Interchange pick up / delivery

[Don Bilski]

I have a small switching layout and switchlist suits me just fine, thank you.

What I would like to do is have my local drop off cars at the interchange track, then have the interchange train not only pick up but drop off cars to be switched by the local. Can you help me set that up?

[Robert Bowdidge]

Hi, Don,

SwitchList only allows cars to be switched between trains in a "yard". The easiest way to do an interchange track like you want is:
1) Make sure that the interchange track is in a town with no other yards (create a fake one if needed)
2) Create a yard that represents the interchange track.
3) Have both the trains dropping off and picking up at the interchange track visit the town with the interchange track yard.
4) Create cargos that need to be carried from somewhere on the originating railroad to the target railroad.

With all that, you should be able to see cars move from the originating railroad to the interchange track (yard), then get picked up by the destination railroad and taken to their destination.

Example layout attached.

[Ben Sevier]

Aloha! That method of an interchange track works great, except... there is no limit on the interchange length, so the program keeps sending cars there regardless. The need on an interchange is a limit on # of cars or length (like a siding), so that if the interchange is full the program won't add any cars with that part of the route included. Actually, a yard should have a length or capacity setting anyway (although large for the off layout yards) since yards definitely have capacity limits...

Love the program otherwise,

Ben