Freight Car Forwarding

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Freight Car Forwarding

• Steve Prevette
• Burnt Hills Big Flats RR
• Pasco WA
• Fluor Hanford
• City University

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Introduction

• This clinic will cover some basic methods to
  designate destinations for your cars.
• Car Cards and Marker on Car will be included
• This is one of the first steps to bringing
  Operations to your layout

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Why Operations?

• Youve built your empire, what do you do now?
• Running trains around in a circle, switching cars
  aimlessly can get boring

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Lets Bring Some OrderFreight Car Forwarding

• Where should the car go next?
• How does the operator know where the car is to
  go?
• What is the car carrying?
• What does the car
• do once it is
• delivered?

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What System is Best?
Thinking Mans Wheel Order Switchlist Card Order
Tab on Car Tack on Car Cargo Operation
IT DEPENDS
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Complexity and Realismversus Ease of Use

• Generally, the more realistic the freight
  forwarding system is, the more complicated it
  becomes
• We are hear to have fun at some point the trade
  off between complexity and ease, realism and fun
  must be made.
• Its your decision

Easiness
Realism
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No computers today

• Well stick to non-computer systems for this
  talk.
• Personally, I use a computer program that I wrote
  in QBasic to assign destinations to cars and then
  I put tacks in holes on the cars.

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What this means to you

• Youve been assigned a local train.
• You arrive at a town and are told to switch out
  the industries.
• How do you know which
• cars to set out (deliver)
• and to pick up?

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Thinking Mans No Paper

• Used by John Armstrong
• A train crews picks up whatever cars they would
  like to, sets out as many as they want to.

Easiness
Realism
10
Paperwork Systems

• These methods provide paperwork to the train crew
  to tell where the cars are to be delivered
• Paperwork must be handed off to and from the yard
  crews
• Can have problems reading reporting marks on the
  cars, but some people add photos of the car to
  the paperwork

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Wheel Reports One piece of paper per train

• Cards are made up for each train listing the
  number of each car type for the train.
• Make several card sets to give variability
• Pick up like cars to replace cars set out.

Easiness
Realism
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To be used on odd numbered days
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Basic Car Card One piece of paper per car

• Make one 3 x 5 for each car
• List about 10 destinations down the card
• Use paper clip or pencil check mark to annotate
  the next destination
• When at bottom, erase check marks or slide paper
  clip to top

Easiness
Realism
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New Haven 40 foot plug door boxcar 45097

• Cadosia Team Track
• Erie Lackawanna Track 2, Big Flats
• Amphenol Electronics, Sidney
• Utica Staging
• C. Auter Track 1, Cadosia
• Lackawanna Tool Die, Scranton

Note Next Destination is Utica Staging
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Card Order Two pieces of paper per car

• Make one 3 x 5 for each car
• Make a pocket to hold a smaller order card
• Order cards provide up to 4 destinations
• After last destination, replace order card

Easiness
Realism
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The Car Card
Make one card per car
Graphics from Ship It
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The Order Card (can be 2 sides)
Make lots of order cards. Note HD implies
hopper
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Card Order Notes

• Make a box to store excess Order Cards in,
  organized by car type
• Make a pocket to hold a smaller order card
• Order cards provide up to 4 destinations
• After last destination, replace order card
• Probably the most common method used, can develop
  very realistic car routing sequences

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Markers on Cars

• These methods put markers on the cars in order to
  tell the train crew where they are to be
  delivered
• Generally incorporates color coding (though car
  cards can also be color coded)
• Very friendly for clubs and new operators
• Avoids having to read reporting marks
• Need supporting method to assign the markers to
  the cars

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Cardstock Tabs

• Print labels on cardstock ¼ inch by ½ inch
• Bend the corners down with tweezers
• In practice, tabs have lasted years
• Watch out for Sneezing! (make out of metal?)

Acme
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Plastic Tabs

• Use plastic H-columns
• Paint and letter each side
• Can have one destination on each side
• John Allen used a long-short-long-short sequence.

Acme
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Tacks

• Use common thumbtacks, with dry transfer letters
• Advantage magnetic and stable
• Disadvantage must drill holes in cars

A
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(No Transcript)
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Other

• Magnetic strips with magnet or metal glued on
  underside of car roof
• Can stack these so can last for multiple op
  session before putting on new markers
• Sticky Dots
• Yellow Sticky Pad paper

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Assigning Tabs/Tacks to Cars

• The next slides provide some ideas on how to
  assign tabs/tacks to cars
• Car routings can be fairly realistic, but
  probably not as realistic as can be provided by
  car cards.

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Two Sided Tabs

• Put one destination on each side of a H type tab.
  When delivered, flip to other side.
• Car shuttles between two spots
• John Allen managed a 4 cycle routine with a
  long-short / flip / long-short color coding.

Easiness
Realism
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Allowable Car Types on Back

• Mark on backside of tab or tack what car types
  can receive the tab.
• Randomly draw a handful of tabs/tacks and start
  placing on the allowed car types
• Keep going until all cars are marked

Easiness
Realism
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Cargo Operation

• From a Model Railroader Bull Session in the
  early 1970s
• Draw up order cards specifying the type of car,
  the load, origination and destination.
• The order cards are used to assign the tabs/tacks

Easiness
Realism
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40 Foot Gondola From General Electric switch
lead, Big Flats PA Load Scrap Metal To Jacks
Scrap, Oneonta NY Via Delaware and Hudson
Interchange, Sidney NY
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Cargo Operation - Empty

• Deal out a card
• Find an empty car of the type called for
• If none available, put in a hold box
• If going offline, try to find a foreign empty
• Put tab/tack in car to get it to origination
• Put card in box for that town (card is not needed
  by train crew)
• Car is delivered to origination

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Cargo Operation - Load

• After car is delivered, remove tab/tack
• Find the order card for the load
• Load the car (if open-top)
• Place tab/tack in car for destination
• Put order card in box for destination
• After car reaches destination, unload it by
  removing tab/tack and treat as empty
• Put order card back into deck

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Comment on Cargo Operation

• I used it on 2 HO layouts at a teenager
• Gives realistic traffic flows
• May need a deck for each staging origination
• Realistic job for traffic agent finding
  appropriate empty cars to use
• No paperwork for the train crews
• Some loss of realism if two box cars come to
  the same location to be loaded which went with
  which order card?

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Burnt Hills Big Flats

• I currently use tack-on-car in N scale
• Tacks are assigned by computer
• Tell the computer the car type and current
  location, and computer gives next location
• Empty return to home road is a destination
• Works well, I have 280 cars on the layout

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Whats Next?

• Determine what to put on the cards or tacks, how
  many of each to make.
• To do this, list all your destinations (including
  interchanges and staging) and choose how many
  cars of what type they should get per week.
• May even include detail as to types of loads
• Use this table when making cards / tacks.

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Whats Next 2?

• What trains to run?
• I have a clinic given at PSX 2004 on Traffic Flow
  that may help. It is available on my website at
  http//users.owt.com/prevette

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Conclusion

• Freight car forwarding can be as easy or
  complicated as you would like it to be
• This overview of some simple systems should help
  you get started
• Operations is Fun!