Simulating Coors - Part 3

At the end of Part 2, we had performed the Table Job and had brought the loads generated by that job back to East Yard. The next job randomly selected is the Heavy Beer Job. Now, the jobs are not equally likely. The probabilities of each job are shown below:

Coors Job Probabilities.

Note that the East Yard Job is not included, as I intend for it to be a ongoing job, or if there is only one crew operating the branch, then switching East Yard becomes a standard job before/after each job.

Last time, I also forgot to include the paperwork generated by the program, or the "job ticket" or switchlist for each job. Here is the Job Ticket for the Table Job performed last time.

Job Ticket for Table Job.

 

When implemented, I intend for the Table to be controlled with an Arduino at the Brewery using a traffic light system like that used at Coors. A green light on the table spot indicates that the table spot is a fully loaded car. A yellow light will indicate a partially loaded car and a red light indicates that the car is loading. Once a switching move is completed, the operator will push a button which will lead to a change in the lights within a short time period (i.e. 30 seconds) indicating that the next move has been determined. The Arduino would indicate the Keg track location for any partially filled cars. 

As of the end of the Table Job, the current status of East Yard is shown below:

The Heavy Beer Job ready to Depart East Yard.

In this case, the Heavy Beer Job will run with only two Coors Tank cars dedicated to this service. 

Coors Tank Car used in Concentrated Beer Service. Photo by Lionel Trains.

Since a new job has been initiated, we update the status of cars being worked around the layout. The changes to the Brewery area are shown below.

Updated Status in the Brewery Area.

So, the Heavy Beer Job has arrived in the Brewery area (Top Center) and we can see that the two yellow cars are now loaded, and the two cars with yellow outlines are now unloaded. Since all seven cars on the Heavy Beer Track are now loaded, they will be collected and returned to East Yard.

Heavy Beer Job ready to return to East Yard.

Upon returning to East Yard, the Heavy Beer Job will add those cars to a departing train for interchange.

Heavy Beer Job returning to East Yard.

So, in this case, only 2 cars were spotted on the branch while seven cars have been removed. So, we have pulled 12 cars and spotted 8. So, while after 1 job we were spotting more cars than we pulled, now we are pulling more cars than we spot. But these are the natural fluctuations I desire to see on the branch, as long as they balance each other out over time.

The job ticket for this job looks like the following.

Heavy Beer Job Job Ticket.

With this job completed, the next job randomly selected turns out to be the Brewery Service Job. In this case, we once again simulate and update the loading/unloading status around the layout, and note that on the last job cycle, one of the cars whose status changed was the car at the Waste Treatment Spur located off East Yard. This spur is served by the Brewery Service Job, in addition to spurs located at the West end of the Brewery Complex. In fact, since this is the first time that this job has been run during the shift, we also allow the job to work the Brewery Team Track. To allow time for loads to be placed/removed from cars in the team track, I only allow this track to be worked once every shift of the Brewery. A shift is currently defined as 25 jobs. This value can be adjusted so that the team track is generally worked only once per operating session.

At the beginning of this job, East Yard looks like the following:

East Yard at the Start of the Brewery Service Job.

The train length was randomly determined to be eight cars. Analysis of the spurs to be worked indicated that there are 5 cars ready to be picked up and 10 total spotting locations available. Had there been less than 8 spotting locations available, then the train length would have been limited to what was available.

Before leaving East Yard, the Brewery Service Job will work the Waste Treatment Spur. 

Working the Waste Water Treatment Spur.

The car picked up from the Waste Treatment Spur would be immediately delivered to the departure track as there is no reason to haul the car around the brewery. Consequently, a 7 car train departs East Yard. 

Departing East Yard.

Most of the work to be conducted occurs near North Yard, which will look like this upon the arrival of the Brewery Service Job.

Brewery Service Job working the North Yard Area.

Notice that one of the tasks here is to refill the coal track serving the rotary dumper. This track takes three cars, but only two have been brought in the train. Not a problem though as extra cars are on standby in North Yard. These cars handle either overflow hoppers or will provide additional hoppers to this track. In this model, this is the purpose of North Yard.

North Yard Switching Complete.

The remaining three tanks cars are destined for the Caustic track at the Packaging Plant. This track appears on the Brewery Area portion of the schematic.

Brewery Area to switch the Caustic Track.

Here, we switch out the empty tank car and replace it and the two empty spots with loaded tank cars. 

Work Complete - time to head back to East Yard after organizing the train at South Yard.

We would them run back to South Yard and use the run-around track there to organize the train before returning to East Yard.

Brewery Service Job Returns to East Yard.

Back at East Yard, we place our collected cars in the departure track and complete the Brewery Service Job. The job ticket looked like this.

Brewery Service Job Ticket.

At the end of the job, East Yard now looks like this.

East Yard after the Brewery Service Job.

Once again, a job is randomly selected, and this time the McIntyre Job is pulled from the list. The associated job ticket looks like the following.

The McIntyre Job Ticket.

The McIntyre Job works in two different ways depending on the status of the cars at the elevator. In this case, the cars at the elevator are interchanged hoppers, which were delivering grain to the elevator. This job will replace those three hoppers with intraplant Coors Hoppers, and will take three new loaded hoppers to the McIntyre Yard. When this small three car train arrives, McIntyre Yard looks like this.

McIntyre Yard when the McIntyre Job Arrives.

The McIntyre Job is the only job that runs east from East Yard on the Coors Branch. The three loaded hoppers must be placed on the corresponding track for their load (Hopps, Barley and Rice) at the end of the track.Once these moves are done, the three empties from the elevator are pulled. Then the three intraplant empties from the cleanout track are spotted in the elevator, and three empties from the storage track are moved to the cleanout track. As a result, once these switching moves are complete, the train looks like this.

McIntyre Yard after the switching is completed.

The train then returns to East Yard with three covered hopper cars for interchange.

Returning to East Yard after the McIntyre Job.

There are now 21 cars ready for interchange from the Coors Branch to the Golden Branch. In addition, 19 cars from East Yard have been spotted around the branch. Not quite a 1-for-1 exchange, but pretty close. After these moves are complete, East Yard looks like this.

East Yard after four jobs have run.

 

This has been another long post, but I have a bit more to share about this exercise. So, I think I will end this post here and pick up the operating session with the fifth job assigned, the Table Job. This is the first time we have repeated a job, and so I want to discuss the rules about repeating jobs that I worked into the operating scheme in Part 4.

Cameron Turner