainController but given the complexity of the program, the cost of development and the small market the price is fair.

I was a programmer for 35+ years so I know what goes into a program like TrainController.

Frederick
 
I wasn't going to weigh in on this one since the current layout isn't ready for operations yet, just switching cars back and forth between a few industries. But, to answer Frederick's question -- Ship It! from Albion is currently $129. I used Version 6 on my former (California) layout. It cost $69 back then and did the job.

I took a quick look at Train Controller -- $429 for the Silver version and $649 for the Gold. Since I won't be using the "automation" features, that's way beyond what I'd be willing to pay for a hobby software package. And, I too, know what goes into software development, writing software for 25 years and teaching for 10. There is always that tough decision of price point. Is it better to sell 100 packages (of whatever) at $1000 or 1001 at $100?

Since I'm only looking for the operations application; train building, car forwarding, routing, etc., I'll fight my way through JMRI.
 
Thanks for the info.

TrainController is for automation to be sure and doesn't have the features to do what Ship-It! does.

One thing that is sometimes overlooked in TrainController is the ability to mix manual and automatic train control.

It allows me to take control of one train using a handheld throttle while TrainContoller runs other trains.

So while doing local switching operations I have to take into account the comings and goings of the other trains.

Frederick
 


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