CAR CARD OPERATIONS

[LIRR]

Operations forum?

[C855B]

I concur!  :thumbsup: 

[Dave V]

I have always wanted to be an operator, but I keep falling back on roundy-round.  I have a car card and waybill system I don't use.  If this new forum would also contain "how-tos" I'd really be appreciative.

[CRL]

Good idea.

[John]

I have always wanted to be an operator, but I keep falling back on roundy-round.  I have a car card and waybill system I don't use.  If this new forum would also contain "how-tos" I'd really be appreciative.

I don't normally follow RTNT, but this is a pretty good video

[seusscaboose]

YES.

[Chris333]

Flip the switch on and turn the dial... I'm operating! 

[eric220]

Personally, I've never liked the 4-cycle car cards and waybills system.  I feel like it locks the layout into a never-ending and unchanging cycle that just gets repeated over and over.  The one true operating session I had on the first Transcontinental PRR (thanks for participating, @seusscaboose) used a switch list.  I had intended to use Filemaker to auto-generate switch lists by telling it what industries there were, what they shipped and received, and how often they shipped and received.  I planned to record the passage of time by incrementing a counter, so the database could report who needed empties or had loads to pick up.  @Dave V you might try something similar on a manual level.  Survey the layout and note where loads are that need to get picked up, as well as who is in need of empties.  Next, identify where the empties are that are going to get delivered.  From that information, you know what needs to move, from where, and to where.  You can then decide what trains will be needed to do the work, and you can make switch lists accordingly.  On a pike your size, you could probably do the exercise in a comparable amount of time to cycling waybills.

Oh, and yes to the OP.

[John]

Discussion on operating your layout using car cards

/>
https://www.nmra.org.au/Clinics/Car%20Cards.pdf

[DKS]

Why not sticky these two, so they don't get lost? They'll remain relevant regardless of age. I'd also roll them both into one.

[DKS]

We may not need a separate forum, but just a sticky at the top of the layout engineering forum. Or, a sub-forum (just to avoid clutter) if it warrants expansion later.

[seusscaboose]

Personally, I've never liked the 4-cycle car cards and waybills system.  I feel like it locks the layout into a never-ending and unchanging cycle that just gets repeated over and over.  The one true operating session I had on the first Transcontinental PRR (thanks for participating, @seusscaboose) used a switch list.  I had intended to use Filemaker to auto-generate switch lists by telling it what industries there were, what they shipped and received, and how often they shipped and received.  I planned to record the passage of time by incrementing a counter, so the database could report who needed empties or had loads to pick up.  @Dave V you might try something similar on a manual level.  Survey the layout and note where loads are that need to get picked up, as well as who is in need of empties.  Next, identify where the empties are that are going to get delivered.  From that information, you know what needs to move, from where, and to where.  You can then decide what trains will be needed to do the work, and you can make switch lists accordingly.  On a pike your size, you could probably do the exercise in a comparable amount of time to cycling waybills.

Oh, and yes to the OP.

It was a fun time!
I was sorry to see that layout go!

[eric220]

It was a fun time!
I was sorry to see that layout go!

It was, and you and me both!

[Dave V]

OK, I watched both the car card/waybill video and the switch list video.  I'm still feeling somewhat overwhelmed.

@Ed Kapuscinski and I had started the traffic analysis piece for the RGS some time ago but I think I tried to build the waybills too soon before I fully understood what I was doing.

The other challenge I have is self-inflicted.  While traffic on the real RGS was pretty straightforward, I've only modeled a small number of the industries along the First District.  Also, much of the traffic on the First District came in from the Telluride Branch via Vance Junction (between Placerville and Ophir) and I haven't modeled it in any way.  So...for the purposes of my operating plan, I plan to follow what the RGS kind of did late in its life, which is to treat trains between Ridgway and Telluride as completely independent, sort of like "turns."  So they don't enter into my plan as generally speaking very little traffic came to or from Telluride other than empties directly to the Pandora Mine and high-value, high priority ore loads directly back to Ridgway from Pandora.  There was general merchandise and other special freight and consignments from time to time but honestly I think I can get away with ignoring that.

I think I'd like to start an "operations on the RGS" thread separate from my layout engineering report so it doesn't get buried in construction posts.

EDIT:  To that end a consultant suggested that the post-war RGS might survive longer if it abandoned the trackage between Vance Junction and Rico, operating as separate lines.  That would mean ditching Ophir and the 4% climb over Lizard Head, but most of the traffic originating along that portion of the line had died off.  The Butterfly Mill near Ophir burned in the late 30s, lumber cutting near Matterhorn ended in the early 40s, and by the late 40s the mining around Ophir had dwindled to near nothing.  The Telluride traffic all went north and the Rico traffic could have been re-routed through Durango on the south end, bypassing Ridgway altogether.

My layout represents a somewhat earlier scheme (late 30s), treating the First District (Ridgway to Rico) as an almost independent railroad from the Second District (Rico to Durango) with all through freight being "handed off" at the Rico division point.  This includes northbound oil from Farmington, coal from Hesperus, and lumber from Dolores/McPhee all coming up from the Second District, with empties returned to Rico for the Second District.

[John]

Dave .. to make it work then, you need to have the "off layout" industries that send and receive stuff .. that can be a modeled with staging yards, a box where you put cars leaving the layout, or returning to it ..  it doesn't have to be very complicated .. personally, I like JMRI and the switch lists it generates ..

enter all the locations
enter all the industries
enter the types of cars the industries need
receive loads or empties


https://www.jmri.org/help/en/manual/JMRI_OPS_UsersGuide/Ops_TripThruOperations.shtml

https://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/10834