RailCommand Session Guidance
Session Guidance describes what an operating session on the selected layout will be able to DO. It is advice, not admission: nothing in it prevents a session from starting. A layout with no industries and no traffic profile still runs trains — it simply produces no waybills while it does.
This surface used to be called Ops Readiness and reported a score out of 100 against a 60% threshold. That score is gone (owner ruling, 2026-08-20). It summed unlike things into one number and then reported a verdict no measurement supported, and two of its nine items were worth 20 points between them while being read by no part of the running software.
When to Read It
- After importing layout, roster, JMRI, TrainController, or OperationsPro data.
- When a session produced less than you expected — no waybills, an empty Yardmaster panel.
- While building a layout out, to see what each addition will switch on.
What It Tells You
Items are grouped in three tiers, and each one states what measurably does not happen without it.
Freight essentials — without these the freight economy produces nothing. Trains still run.
- Traffic profile. Without one the economy accepts zero offers and generates zero waybills; every offer stays held, because the engine never assumes unlimited capacity.
- Industries. Loads originate and terminate at industries. With no industry anchors the economy generates no demand, and car forwarding skips any car whose industry cannot be resolved.
- Staging or interchange. These are where cars enter and leave the modelled world. With no handoff point the router refuses each car as unroutable.
Role surfaces — the session runs either way; these decide whether a role's panel has anything to show.
- Yard. Without one the Yardmaster panel reports no yard on this layout, and empty cars with no demand have nowhere to be sent home to.
- Blocks. Occupancy and signal protection are computed over blocks. With none the dispatcher panel is empty; the engine treats a missing block as occupied and an unprotected signal as stop.
Good to know — no measured effect on a running session.
- Assigned equipment. Assignment is not placement: a car with no block position and no waybill still counts. To confirm motion the engine needs a roster entry with a DCC address and a scale.
- Turntables configured. An imported turntable that was never finished in the editor will not take part in automatic operation. Everything else in the session runs normally.
What It Does NOT Check
Hardware mappings, crew assignments and routes are not part of Session Guidance, and never were part of the score that preceded it either. Hardware readiness has its own surface; crew calls are validated when a crew is called, not in advance.
Train symbols and network connections were scored, for ten points each. They were removed once the measurement showed nothing in the running software read either one.
How to Use It
- Read the freight essentials first — they are the difference between a session with paperwork and a session without.
- Use a row's action link to open the screen that owns that setup.
- Re-read after changes.
There is nothing to "pass". If a tier is unmet and the session you want does not need it, start the session.
Choosing a Mode
Arcade and Operating-Session are a choice you make when you create the session, on the web and on the
desktop alike. It is never inferred from how complete the layout is. An exported .rspkg carries a
suggested default taken from the modeler's own "supports operations" checkbox; both modes stay
available whatever it says.