Using waybills

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David Collins
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Using waybills

Unread post by David Collins »

On my layout, I have 3 locals that run, CSX L423, NS C49 and NS C22. I mainly run these trains by memory with what cars go where, but I want to give waybills a try. I've never used this system before so if anyone uses this system I'd love to hear your advice.
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KVERBERK
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Re: Using waybills

Unread post by KVERBERK »

I don't have any experience with waybills, but I have been experimenting with JMRI operations. I've been using it to build routes and trains for the layout. Then I let the program route the cars and build trains. It works pretty well but it took awhile to set everything up and get it running the way I would like. In fact it is still very much a work in progress but its been fun.
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Re: Using waybills

Unread post by GreatLakesRailfan »

I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for or not, but...some of the guys like to operate with car cards and such on our traveling modular layout. I think the base of the system they use is a Micro-Mark product. BUT the Micro-Mark product is preprinted, so you either need really neat handwriting, or you need a work around.

One of the guys (not me) put together an excel file for typing the car information into the form. The file has to be printed at a reduced size, which can then be glued to form a 2-sided card that will fit into the MM car card pouch.

There is an Empty Car Bill and a (loaded) Freight Waybill on each side of the insert, so each car that has a Waybill can be spotted at, or picked up from, two different destinations on the layout. The pouch has information for the particular car printed on it.
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I have a sample of the file they were playing with, which has been personalized with the name of the layout. It doesn't contain any car information. The challenge is typing up one of these for each car you're planning to operate with. That's a lot of car cards and waybills.

From what I've seen, the system works pretty well. The layout is built more for running than for operation, so there aren't that many customers to ship or receive cars, which limits the number of cars that they need cards for. On a home layout built for operation, I would think you would have more places to spot cars, which would require a larger investment in waybills and car cards.

The biggest benefit seems to be that each car on the layout has a purpose, or reason for being on the layout. It has either an origination point or a destination that it will be delivered to. You can measure your progress in your operating session by how many cars have to be spotted or retrieved and whether you're ahead of schedule or running behind.

Once you get used to operating that way, you can pre-stage the cars that are to be picked up behind other cars that have not been "released" by the industry, and won't be during your operating session. Those cars will have to be moved by your crew in order for them to do their work, then replaced when they're done. You can throw other wrenches into the mix as well, between random bad order cards and other 'event' scenarios to change up the pace of your operating session.

I suspect that if I ever get an operating layout built at home, I'll use a waybill system for moving cars around the layout. I may not use the MM system though, as it doesn't look like it's unit train friendly. Fortunately, I've had the opportunity lately to see a lot of real railroad waybills, and it seems that a list of the card in the unit train, along with the weight and volume of what each car is carrying, stapled to the waybill for the entire train, is sufficient.
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