Shuntomatic System 3000 - 2022 edition
Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2022 2:44 pm
Hello all,
As I mentioned on my railway thread, I'm working on reviving "Shuntomatic System 3000", the name my children gave to my attempt (some years ago now...) at randomly generating goods trains and traffic on my railway. Since then the children have lost interest (in fairness, going to University didn't help...) and the railway's developed, including gaining enough Welsh highland and Ffestiniog wagons to make it worth trying something a little more realistic.
So, the aims of the exercise are:
1) To create interesting (and not entirely predictable) operations.
2) To recreate aspects of historic Welsh Highland operations.
3) To have fun.
Not all of those things are entirely compatible with the others, but I'm hoping to find a good blend...
It's occurred to me that I can "desktop" this without actually running trains, by simply developing a system and testing it with the cards that will represent the wagons. A good proportion of the (WH)WHR's trains only run in my head anyway, so it won't really be any different. I can test it out, changing and tweaking it as necessary to get something that works in theory before I try it out in the garden. A couple of you have expressed an interest, so I thought I'd conduct my experiments in public...
First of all, here's an updated plan of the layout:
As you can see, lack of siding space is a big problem, but not one that's easily resolved. It might stop the whole thing working terribly well, we'll have to see how it goes...
A brief overview of the line and its traffic flows goes like this:
The line to Clarach is a three mile branch of the Welsh Highland Railway, from which it diverges at a junction between Rhyd Ddu and Beddgelert. The branch passes through Trefechan before serving a granite quarry and timber yard in the village of Penlan, then continues on to Clarach. The main traffic from here is slate, from the Clarach Quarry, but the railway also serves the small village which gives the quarry its name.
There is sufficient slate traffic to warrant the running of trains specifically for this purpose, with other loads catered for by a daily pick-up goods train. As well as bringing granite and timber down the line to be carried further afield by main line railway or by sea, these trains carry coal, flour, meat and other essentials to the communities served by the branch. Beer and wines are conveyed to the public houses and hotels, including the popular Black Lion Hotel in Clarach, which also receives occasional deliveries of Porthmadog sea water for those of its guests wishing to partake in a reviving salt water bath. Other loads include gunpowder for the quarries and manure for the farms, brought from the streets of the cities.
Steep gradients, sharp curves and short loops mean that trains are limited to just seven wagons and a guards van, with further restrictions being imposed by the poor unloading facilities at Clarach which, due to its location on thin rock shelf on the side of the valley, can accommodate just four wagons.
Timber and granite traffic did feature at times on the WHR (and more so on its predecessor, the NWNGR), and the other loads are all genuine too, with the exception of brine, which I pinched from the FR - the brine wagon did end up perched on a tower of sleepers as a water tank at Pont Croesor though! I don't know whether the real thing ever did, but my version of the WHR will borrow the FR's hearse as required, and a gunpowder van too - I believe gunpowder travelled in normal vans on the real Welsh Highland.
Slate wagons aside, those currently available (including two I've not actually built yet but which will be necessary for operations!) are:
Apologies, that table didn't reproduce very well, but you get the idea...
The WHR and FR had separate sequences for numbering their wagons (in fact the WHR appears to have had several), but for simplicity's sake I've been able to give each wagon a unique number so far.
More next time! I might be ready to run some imaginary trains by the end of the week...
Cheers,
Andrew.
As I mentioned on my railway thread, I'm working on reviving "Shuntomatic System 3000", the name my children gave to my attempt (some years ago now...) at randomly generating goods trains and traffic on my railway. Since then the children have lost interest (in fairness, going to University didn't help...) and the railway's developed, including gaining enough Welsh highland and Ffestiniog wagons to make it worth trying something a little more realistic.
So, the aims of the exercise are:
1) To create interesting (and not entirely predictable) operations.
2) To recreate aspects of historic Welsh Highland operations.
3) To have fun.
Not all of those things are entirely compatible with the others, but I'm hoping to find a good blend...
It's occurred to me that I can "desktop" this without actually running trains, by simply developing a system and testing it with the cards that will represent the wagons. A good proportion of the (WH)WHR's trains only run in my head anyway, so it won't really be any different. I can test it out, changing and tweaking it as necessary to get something that works in theory before I try it out in the garden. A couple of you have expressed an interest, so I thought I'd conduct my experiments in public...
First of all, here's an updated plan of the layout:
As you can see, lack of siding space is a big problem, but not one that's easily resolved. It might stop the whole thing working terribly well, we'll have to see how it goes...
A brief overview of the line and its traffic flows goes like this:
The line to Clarach is a three mile branch of the Welsh Highland Railway, from which it diverges at a junction between Rhyd Ddu and Beddgelert. The branch passes through Trefechan before serving a granite quarry and timber yard in the village of Penlan, then continues on to Clarach. The main traffic from here is slate, from the Clarach Quarry, but the railway also serves the small village which gives the quarry its name.
There is sufficient slate traffic to warrant the running of trains specifically for this purpose, with other loads catered for by a daily pick-up goods train. As well as bringing granite and timber down the line to be carried further afield by main line railway or by sea, these trains carry coal, flour, meat and other essentials to the communities served by the branch. Beer and wines are conveyed to the public houses and hotels, including the popular Black Lion Hotel in Clarach, which also receives occasional deliveries of Porthmadog sea water for those of its guests wishing to partake in a reviving salt water bath. Other loads include gunpowder for the quarries and manure for the farms, brought from the streets of the cities.
Steep gradients, sharp curves and short loops mean that trains are limited to just seven wagons and a guards van, with further restrictions being imposed by the poor unloading facilities at Clarach which, due to its location on thin rock shelf on the side of the valley, can accommodate just four wagons.
Timber and granite traffic did feature at times on the WHR (and more so on its predecessor, the NWNGR), and the other loads are all genuine too, with the exception of brine, which I pinched from the FR - the brine wagon did end up perched on a tower of sleepers as a water tank at Pont Croesor though! I don't know whether the real thing ever did, but my version of the WHR will borrow the FR's hearse as required, and a gunpowder van too - I believe gunpowder travelled in normal vans on the real Welsh Highland.
Slate wagons aside, those currently available (including two I've not actually built yet but which will be necessary for operations!) are:
Apologies, that table didn't reproduce very well, but you get the idea...
The WHR and FR had separate sequences for numbering their wagons (in fact the WHR appears to have had several), but for simplicity's sake I've been able to give each wagon a unique number so far.
More next time! I might be ready to run some imaginary trains by the end of the week...
Cheers,
Andrew.