Managing "Fictional" High Volume Transcon Route With Single & Double Track

Managing "Fictional" High Volume Transcon Route With Single & Double Track

What commands and role(s) should I or in certain predicaments partake? My first "successful" route is 200 baseboards between station stops in two different towns. The issue is it alternates between 40 blocks of single and double track increments and my downgraded flat switching classification yard requires ALL thru trains to stop for 30 minutes and undergo a thorough inspection before getting released and authorization to continue on its journey. I could do that but for the sake of preserving the integrity of route operations and semi-prototypical structure that can be seen practiced in real life keep it intact. An average of 50-60 trains that includes Amtrak operate of the line. What are your thoughts. I'm interested to see what the community has to say.
 
The obvious answer is KISS and the Schedule Library and related Copy Commands From... are your best friends for this.

For my fictional 190 mile route, I divided the route in to divisions and setup the Schedule Library with the various groups and schedules named after each division. Each division encompasses a number of cities and towns and ends at a division point yard where engines can be sent off for fueling and changing out and freight can be switched.

Each route schedule setup in the schedule rule is setup with the division name in it so it's easy to find in the schedule list. I put the Division name first then the schedule, for example, River Line ---- E & E Commuter, meaning Enfield to Eastport Commuter, River Line ---- E&E Through. For through schedules, I tack one schedule after another - remember you do this through the Copy Commands From. I find that Add schedule works better here than append, which seems to get the commands confused. Using an old trick I learned the hard way, I put in a wait 20 sec. between the schedules. This gives the program a chance to load the commands. We may not need to do that any longer, but I find it helped in the past so I keep it anyway.

This schedule setup took me a bit to figure out, but I've used it on other routes including my very large Ozark Valley and Western, which is a merger of a number of routes including Coal Country, East Kentucky, Ozark Valley, American Intermodal, Midwest Grain, and a couple of others. In this route, I divided the divisions up by route sections and yards. Jeff Local, or Jeff to Chadds Fork, East Kentucky through freight which gets tacked on to Ozark Valley through, etc.

The schedule library here also helps troubleshoot problems such as placing the wrong track mark in the schedule. With the Schedule library, it's a simple matter of making a single change, or a bunch of changes to a bunch of shorter schedules instead of needing to edit a bunch of drivers.

I also only use simple track marks that are handled through Navigate via for long open stretches where the AI doesn't need to navigate through any complex junctions or yards, and Drive via for complex places with specific paths like yard bypasses.
 
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