Using DecoderPro® to Operate Trains

What does Operations do?

The operations program allows you to build computer generated car manifests for your railroad. A manifest or switch list defines where a car is located on the railroad and how and where it should be eventually positioned on the railroad. The program allows you to build a roster of cars, define locations on the railroad, and routes for trains to travel. The car roster includes information about the car, including road name, type of car, color, length, date built, and its owner. Trains are assigned routes that define locations where cars can be picked up or dropped. Features include the ability to define what car types and car road names a location can service, the available track space for a location, and the maximum length the train can be between any two locations on the route. Locations can have sidings, yards, staging and interchange tracks. Optionally, trains can be configured to require a caboose or car with FRED. The program generates car manifests for each train and optionally for any location. The program can also place icons representing trains on a JMRI panel. The icon can be taught to move in the panel along with the train from location to location.

The operations program provides a set of demo files to help introduce you to the some of the features and capabilities of this program.

	Load the demo files from the Tools menu in the Operations Settings window, select Load Demo Files, the demo files will load after you restart DecoderPro.

The program will create a backup of your current configuration if you have one, and then load the demo files. Restart JMRI to complete the demo load process.  To get rid of the demo files, use the Restore function to reload the first backup date, which is the blank entry form.

The program also supplies a simple panel to show how the train icons work. Load the panel before building the trains by selecting in the main JMRI menu, "Panels->Load Panels .." a window should appear and open the "operations" directory and then open the "Operations Demo Panel" xml file.

In the Main DecoderPro menu Select Tools menu.

There are six items in this menu. It is recommended that you start with Settings and work your way down to Trains. We also recommend that when defining your locations that you first use yard and siding tracks, and try staging and interchange tracks when you're more comfortable with how the program operates.

The program supports an alternate set of railway terminology for our British modelers. To use British terminologies, go to the JMRI Advanced Preferences (Edit->Preferences.. select the Show Advanced Preferences checkbox) and select English (United Kingdom) in the "Locale:" menu box. The program will also convert from centimeters to meters when entering wagon, locomotive, or location lengths, just append "cm" to any length.