Empty cars - 2

What happens to all the empty cars? Very rarely see one. I have posted approx 10 coal trains from Belle Ayr/Spring creek mines & 2 grain trains from Avondale. Got nothing back. Does the real railway keep manufacturing them before they are filled?

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RE: Empty cars - 2, KingJPW, Feb-06-03, 03:14 PM, (1) RE: Empty cars - 2, Davecr0, Feb-06-03, 04:23 PM, (2) RE: Empty cars - 2, pwm33, Feb-06-03, 05:23 PM, (3) RE: Empty cars - 2, Davecr0, Feb-06-03, 05:55 PM, (4) RE: Empty cars - 2, KingJPW, Feb-06-03, 06:51 PM, (5) RE: Empty cars - 2, DaveHonan, Feb-06-03, 08:47 PM, (6) RE: Empty cars - 2, Davecr0, Feb-07-03, 00:56 AM, (7) RE: Empty cars - 2, pwm33, Feb-07-03, 12:24 PM, (9) RE: Empty cars - 2, KingJPW, Feb-08-03, 01:12 AM, (14) RE: Empty cars - 2, KingJPW, Feb-08-03, 04:10 AM, (15) RE: Empty cars - 2, Davecr0, Feb-08-03, 05:11 AM, (16) RE: Empty cars - 2, pwm33, Feb-08-03, 09:35 AM, (17) RE: Empty cars - 2, cannonballJDB2001, Feb-07-03, 04:27 AM, (8) RE: Empty cars - 2, pwm33, Feb-07-03, 12:26 PM, (10) RE: Empty cars - 2, Davecr0, Feb-07-03, 01:29 PM, (11) RE: Empty cars - 2, NSSpike, Feb-07-03, 07:21 PM, (12) RE: Empty cars - 2, Davecr0, Feb-08-03, 00:59 AM, (13)

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What makes you think you should get empty cars back? Do real yard men ever expect to see a certain freight car return to a yard? You should get an email when they are delivered, but there is no garauntee that some one will deliver them in a timely manner! Jim

Yard Duty, The National Freight Yard Simulation - http://groups.msn.com/YardDuty

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Erm isn't that how it works? Send out loaded get back empty? Doubt whether Yard Men would expect to see a certain car back, but if they never see an empty one in real life, get me a loaders job at one of the mines

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Yes Dave, that is how it is supposed to work. When you're dealing with unit trains, you should DEFINITELY expect to see the empties come back. If they don't, then somebody is messing up.I think the problem is that people are deleting all empties, not just unit trains. I guess they just don't understand that empties can be sent to other places to be reloaded. That's the way it works in the real world, which is what we're trying to simulate.Paul

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Thanks Paul. Thought I was paddling my own canoe over this one. Get those empties back guys

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LAST EDITED ON Feb-06-03 AT 06:52 PM (EDT)

Ok, let's be clear about a few things.1) The game itself does not require a player to do anything with empty cars. In fact there is an option to 'destroy' them after being delivered, because some people don't want to be forced to deal with empty cars after delivering them the easy way. (However I could make it so that instead of being destroyed, they could be written to file and posted for someone else to deal with. Not a bad idea actually)2) It makes sense to return dedicated unit trains empties but not any other type of freight that that I can think off. Therefore YOU must give other people INSTRUCTIONS (e.g. 'Please return empties to Dave Honan') and HOPE that they are kind enough to follow them. That's how things work around here. The point is that once you post a train you are not in control of the engines or cars anymore. Sorry Charlie...Jim

Yard Duty, The National Freight Yard Simulation - http://groups.msn.com/YardDuty

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Jim, I like the idea in 1). However, how would the logistics of that work? Would the empties be sent to the nearest hump yard? Reappear at the same map, coming back in from that local delivery exit? Regardless of how that goes, it should be reccommended to people using this option to attach at least one engine to the cut of cars, so that the receiver doesn't get stuck with a string of cars and have to go through the extra effort of creating an engine, running it across the map, etc... (I have a bad habit of kicking local-delivery loads off the map and letting the empties bounce back to my waiting engines.)Thinking a little more... Would there be a way to flag certain yards to be designated empty-car collection points, and have a train of empties automatically search for and assign itself to a certain (preset) exit of the closest collection point? That way, all the user would have to do is upload the train to the appropriate Yardmaster; it'd be all set to enter at whatever exit the YM has chosen. The YM would then class the cars for appropriate destinations, and back they'd go for loading.Comments, criticisms, and improvements, folks?-Dave
QG 14.32, CSXT Selkirk Sub
http://www.davehonan.gcdranet.com/

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LAST EDITED ON Feb-07-03 AT 01:11 AM (EDT)

Well I certainly got the discussion going. I wasn't planning on doing anything special with empties,just thought sending the ones that couldn't be reloaded at destination back would be more realistic. The pure switchers among us could treat them exactly the same as loaded wagons. Maybe I'm the only one following the empty car order list.
Would be a real railroad companys dream to have 100% loadings on every train. Perhaps I know the industry too well

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I have been doing just that at Calumet. Collecting empties, then as time allows, after checking the empty car database, sending them out to yards for loading at appropriate sidings. I see no reason not to expect the empties to stay in the system. Unless we're just playing some childish simplistic computer game.
I guess I had higher expectations of this railroad simulation.
Sorry for my confusion.Paul

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"Unless we're just playing some childish simplistic computer game..."Hmm... Are you trying to start the first ever YD flame war? Anyhow, I'm working on a way to keep the empties in the system because I know it is important.Jim

Yard Duty, The National Freight Yard Simulation - http://groups.msn.com/YardDuty

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OK, I just finished coding this. Basically, when you unload cars the easy they are collected together in one string of cars and written to the hard drive. You can do whatever you want with the file, such as re-load it later or post it to another player. This means that no one can complain about cars being destroyed anymore. Jim

Yard Duty, The National Freight Yard Simulation - http://groups.msn.com/YardDuty

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LAST EDITED ON Feb-08-03 AT 05:22 AM (EDT)

>
>This means that no one can complain about cars being destroyed anymore.
>
>Jim AFAIK I never did complain about cars being destroyed. Merely pointed out the unrealistic gameplay. Another option, instead of messing about with a new file, is just send them back in an ordinary train. Thank you anyway Jim.

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I think Dave's idea of a designated empty-car collection point is a good idea. Personally, I prefer to send the empties to a map with a logical reloading track, but a designated empty-car collection point would be good for those who don't want to deal with empties. It would keep the cars in the system. Yeah, I like it.Paul

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I an sorry to inform you and others that computer crashed 4.2.03i lost all and have to restart YD DUTY I know that there was quite a few loads for delivery with empties john

CannonballJDB

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John,Sorry to hear about your computer problems. Don't worry about the cars, we can always creat new ones.Hope you get everything straightened out.Paul

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No probs John. Sort the computer out & get those wheels turning (loaded & empty)

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LAST EDITED ON Feb-07-03 AT 07:23 PM (EDT)

I think the idea of handling empties is great, and very prototypical. There are many old Southern Box Cars that I have seen that says return to Southern Railway when empty for example. I ll pass on any empties that roll through De Butts. I was wondering what you guys was doing with them. This game is fun.

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Thanks for your support Paul & NSSpike, glad to see other guys think the way I do

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