I am at the point now where I am trying to ascertain my car needs for each industry, so none of the businesses along my route run short of needed commodities. I have gone over every business on the line and figured out each one's input and output. This is in itself quite a challenge, as some industries' numbers are based on 20 seconds, others one minute, others three minutes, others still that let you set the time basis, and finally others that don't tell us the time frame.
After getting those numbers into a spreadsheet, I have been marking down the capacity of the various cars I have scattered around my layout (mostly in Brooklyn Yard, but a few lying on sidings), and I have found some rather disconcerting variances and some frightening car requirement possibilities.
Happily boxcars seem normal, with lumber loads between 1 and 3, and general goods load limits of 7-10. But 2-bay covered hoppers range from 27,000 to 60,000, and I am not sure what that unit is. Most covered hoppers have a weight load limit of 286,000 pounds, whether that is a 2-bay hauling bulky cement or a 4-bay Centerflow carrying grain. So what is the Trainz number represent? And why is there a 33,000 range?
Another scary prospect is the reefer (in this case, most of the 40' ice-cooled, as I looked at the four parked at the icing platform in Brooklyn Yard). The unit disparity is for the pallets (apples, oranges, fruit, beer, cheese and butter). Three of the four had the same commodities and same ratings, which was 7 units of any of the mentioned pallets. But one reefer, a smaller 40' Swift Refrigeration car, can hold 130 units of these pallets! Whoa! Okay, the 2-bay hopper has a high mark that is 122% above the low mark. But this reefer is more than 1800% higher than the others! How does one ascertain his rolling stock needs with numbers this far off?
But another concern of the reefer is actually with the first number, the 7 unit limit that most share. I have the Fred Meyer Distribution Center in Clackamas modeled (I work for the corporate office here in Portland, so I felt I had to have them in the layout). They receive all of these palleted foods, plus pallets of canned fruit from the two canneries down south. The industry track used at this warehouse was one that measured input/output in 20-second increments (how many businesses measure this deep?!?) for butter, cheese, beer, frozen OJ and veggies, meat, fish and potatoes, and the lowest number I could use was obviously "1", which is 3 units per minute. That's 180 per hour, for EACH pallet, which means I would need more than 300 reefers for EACH type of pallet every 12-hour period (in fact, the total for just these products, plus the lesser orange, apple, fruit, canned fruit and general goods, would be 3,095 reefers! That's almost 6200 reefers and boxcars every 24 hours.
The deeper I get, the more confused I am about what these numbers mean. Is this DC going to run out of everything? Because there is NO way to meet that kind of demand! Or am I missing something? Does time really matter? Do these numbers really matter? Am I wasting my time trying to make sense of this?
After getting those numbers into a spreadsheet, I have been marking down the capacity of the various cars I have scattered around my layout (mostly in Brooklyn Yard, but a few lying on sidings), and I have found some rather disconcerting variances and some frightening car requirement possibilities.
Happily boxcars seem normal, with lumber loads between 1 and 3, and general goods load limits of 7-10. But 2-bay covered hoppers range from 27,000 to 60,000, and I am not sure what that unit is. Most covered hoppers have a weight load limit of 286,000 pounds, whether that is a 2-bay hauling bulky cement or a 4-bay Centerflow carrying grain. So what is the Trainz number represent? And why is there a 33,000 range?
Another scary prospect is the reefer (in this case, most of the 40' ice-cooled, as I looked at the four parked at the icing platform in Brooklyn Yard). The unit disparity is for the pallets (apples, oranges, fruit, beer, cheese and butter). Three of the four had the same commodities and same ratings, which was 7 units of any of the mentioned pallets. But one reefer, a smaller 40' Swift Refrigeration car, can hold 130 units of these pallets! Whoa! Okay, the 2-bay hopper has a high mark that is 122% above the low mark. But this reefer is more than 1800% higher than the others! How does one ascertain his rolling stock needs with numbers this far off?
But another concern of the reefer is actually with the first number, the 7 unit limit that most share. I have the Fred Meyer Distribution Center in Clackamas modeled (I work for the corporate office here in Portland, so I felt I had to have them in the layout). They receive all of these palleted foods, plus pallets of canned fruit from the two canneries down south. The industry track used at this warehouse was one that measured input/output in 20-second increments (how many businesses measure this deep?!?) for butter, cheese, beer, frozen OJ and veggies, meat, fish and potatoes, and the lowest number I could use was obviously "1", which is 3 units per minute. That's 180 per hour, for EACH pallet, which means I would need more than 300 reefers for EACH type of pallet every 12-hour period (in fact, the total for just these products, plus the lesser orange, apple, fruit, canned fruit and general goods, would be 3,095 reefers! That's almost 6200 reefers and boxcars every 24 hours.
The deeper I get, the more confused I am about what these numbers mean. Is this DC going to run out of everything? Because there is NO way to meet that kind of demand! Or am I missing something? Does time really matter? Do these numbers really matter? Am I wasting my time trying to make sense of this?
