Some History

Way back when in the late 1990s, a software application called "Mad River and Big Timber" was developed for the The Sacramento Modular Railroaders. The software took into considerations the nuances of a modular layout and the impact this would have on operations.

For many modular layouts, especially Free-mo setups, the layout changes at every setup. Also, rollingstock most likely is not know until module owners add cars to their modules.

Mad River and Big Timber (MRBT) solved this problem for modular clubs by creating a system that did not track car details during an operation session the way other software packages do. This methodology works well with some home setups as well.

The last active effort on MRBT was in 2001 with a minor update made to the software. A lot has changed since then with computers -- Heck an iPad or Smartphone was a Buck Rogers fantasy back then.

I do love operations as it pertains to model railroading. I personally followed along articles and wrote the program in Model Railroader back in the early 90s as they published articles using the Basic programming language to create a switchlist for operating your layout. MRBT is used by my local Free-mo club, the New England Free-mo's, and it's limitations are apparent.

My goal for the first version of ModuOps is to bring the ideas of MRBT to a modern platform. I'd love to see a Mac, Linux and Windows version of the software on day 1. ModuOps is an Open Source project and will be FREE to download. ModuOps incorporates a modern interface by today's standard and is ready for future expansion (tablets and smartphones are on the white board).

Version 1 of ModuOps will attempt to replicate the logic of MRBT with a couple of upgrades (detailed in later Blog posts). While MRBT is the inspiration, you will see that ModuOps looks nothing like the original software.

If you'd like to stay up to date on the progress of the application, please follow this Blog. I am progressing quite nicely with the software and I'm getting close to version 0.1.0! Stay tuned...