IMHO, ProTrak is the very best prototypical operations program, and it is now free. ProTrak solves all the problems other programs have. It was designed for a prototype railroad, then ported over for model trains. Be sure the READ the manual. https://protrak.org/wpt/.
Ethan, I use the operations mode in JMRI. You can use it even if not part of the layout control. -Bob T.
Oh, I remember something about protrak a while back. I couldn't get it set up on my computer because it doesn't have a CD drive. I will check in to that one again, as well as JMRI. Thanks guys
Car cards and four-route way bills are used on most layouts around here. Micromark sells inexpensive facia boxes you'll need for each town. Doug
Ethan, in my experience, most of the software driven switch list generators are not very good at generating realistic flow; they usually have you select how many cars are spotted at a given industry and maybe how many to exchange at a time. Then you get the same repeating pattern of numbers of cars to each industry. At least one of them (Rail Ops) doesn't allow you to indicate what type of car should be directed to an industry; a tank car could be directed to a warehouse by the software! The JMRI software seems to be pretty decent, I have operated on a railroad set up with that. In all cases, the caveat is that there can be no mistakes in the placement of cars unless one makes an audit to verify spotting after a session; the software will assume each car was handled correctly.
