Stringline/planning software - useful?

Does anyone with a complex layout have experience of stringline display/planning software such as this? Do you find it useful?

Way too serious for me, I use Trainz as a superior model railway tool, but there are those here who are interested in that sort of thing, I am sure you will get a reply soon.

Two problems with implementing this is that I don't know of a GPS enabled EOT device in TRS, and even when there is, the computer is going to be in the same place, so all of the devices will show being at the same location at the same time.

ns

It wasn't so much the positioning aspect that attracted my attention but the ability to plan timetables "professionally" using the stringline display.
Mind you, presumably train position data is available within Trainz for the minimap so there is a possibility of converting to lat/long coordinates and passing it to this program, maybe on a second computer, to produce a SuperMinimap. Worth a browse through the Users Guide anyway.
Cheers.

I have created these by hand to work out tight schedules on layouts. They are not that difficult to create. Is seems the feature of this software is the use of GPS to track train performance. And good luck in getting this info sent outside of the Trainz program.

I think that this type of planning graph could be created using Microsoft Project or a similar application. I've used duration graphs for projects such as moving, year-end operations scheduling, build-outs, customer service contract expirations, and employee vacations.

When using this program train scheduling, the tasks could be setup as the trains and their task duration is their scheduled operation times. An alternative would be to setup the main terminii and yards as main tasks and the trains are the subtasks. MS Project or a similar program has the advantage of not needing a GPS to track the trains on the route.

John

Graphs of this type can certainly be produced using MS Excel. I have a friend who uses it all the time to plan the timetables on his, rather complex, garden railway. Any interface to trainz would be problematic, but I guess not impossible.

I think you can forget the "GPS" aspects.....

itareus said:

Graphs of this type can certainly be produced using MS Excel. I have a friend who uses it all the time to plan the timetables on his, rather complex, garden railway. Any interface to trainz would be problematic, but I guess not impossible.

I think you can forget the "GPS" aspects.....

Click to expand...

Excel or an equivalent program surely can be used and the data can be usually be imported into scheduling programs such as Project.

Excel and other programs do have their advantages though over the old-fashioned index cards though. It's so much easier to type out the information on a single spreadsheet than it is to write out on the cards.

John

Just wondering, is there anything here that would be useful for what you want to do?
http://www.railsusa.com/links/Model_Railroad_Software/

Richardjh

Fancy a go at programming? You could always write your own train planning software, complete with graphs using VB.Net or C.Net the express versions of which are free from Microsoft here:

http://www.microsoft.com/express/default.aspx

Altough they are billed as "Limited" these versions are more than capable of doing what's needed (with a little help from you).

Of course using these tools your train planning system would not be integrated with Trainz, the train plan it produced would just be the basis of your Trainz operations. At some time in the future we are promised by Auran the "Trainz Native Interface" which is little more than a concept at the moment but aspires to provide the programming tools needed to interface with the simulator.....

Chris

alanti - thanks for your suggestion. I've just spent two hours, dammit, playing with the demo version of Minrail! Good fun, if not really what I was after.

itareus - well it may come to that. The Railroad Traffic Planner is certainly comprehensive but is a bit of a beast to configure and is quite bug-ridden.

Cheers Richard

I had a longer play with Railroad Traffic Planner last night and I must say that despite its fiddliness and bugs, I am inclining towards it.
Its best and unique feature is that you can click-and-drag directly on the stringline display and do things like shift a whole schedule in time, add extend or shorten stops, adjust speeds etc. It is easy to adjust the schedules of multiple trains so that they interleave nicely e.g. only cross where there is multiple track or a passing loop.
I would be interested to hear from anyone who has downloaded and tried this software to compare notes.