Operations?


santafewillie said:
...are you the same Dave H. who put together the Car Cards program many years ago?
Click to expand...

That would be me. I put up a much simplified version on the MRH web site (only does 2 move waybills) recently and have taken it in a bunch of different directions. One variation went to model ATSF paperwork from the 1950's (about 5 different types of waybills) and another (for me) that attempts to resemble 1890's era "car tickets" (yes, car cards are prototypical).
 
Two full days without comment! Possibly Dave1905 is correct, there does not seem to be much interest in the topic!
 
I wouldn't take the lack of comments too seriously. If you look at the views versus the comments, you get almost 5%; about the same as the Coffee Shop, and a far higher % than most other topics.

Willie
 
One other thing is that the comments tend to be fewer since to discuss it requires a certain amount of knowledge on the subject (asking does not, but the discussion does), so fewer people get involved. Subjects that don't really require technical knowledge, just an opinion (NMRA, lighting levels, is this too much weathering), get way more feedback. The other consideration is that many operations questions also have a definite answer (vs. an opinion) so the discussions will end when there is an answer.

Of course all of this requires a question.

No questions, no discussion.
 
Mark - Possibly this is where you want to take this. I ran a local freight last night, an "out and back" operation. I picked a town to service, named Graham. Here's the potential services:
Pallet manufacturer
*Inbound: Wood by boxcar
*Outbound: Occasional boxcars of pallets - most outbound product is trucked
Grain Elevator
*Outbound: Grain in covered hoppers
Paper Distributor
*Inbound: Bulk paper towels, computer paper etc. in boxcars
Cannery
*Inbound: Vegetables and fruits by reefers and insulated boxcars; cans and cartons by boxcar; vinegar and salt solution by tankers
*Outbound: Canned fruits and vegetables by boxcar
John Deere tractor distributor
*Inbound: Flatcar loads of tractors
Small Appliance manufacturer
*Inbound: Motors, sheet metal and cardboard by boxcar
*Outbound: Finished washers and dryers
Tannery
*Inbound: Rawhide by boxcar
Scrapyard
*Outbound: Scrap metal by gondola

I first determine which industries I am going to switch, right now I just use a notepad. In the future I will be using a computer program. Then I assemble a train in the staging yard by hand, add power and caboose and off I go. I determine the line-up based on whether the industries are trailing point or facing point industries, and their order in town. In this case, five are trailing point, two are facing point and the grain elevator has both. All but one industry switches off the passing siding through town. The scrapyard is beyond the siding and is a trailing point, so I just pull onto the siding and drop everything behind the gondola, pull out on the main and move forward to do the drop. If I have to pick a car up there, that comes first. Rather than explain each and every move here, let's suffice to say that I then pick-up and drop off cars in the sequence that I set in staging. I use the main as a run around track since I am a solo operator and there is no other traffic. I do sometimes tie up on the siding next to a cafe so the crew can "go for beans" and go back and run a through freight from one end to the other of the layout for variety, then go back to switching. In this example I group all of the trailing point cars at the beginning of the train with anything for the pallet manufacturer immediately behind the engine to be switched last due to the location. I leave the facing point cars and caboose out of the way at the end of the siding while picking up and delivering. As I pick up cars, I stash them on the siding to be dealt with later. when all of the trailing point cars are taken care of (excepting that pallet drop), I run around the train and attach to the caboose and the remaining facing point cars and push them forward and take care of them. I then switch the pallet manufacturer, pull out on the main and drop the caboose in the clear (I could actually do this earlier except I like to keep the main clear), collect all of the outbounds and empties on the siding, head back out on the main, pick up the caboose and off we go back to the staging yard.
I don't quite know if this is what you were hoping to get out of this, and in the absence of an operations topic itself, I am posting this here. I know that it is a bit windy, but...

Willie
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Willie, is there going to be more to your post?

I indeed did see your post before you completed it.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
To add to Willie's post, I often find it most efficient to sort cars out at a station by facing or trailing point switch. If there are industries on both sides of the main, I sort them by each side, the trailing and facing.

That also begs a design question, many modelers put a siding in then break all the industry switches off the siding, thinking you can clear up in the siding to switch the industries. In reality, many time that doesn't work so well because the train in the siding blocks access to some of the industries. It may be that having most of the industry tracks break off the main would work better, The local drops the train in the siding then takes a couple cars at a time down the main to pull and spot industries, clearing back in the siding or an industry track when a train comes along on the main.

The problem comes in when the designer includes "switching puzzles" into the track plan, then all bets are off on trying to organize anything efficiently. I much prefer pretty straight forward track designs.
 
I use CC&WB (car cards and waybills) with a box for each track. Before each session, I turn the waybills on the cars that I want to be pulled. If its a location where multiple jobs work a station, for example the north local and the south local, I will put an industry work waybill in the pocket (such as "PULL N Local", or "SPOT S Local"). Cars that will not be pulled or spotted have the waybills unchanged.

When the local arrives I checks the tracks to see if there are cars destined to someplace other than where the car is, it moves those cars as appropriate, and then spots the cars in its train.
If the local arrives at Montchanin and there are two cars in the storage track, one car at the freight house and two cars at the stair company. The two cars in the storage track are for the branch, since the local doesn't serve the branch it ignores those. The car in the freight house is billed outbound. One of the two cars at the stair company is billed to the stair company and the other is billed to someplace else. In the train are a car for the stair company and two cars for the soda warehouse. The local will pull the car from the freight house, plus the outbound car from the stair company, leave the two branch cars and the car for the stair company, then spot the stair company and 2 soda cars.

Before the next session, I will add an empty return waybill to the car card for the old car a the the stair company and then turn the waybill on one of the cars at the soda house to set up for the next session.
 
Following up on Dave's comments, all of my passing sidings are minimum 24 cars in length, so that's why I am able to use them as staging for the industries. Most of my locals are only 8-10 cars. I also do not design any switching puzzles anywhere on the layout. Industries that have major car movements like two of my eight grain elevators (16 cars@) and my ethanol facility (also 16 cars) have dedicated switching runs. On my previous two layouts, I used CC&WB (car cards and waybills) as Dave mentioned, (heck I got the program from him 15+ years ago); but I am planning on using computer generated switch-lists in the near future. I don't do any industry-to-industry switching on my layout, but use the staging yards for origination and destination points for everything...that's subject to change in the future maybe. I don't have any classification yards on the layout.

Willie
 
I use the CC&WB system of routing my cars. I started out using the four positions on the WB, then got to thinking that having only the Shipper and Consignee made it simpler and made sense to me. I am uncertain how many trains I run (at one time I thought I had stated that here and the number was 9-10. There are inactive destinations I will add as they become functional and think there will eventually be 14 trains; or, so. I need to sort out a schedule. Since my layout is about the Northern Pacific, operating over the Butte Short Line, the reality is, because the Butte Shortline was really only a passenger line my operations will be freelanced so I can include freight. Since I operate Lone Wolf, I can only run one train at a time.

So, my focus right now is coming up with a train Schedule.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Mark - I had completed that post the other day and got no comment back from you. Was that something that you might have wanted to get out of an operations topic?

Willie
 
Willie, been on short trips for three days now and am finally back. I'm unsure of what you wanted me to comment on? From what you've explained it sounds like you and I are doing things similarly. Operations is not something I have a lot of confidence in. I thought a forum where we could discuss operations, to be a good thing! I agree with Dave, that there might not be a lot of action on a forum such as this; but, I still think it would be a good idea.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
So, how do I go about asking the Moderators to start a forum dedicated to "Operations"?
 
NP2626 said:
So, how do I go about asking the Moderators to start a forum dedicated to "Operations"?
Click to expand...

NO moderator needed, go to "Forums" scroll down to "General Discussions" and click on that you will see a box with "start new thread" and you can start a new thread.
 
I think Mark is looking for the Forum to add a new Category, "Operations" to the other Topics rather than just starting another Tread in one of the existing subject areas.

Thanks.

Greg
 
Right On, Greg! Starting a topic is known to me. In fact, I think I've done that before. However, thanks for trying to help, New Guy!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.



Back
Top