In terms of the grain hoppers coming in:

(Edit: Counts removed - were incorrect - see two posts down)

If it isn't a difficult switch to make, then the cars for Cargill should probably show as a grain hopper vs a standard hopper.  Cargill even has its own skin :-)

What about VAW?  Thought there was more cars than that coming in.  Yeah making the Cargill car the only grain car is fine by me.  I think there is one CP car that has grain service but the rest we can keep as regular hoppers.  I'll have to take a look at the one again.

Yeah... it didn't all copy to Excel like I though it did.  Let's try it again lol:

MSTOBAR1 = 3 (all for KCK)

HKCKBAR8 = 6 (4 for SBD, 1 for RIC,  1 for SDG)

HKCKBAR9 = 6 (4 for SJVR kern, 2 for RIC)

HSLABAR9 = 1 (for RIC)

HTULBAR1 = 2 (for SJVR Kern)

HTULBAR4 = 3 (for RIC)

XSBDBAR1 = 54 (for KCK)

HVAWBAR1 = 43 (for SBD)

MFRSBAR4  = 1 (for LUB)

MLACBAR3 = 8 (for STO)

Total = 127

Also listed are these UP trains:

MWCBK = 3 (for BAK(Kern))

MRVEP = 8 (3 for BK(Kern), 5 for EP)

That should be a better count :-)

That sounds more like it.  OK I'll possibly do some number crunching in the morning (not sure if I have the energy tonight).

Well I had about 10 minutes or so so I added the data you provided me into the Proposal - Cargill / SBD Grain Operations page.  Now I haven't done a full number crunch as of yet and I forget the exact length of each car.  Do you know off hand which ones are empties and which ones are loads?  Obviously I know grain loads going into SBD and empties going to KCK on the X.  

But if you go back to the data I'm crunching you'll see about a 3000 foot incoming calculation.  Ironically enough that number is almost spot on with what not only gets transfered to other trains, but what SBD would actually get in the tables that show the changes in the lenght for the TD3 data.

I might look more at this tomorrow afternoon before I go into work.

OK I update the analysis and now I'm heading for bed.  I won't reapeat everything here but there is plenty of different things we can try in regards to Cargill and the operation in general.  I think adding in the additional trains will be a piece of cake.  I'll have to adjust the grain cars as well.

Just a bump to see if there is anything in the Proposal - Cargill / SBD Grain Operations that is outstanding for implementation this week?  I know there was talk about some kind of offload facility but I don't know if this is twice as busy as Cargill (which would take away the need for 3 tricks) or if it's too small to even worry about.  Empties is still up in the air if we are going to tag or tag back to BAR and/or XXX for redistribution on various X and other fill tonnage trains.

I think the run(s) from SBD>Cargill and back is sufficient to get us started.  I don't know about another offload facility.

My preference on the empites would to be to run an X-train vs filling out tonnage.  We still have some empties that we're slowly getting rid of (1000' put on the last BEL that went out).

My two cents :-).

Thanks!

The offload facility was breifly mentioned in one of the discussions linked to the proposal.  It isn't modeled in Run8 but could very well be taking some of the traffic in.

Still not sure about having 3 tricks as it looks like the prototype has more room to take on a whole switcher for a day.  We'll see how things look over the next day or so as the cycle is almost complete.  Might be doing something Tuesday or Wednesday at this point.

OK doing a quick check on how we are set up right now for the start of the next cycle.  This was to determine what day of the week I intend on running.

87 loads are in B Yard for Cargill.  We could possibly have 1 or 2 jobs headed out to Cargill before the end of this cycle or beginning of next as extras.  They can be run any time (keeping in mind Cargill only takes I think 24 cars??  Or was it 22??)

To my surpise Cargill is completely empty.  I was expecting to see at least some cars still there.  I haven't been following the reports so I don't know when it was done.  I would asume someone ran light power up to get the empties.  The railroad would not empty out a yard or a plant entirely unless it was shutdown.

Feel free to send 44 cars up to Cagill and return light power to SBD.  31 - 2078' is the current train strung together.  56 - 3380' (a little over 60ft a car) is the next set of loads.  This will at least get the plant back in operation :)  For future reference never bring empties back without sending loads in.  The empty trians are only there to get the excess out of the area.

I got to head to work, I'll do some more calculations and set up tonight and tomorrow (hopefully) as the next cycle is fast approaching.  Let me know how many cars if any have been transfered.  There is no rush for this, just if your looking for something extra to do.