Getting Started

There are numerous ways to run operating sessions and many variations on each.  However, the most common system for the past 30 – 50 years (maybe more) is the car card/waybill system in conjunction with the timetable and train order system for train movement.  One needs to know what cars are going where and also which locomotive(s) are moving them.

Before your first operating session there are setup tasks to perform that do not quite seem hobby-related.  Think about how a real railroad operates, and why.  Railroads move people and cargo in cars from one place to another propelled by locomotives.  Quite often movement is guided by a schedule indicating when they will depart and where they will go.  At the same time, it’s not a real railroad, so the traffic on the model will not be generated by rail-served businesses calling the sales department of your RR.  This is where the car-card/waybill  system comes into play.

The car card is merely a repository for information of two types for each car.

• Car cards hold static information to identify each car
• The waybill indicates where a car is being shipped to

Timetables of scheduled train runs, along with train orders to override the schedule when unforeseen events occur, get the show moving.

More on these two subjects later…

LABELS, LABELS & LABELS

You need to label your towns, industries, station stops, etc. or else you, as host, will be constantly asked where such and such is.  If you only have your track in place, use a block of wood, a shoebox, or any other object that remotely looks like a building and put a name on it.  Place it near a siding or spur and you have an industry to service.

Create some form of map/schematic to help operators become familiar with you layout.  Label your turnouts, number or name your yard and industrial tracks.  Consider designating “spots” where cars are left on a particular section of track at an industry.

label your stations to so that both schedules and train orders reference easily identifiable places to stop trains.  Remember that a station is not necessarily a spot to drop off passengers and does not need to have any building.  It is a place beyond which a train may not proceed without train orders or timetable authority.

Tape temporary labels to your fascia or benchwork if necessary.  If an operator asks you where such & such is located, label it.  Indicate which direction the track runs (east/west, north/south).  Indicate which towns are next in each direction.

ROLLING STOCK

At a minimum, create car cards for a few of several types of rolling stock. When you first start operations it is better to scale it down until you operators become familiar with your layout and the system you employ. Car card boxes with a separate car-card holder for each track is ideal. Again, when you set up your first session or two you may want to service only a couple of industries or stations.

CAR CARDS

Car cards can be one-for-one for each car or you can have a card for a block of cars that will stay together and be treated as a unit.  Each car card must include sufficient information to identify the car or cars to which  the car card is related.  Information to list includes:

• Car type (e.g. Gondola, box car, flatcar, etc.)
• Road name/reporting marks (e.g. Canadian National/CN)
• Car number
• Color of car and roof, if different from car sides & ends (e.g. Yellow/Black)
• Home yard (Return empty to…)
• Length (optional)
• AAR code (optional)

CAR CARD BOXES

There should be a car card compartment for each track on which a car could be sitting, even the main track through a yard.  Andy Sperandeo of Model Railroader has had an ongoing series for a few years inside the rear cover of each magazine that explains various aspects of operations.  The December, 2013 issue discusses Car Card Boxes.  And, here’s a link to a website discussing how one model railroad utilizes car card boxes:

http://www.quaker-valley.com/box.htm

WAYBILLS

For model railroad operations, the waybill is the means to tell the crew where the car is going and how it should be routed.  It is the instrument that generates car movement.  Physically a waybill is a slip of paper that fits in the slot on a car card.  One waybill per car card.  You can operate with a simple one-sided waybill with one destination listed, but, that makes setting up a second operating session quite tedious.

If, at the end of the operating session the car has reached its destination there will be no order to move it again unless you replace the waybill with another.  To work around this problem, the 4-cycle waybill was developed.  Once a car has reached the current-cycle destination it remains there (usually in a yard or at an industrial siding) for the remainder of the operating session.

Before the next operating session, the layout owner flips the waybill to another (usually next) cycle and a new destination is visible.  The car is then included with the next train heading in the new direction.  Each of the 4 destinations merely needs to be somewhere else on (or off) the layout.  Ordinarily, the waybills SHOULD NOT BE FLIPPED DURING AN OPERATING SESSION.  The only exception that comes to mind is if the host railroad does not very many cars.  But another solution is for each invited operator to bring a few cars, along with their car cards and waybills.  (Be sure to identify each cars ownership either by notation on the car card or a label on the car.)

We need to know where a car is going, not where it came from or who sent it.  Waybill information must include routing and destination information.  Other optional fields can be used for enhanced realism, but they do add complexity.

• REQUIRED: Destination – both a geographical location & a consignee (usually an industry, but could be team track, freight station, warehouse or even a RR maintenance terminal for items such as locomotive fuel, sand, repair parts, etc.)
• VERY USEFUL: Routing (which railroads will be moving the car)
• VERY USEFUL: Via (Interchange track or yard to drop car in near industry or yard/staging closest to off-layout destination and especially useful for cars destined for off-layout locations)
• Lading (optional, but useful to designate empty car (MT) & especially useful for cars with visible loads such as flat cars and gondolas)
• OPTIONAL: Spot (specific spot to leave car within an industrial siding/spur
• OPTIONAL, NOT RECOMMENDED: Shipper  **
• OPTIONAL, NOT RECOMMENDED: Originating RR or geographic location  **

** If you opt for large waybills that have enough space for additional fields without being too difficult to read, then OK.  Otherwise, keep the waybills simply and readable.

TASK LIST

Although it is not something a railroad would do, if you prepare a list of tasks that includes the route, industries and description of set-out spots, your operators will not be asking as many questions during the session. A task list also eliminates the need for a timetable, train orders, clearance cards, etc. so you can get trains rolling easily.  Add the complexity as participants become familiar with your operating pattern.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

• DO keep a supply of “bad order” cards on hand so your conductors and engineers can document bad couplers, wheels or air hoses that need adjusting in case you don’t have time to tweak each beforehand.
• Have a log or other means to document trouble spots with the trackwork or power to the tracks