using colored dot (car tabs) to improve JMRI ops

If you've been struggling with using JMRI ops switchlists, try using color-coded stick-on "dots" stuck to the car tops to help you keep track of which car is supposed to end up on which track. It's not exactly prototypical to switch colored dots around, but it does make the whole thing easier and more fun. I've been experimenting with a Lance Mindheim style of "two turnout" switching layout, and the colored dots have really improved my enjoyment (and efficiency) of the switching moves.

In the past year, I've been learning how to use JMRI ops to generate switch lists for my N scale railroad, as a way to "dip my toe in the water" before trying to implement it on my basement HO layout, which currently uses car cards and waybills for car routing. The JMRI computer program has a lot of complexity to learn, but it doesn't take that much effort to enter in, say 100 cars and then have it generate switchlists. But there are two things about it that have been bothering me. One is that the moves are generated by random number generators, so unless you tweak the program a lot, you end up with illogical moves. The other thing is that it doesn't help the yardmaster block cars in the yard for the next train. Here's what a typical switchlist looks like:

I found out from Cal Sexsmith's article in the LDSIG Journal last year that Victoria had some interesting switching areas, and several car barge services to Seattle. So I decided to try doing some switching in Victoria. I put two turnouts on a plank (previously used only as a test track) with 5 pieces of N scale flex track and hooked it up to my NCE PowerCab and voila! Victoria!

Obviously the scenery leaves much to be desired, but it wasn't too hard to add these four tracks into JMRI ops, so I started generating switchlists and trying to use them. The switching was very tedious. Some of the cars needed to be moved, and some didn't. Some were moving offline, and some were moving between spurs. It was hard to remember what I was doing from one move to the next, and the N scale reporting marks are very small and it was hard to read them over and over again while constantly consulting the switchlist. The switchlist itself was formatted in a way that made it hard to keep track of the moves on. (I need to look into switchlist formatting options). Then I remembered I had seen a local N scale modular club using small colored dots as car tabs, so I pulled some out and tried using them to keep track of which cars were supposed to go where, according to the switchlist. It worked well! I could go through the switchlist only once, reading the reporting marks on each car and matching it to the switchlist, and placing the corresponding car tab on top of the car. That done, the actual switching was relatively easy, and fun! I've heard that some people "don't like switching colored dots around", but I'm wondering how different it is from switching cars based on chalk marks on the side of the car, like many prototype railroads would have used for switching. (Before computers, at least).

This operation, with only two turnouts and ten cars, is much more fun to operate than I was expecting! It takes me about 20 minutes to complete the work, long enough to make for an enjoyable break from routine daily activities without requiring a major time commitment. And if I want to make it more "meaningful," I could always generate a ferry run to Seattle and hand carry some of the cars back and forth to the main N scale layout. The only problem I see is that it is completely distracting me from all the other aspects of model railroading that I had been thinking were more important. Oh, well!