How to Block And/Or Switch A Local

[packers#1]

To add onto blocking per industry but the order not mattering (ABC, CBA, BAC, etc). Each block is going to likely be made up of other blocks that were assembled just based off what yard or interchange they were going to, so you’re not necessarily going to have the most efficient yard op trying to put the blocks in a specific order. Again, specific placement rules for certain car types not withstanding, you’re going to minimize the number of moves. One day the local might be ABC, the next the cars were easiest to put in BAC, etc.

What’s more fun is when you have two interchange partners for another train. There’s a video on TolgaEastCoast’s channel of FEC switching the new consolidated Trujillo and Sons and they actually added a specific move to their switch cadence to make it easier to have NS and CSX blocks when they were done switching. When I was protolancing an extended Greenville and Western, the CAX interchange was at the end of my imagined run but NS was on the way to the yard, so cars going to NE had to be in one block. It could be NS-CSX, CSX-NS, or CSX-NS-CSX, so long as all the NS cars were blocked together. That way the local can cut wherever when they get to the NS interchange and drop the block, then no matter what you have a CSX block left. For example, if it’s CSX-NS, they just back down and drop the NS cut. If it was NS-CSX the CSX cut would be tied down on the main and the NS cut dropped. If it was NS in the middle, then the CSX at the end of the train would be left on the main, and the CSX cut between the power and the NS cut would go into the interchange to drop the NS, then the two CSX cuts would be put back together when the train came back to the main.

Honestly the best thing to do is just surf YouTube and focus on switching ops, local ops, and shortlines. You’ll pick up a good bit of different switching moves and plans that way.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Be careful with that one... @Ed Kapuscinski likes to run a yard to keep trains moving through.  What happens once they leave the yard isn't any of his concern!  His usual advice to dispatch is "Fu%k 'em!!

Lee

This is quite true.

But is also the type of thing you have to do when you have 10lbs of trains to fit in a 5lb yard.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I think these might be an interesting read for folks thinking about operations:
https://conrail1285.com/conrail-terminal-information-publications-bayview/

They have instructions for each yard crew, including things like "PLATFORMS AT RUCKERTS 752,755,758,742, AND TERMINAL CORP PIER I - WATCH FOR DEBRIS IN RAIL WHICH COULD CAUSE DERAILMENT ORCOULD SHOOT OUT WHEN RUN OVER.".

They can provide some interesting insight into how this info was documented and passed on. I modeled my own operations paperwork on these since I think they can be quite handy for casual operators: https://conrail1285.com/windsor-st-layout-operations-documents/

[Missaberoad]

As a "Real Railroader" (whatever that means) I'll try my best to share my thoughts on the subject.

Keep in mid every job is different and has different requirements so there is no single gospel.

The simple answer is whatever is easiest.
If it's easier to switch my train ABC or CAB that's what I will usually do (now there are some exceptions to this that I will get into later)
Sometimes I will even leave with my train looking like a mess but collapsing blocks allow it.
For example ccbbaaabc. Please note that once you set off A all your B's lineup and once you set off B the same goes for C.

Lifts are typically made either on the headend or wherever in the train your spot is (assuming everything is in block) once again whatever is easiest in the specific situation.

A few rules of thumb to think of.

- Railroaders hate puzzles, typically any move is done in the simplist way possible or crews will try to hi-ball it every time. (ie: pass up the work)

- We avoid runaround moves like the plague. If we can lift cars on the way back on a turn or the next day on a thru freight going the other direction we will.

(We have a customer with a facing point switch, and to avoid the runaround if i can I will run an extra 20 miles to the closest turn point and back. This saves time and ties up the mainline less then doing the runaround)

- Railroaders will work where they get paid and will try to do "free" stops as quickly as possible. If where I'm lifting isn't a pay point I will lift as quickly as possible on the head end, and then block my train (if required) at a later stop where I'm "on pay".

- For the size of the trains we are talking about in this conversation, there's no need to worry about loads and empties. The trains aren't big enough to cause issues with that.

- If you don't have to switch out your train at the end of the day then you don't care how it looks when you get to the yard. That's the switcher's problem.

A few exceptions to the blocking being the easy way is if there is a customer that has to be on the headend.

- We have one job that comes across a facing point jct switch between two subdivisions with one customer on each sub. The first customer must be on the headend and the tailend is left at the junction waiting for us to return.

- Dangerous goods. We have another job that serves a gas plant with LPG cars, there is a customer enroute that we spot non dangerous cars of base oil, they must be on the headend to use as buffers. (We also spot this customer on the way out and lift on the way home to save runaround moves)

(Dangerous goods Marshalling was quite the gong show back when we had a caboose, causing all sorts of extra switching on our local jobs, but thats another story alltogether)

Hopefully this is helpful, we always try to not overcomplicated the job, remember the goal is to get a quit!

[Missaberoad]

One more situation that comes up that may be helpful to the conversation is when dealing with hold cars and cars with specific spots...

We have a customer with a single spur that takes hoppers loaded with sand and tanks loaded with acid. The tanks must be spotted behind the hoppers to be unloaded.

Their track looks like this - H H H T T T

We come in with our train, we have to lift and spot the tanks but the hoppers aren't billed out and have to be put back ahead of the tanks.
Now we have already done some work so there are other cars on our headend.

Our train looks like this - xxxxTTTxxxxxxx

How do we handle this? It will take a couple moves but isn't too difficult.

First we make a cut ahead of the spot cars and tie onto the hoppers.

So we look like this - xxxxHHH - and the 3 empty tanks remain in the track.

Tie back onto our train and grab the spot tanks -xxxHHHTTT

Grab the empty tanks from the customer - xxxHHHTTTTTT

Kick the 3 empty tanks back to our train and spot the 3 spot and 3 hold cars to the customer.

Tie onto our train and hiball.

[CRL]

And above all, be sure all unit trains are properly blocked in ascending numerical order if eastbound & descending numerical order if westbound.

[mkearns]

Thanks again for the enlightening discussion. I appreciate @Missaberoad 's descriptions. Never heard of a collapsing block before.

I'm a roundy-rounder at heart and also like standalone switching puzzles, so I usually can figure things out in the end, but it's not always efficient. The experience with my friend's large layout and JMRI has gotten me more interested in operations and trying to incorporate a little more "reality" into our running.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

And above all, be sure all unit trains are properly blocked in ascending numerical order if eastbound & descending numerical order if westbound.

You're evil.

[packers#1]

And above all, be sure all unit trains are properly blocked in ascending numerical order if eastbound & descending numerical order if westbound.

I didn’t realize Adrian Monk was a model railroader.

[Cory Rothlisberger]

I think these might be an interesting read for folks thinking about operations:
https://conrail1285.com/conrail-terminal-information-publications-bayview/

They have instructions for each yard crew, including things like "PLATFORMS AT RUCKERTS 752,755,758,742, AND TERMINAL CORP PIER I - WATCH FOR DEBRIS IN RAIL WHICH COULD CAUSE DERAILMENT ORCOULD SHOOT OUT WHEN RUN OVER.".

They can provide some interesting insight into how this info was documented and passed on. I modeled my own operations paperwork on these since I think they can be quite handy for casual operators: https://conrail1285.com/windsor-st-layout-operations-documents/

And thank you Ed for sending me down another rabbit hole...

[Ed Kapuscinski]

And thank you Ed for sending me down another rabbit hole...

I got you fam.

[Cory Rothlisberger]

So where did you find the Terminal Information Publications? Was it on the Multimodal site?

[CRL]

You're evil.

[jagged ben]

...
Sometimes I will even leave with my train looking like a mess but collapsing blocks allow it.
For example ccbbaaabc. Please note that once you set off A all your B's lineup and once you set off B the same goes for C.

This is a great trick that I'm going to try hard to remember.

[RockGp40]

So many variables in play for the real thing. Most of which have been mentioned. I'll add that it's best practice not to take other customer's loads into some other industry. The thought process there is I'm not derailing someone else's stuff on a different customer's siding. Demurrage comes into play too, especially for flats and boxcars.

I serve an Eastman plant and directly across from them is a Nutrien facility. The Eastman plant are trailing switches and they get tanks of different commodities. We'll block our Eastman tank train based on the commodity and it's spot (unloading location) prior to our arrival so we can get in and out as quickly as possible. But, I'll also have loaded covered hoppers sometimes for Nutrien. They're a facing switch move. Normally, the hoppers will be put in front of the Eastman loads. When we get to Eastman, we'll grab their empties and the loaded covered hoppers for Nutrien and shove them into a runaround track near the plant. We'll return light and grab the inbound loads for Eastman and spot them. We'll then return to the cars in the runaround and make the pull. We'll then work Nutrien, pull any empties and spot the loads. Tie on to the outbound train and start working the other way.