Operations

 

We are very pleased to have teamed up with Tom Edwards in the USA to collaborate in the development of his Shipper-driven Traffic Simulator (STS) operations software for model railroads.


STS is completely scalable from a single operator up to a relatively large club like ours.


The program simulates real world (with some slight fine tuning for those of us who do not work in 1:1 scale!) rail freight movements.


STS stores the industries that serve each other (inbound and outbound) in their respective locations and generates freight tasks using specific purpose cars for our Operations Sessions. Having generated the task, STS provides complete tracking from the order being placed through all the stages of the task (build switchlists, pickup cars, organise cars, set-out cars, load/unload cars, reposition empties).


Because STS also provides complete reporting it permits us to pack up our gear at the end of a session and simply begin where we left off at the next session.


We run a dedicated Main Operating Session on the 3rd Saturday of every month but, because STS can be “told” who is present on any one day, individual member(s) can run a mini-session whenever they like.


Just like in the real world, some members can be a “railfan” on a regular Saturday, and run a passenger service, a unit train or mixed through freight on the mainline whilst someone else is “switching” – our Digitrax DCC system means we can all work together.


You can see more information on STS here and, of course, you are more than welcome to ask for an invitation to come and see it in operation for yourself.

 

 

                 

 

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