I am going to begin operating on my NPBL room sized layout. This is going to be the teaser to get some interest. But more importantly to keep the informational only with the meat of the subject to follow.

The article in the January MRH by Lance Mindheim spurred me to get going having hemmed and hawed long enough.

Being a programmer I learned long ago that tasks must be done step by step, in order. So I am going to attempt to share my experiences completing a fairly good sized area of my layout that parallels the mainline track. There will be a number of structures on both sides of the street,

I have had some questions about supporting Open Office in Easy Model Railroad Inventory. Most of them via email but I thought I would respond here too for those to timid to ask. To answer a question about Open Office I had to download it and install it on a relatively clean computer. I did so today and did some testing.

Version 4.0  is being worked with a release expected about the end of the summer. I have added an Owner field to the rolling stock and locomotive records. One of my beta testers has his stuff and his wife has hers. It occurred to me that clubs might be able to better use Easy Model Railroad Inventory.

I had completed my timetable and was selecting the cars for each train. Selecting the cars is simple.

Click the Add button to the right of the Assigned Cars tab to view a list of all of the cars that fit the requirements.

Before a car will be displayed for selection it must meet very specific criteria.

1. Service type not a locomotive,

2. The car cannot be assigned to another train,

I have had some requests to include a how to about the operations functions of Easy Model Railroad Inventory. I will be quite honest; I started out developing an inventory program to be used for insurance purposes. You’ll notice the word operation does not appear in the program name. The title is Easy Model Railroad Inventory. Some of you, I have noticed, like to refer to it as EMRI, which I actually find flattering, though I have not gotten used to it yet.

I now have all my track down, all of the switch machines in and tested, but I have no cars at any of my 16 visible industries. So how do I select the cars, the waybills and determine what trains go where. I have read just enough to convince me I do not know how to start. Here is my trackplan with information about each industry.

The JPG is not as sharp as I would like it. I printed the image and it is much more legible.

A new version of Easy Model Railroad Inventory has been released. I believe this release has a number of additions that have been requested.

Easy Model Railroad Inventory currently allows users to make a copy of an existing rolling stock and locos record. Would this type of functionality be useful with:

1. Structures?

2. Library?

3. Electronics?

4. Consignee/Destination?

5. Add image field to library maintenance? Picture of the book.

Please respond for each selection. Yes or no only, for example 1. No, 2. Yes. If you respond maybe that will be counted as a no.

End date. A new field in addition to the build and rebuild dates. This could be used to note when the item was sold or scrapped by the railroad. Not by you!

Please respond for each selection. Yes or no only. If you respond maybe that will be counted as a no.