Not a freebie unfortunately but may be of interest to those of you who lean more towards freight operation rather than passenger traffic.

Wagonflow.

Yes, I have purchased , downloaded & printed some of it out but had not had a chance to do much reading yet, as I am still working out my final station.

Seems quite comprehensive, Bob, but as you say, not a freebee.
I think I may try a system simular to yours, as I'm sure I could find something else to spend my cash on :!:

Bob ( or should it be Sir Bob or Sir Topham Hat) - I had a gander at Barchester operations - I understand your method for passenger, how do you handle freight which is variable day by day?

Two things Sol. First please let us know how you get on with the software as and when you get round to using it.
Second, with regard to freight operations on Barchester, they are treated no differently, practically speaking, to the passenger operations, and can be slotted in quite easily. As far as the timetable is concerned they are just another operational movement. Of course the whole system would collapse if I was using either real time or a speeded up clock but there again it wasn't designed for such use.

Bob

I have just ordered it too, but I won't be able to play with it until I get home from Liberia    It seems just the job for working out my timetables etc.

Bob(K)

Bob, I have put this topic in my " to follow up file" so I remember it when I get to Wagonflow.

I would be very interested in anyones comments on this software.
It sounds just what I need for Newcastle Emlyn.
Another good find Bob…

I'm another who's interested in seeing how this software turns out.
Having looked again (and in more depth) at the description and examples given, it seems like an excellent way to work out a timetable.

Now while I have not done any experimenting with it so far, below is what a BRMA member Geoff here in Aust has said about it (& he has given his permission to quote his words). The station names he mentions at the bottom are on his layout.
Some of this maybe duplicated on the actual website & if so I apologize.


: For those who are unacquainted with Wagon Flow, may I make some brief
: observations?
:
: 1.  It is designed to provide more realistic operation than is usual on
: model railways by varying loads and wagons between places on a layout.
: Because of the emphasis on shunting, one needs to be keen on this mode of
: operation and have a layout where wagons couple/uncouple reliably in
: planned station locations.
:
:
: 2.  Anyone who uses a "shuffled card" system for determining train sizes
: and composition, is doing a similar thing, although this tends to be more
: focused on train formations than the "real business" of freight revenue for
: transporting goods between firms.
:
: 3.  The program basically works to a supplied timetable or sequence number
: for operations, although you can leave the program to sort this out for
: itself (= AutoFlow mode).
:
: 4.  You can specify moves generally like "Two loaded coal wagons from Hem
: Heath Colliery, Stoke to Meakins Coal Yard, Pipe Gate", with a frequency,
: wagon type allocated and the number of half-days to unload the wagon.  The
: program will then schedule delivering and removing the empty wagons by
: wagon number.  You can even specify different unloading times, so that the
: wagons might arrive together but require to be collected at different times.
:
: 5.  Or you can micro-specify a move like "10.47 Engine runs around
: assembled wagons to place brake van on rear of train".
:
: 6.  It can handle passenger carriages and block trains as well as
: individual wagon(s) for freight traffic.
:
: 7.  Printed out schedules, or by reading direct from a computer screen,
: tell the fiddle yard and station operator(s) what to do/expect to have to do.
:
:
: For those who are interested, in assembling the data tables for loads, I
: have come up with 8 locations within the Pipe Gate station yard alone
: which can receive or despatch loads:
:
: Express Dairy factory, Down Goods Shed; Cattle Dock, Loading Dock, "North
: Staffs" Goods Shed, Crane, Goods Lineside and Meakins Coal Yard.
:
: Given that the last 6 are all on one goods line, I expect some interesting
: shunting problems to occur!  Incidentally, for these same 8 locations I
: found quite readily 40 different types of loads in or out for this rural
: community.  The frequency of these loads arriving or departing ranges
: through daily, twice per week (set days), once per week (random), once per
: fortnight (random), once per month (random) to seasonal (random within a
: selected range of months).
:
: I expect to operate the program on two cycles per day, corresponding to
: the morning and afternoon pickup goods trains that were timetabled to spend
: over half an hour at Pipe Gate each visit, delivering and picking up wagons.
: In combination with the Fastclock, this should provide a stimulating
: operating environment.
********************************************************

Geoff had e-mailed the Wagon Flow owner & some of his replies are below:-

Thank you very much indeed for passing on what you said to your Australian
fellow modellers. It's both interesting and, of course, helpful to me.

You may be interested to know that I had the idea for business-generated
traffic instead of wagon-availability operation back in 1983, which (I
think) puts me very early in taking that view.  Wagon availability gave the
foundation for card shuffling systems, but as you note, cards are a
closed system, always defined by what you *can* do.

Wagon flow doesn't care what you've got (but YOU very quickly will!). It
behaves like a group of customers, not like a set of wagon shunters. And
that means that when you set up your estimated wagon demands (the profiles)
for your customers, you will almost certainly exceed your wagon stock
("Live an exciting life with your model railway!"). After about 3 cycles
your dispatcher/hidden sidings operator will probably start to panic! Hence
my previous remark saying "expect to build more wagons". And you will also
(probably) discover that you have too many exotic vehicles that are
interesting (e.g. gunpowder vans), and far too few of the humdrum common
types. I assure you, it woke ME up when I was doing all the program testing
to ensure it all worked.

Your email to your group talked about timetables but gave the impression
(point 4) that Wagon flow worked to the ones provided. As I'm sure you
realised, they are just samples - though quite a few people have taken the
Terminus and Magnum timetables and simply renamed them for their own use
with minor changes in the timetable to reflect their own stations. I hadn't
actually intended to subvert their own attempts to write timetables, but
they are quite tedious to do from scratch, so I can understand their
adoption even if it worries me that the Magnum one has some weaknesses.


***************************************************

This system shows promise & while it is in my computer & I have printed some of the pages out of the manual, I have not had the time to sit down for a prolonged read yet.
I will report in time (unless someone else beats me ).

Valueable stuff Ron, the more I read about the software the more I like it.

I'm certainly warming to the idea of giving it a go :!:

HI..

I have owned a copy of wagonflow for many years and use it to run my small (8'x18") switching layout. It does take some time to set it up and workout how it works, but if you work with the manual you we quickly get running. Great peice of software.

Also if you have any question just ask the author.

Stuart in OZ

Thanks Stuart,
Another plus for the software.
cheers