On my layout I use car cards and way bills. I have 2 hidden staging tracks, I operate with 4 road engines with 2 going north and 2 going south. I also operate a local serving 10 online industries and a branchline serving a mine and 2 other industries. The layout operates with about 45-48 freight cars and a total of 7 locomotives. A complete operating session that involves moving all of the road engines and using the local and branchline as traffic dictates takes about 5 hours. I usually operate alone. Recently I purchased from Micro Mark a train order " Try it pack". I was wondering how to work these into my operating sessions. I would be grateful for any ideas, I am always looking to try something new.
This may or may not help - it is a traffic generator - if it does - great! if it deoesn't - just ignore it! http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=5241 This is a simple FREE traffic generation program that is easy to set up - it needs you to tell it where your industry spots are, the type of car needed, and which spots are occupied, but it doesn't need a huge list of car numbers to be inserted. It will generate switch-lists for cars to be set out and to be picked up, leaving you to decide which car of that type to use for the job, rather than demanding specific number cars be used. This is perfect for small layouts, that set up inbound cars on an interchange track or lead, before an operating session. I suggest you read through the thread, and then download the program Have fun Jack
There have been umpteen articles in the various train magazines, the most recent in MRR either this month or last. Take a look. If you do not subscribe, go to your library, MRR is carried by some libraries.
What I am looking for are some simple ideas about using train orders. I use my car cards to generate traffic. There are no problems with the car cards, I just want to try something new by maybe using train orders.
Well, train orders are something of a different beast from car cards... the car cards follow a specific car and tell where it needs to go next and end up on its journey. A Train Order is instructions for the Engineer and Conductor about what to do with the train as a whole. Usually they're used in conjunction with a Timetable, and used to modify the timetable or to authorize a train that isn't on the timetable. So, for example, a Train Order might say "Train 361 proceed from Smithville to Amity. Meet Train 254 at Jones Junction." This would inform the Engineer/Conductor that they need to leave Smithville, and stop at Jones Junction. They are to wait there until Train 254 passes, and then proceed on to Amity, where they'll either terminate the train or await further orders. For completeness, the Dispatcher would have also issued a Train Order to Train 254 that would specify "Meet Train 361 at Jones Junction", so they both know to expect each other. Which one has to stop on the siding and which gets to roll by (or stop on the mainline and wait for the other on the siding) would either be explicitly spelled out in the train order, or would be figured out by convention and priority of trains (for example Eastbound has priority so would take the main, while the Westbound train would take the siding. But if Eastbound gets there first, it would have to *stop* on the main and wait for the Westbound train to arrive before proceeding. I think convention also states that both trains would get copies of both orders, so everybody knows what everybody else is supposed to do. So to work this into your car cards things, once you've made up a train, your Dispatcher would issue a Train Order for that train telling it where to go, where to meet other trains, and so on. That's basically it for mainline trains. A Train Order for a local that's switching an industry might just say "switch industries at Smithville. Remain clear of mainline until 1300." (or maybe "Contact Dispatcher for access to main"). The car cards would tell exactly what to do with the cars. Exactly how this is handled depends on era and so on, because it would depend on whether the train can expect telephone or radio access to the dispatcher, or whether they're in the dark. Clear as mud?
I've seen very few model railroads trying to simulate train order use which come remotely close to what the prototypes once did for operations. Few fans or model railroaders even know much about train orders. And there is a lot of misinformation about flimsies out there on the 'Net. I wouldn't worry much about it. Unless you really want tgo get into it, I'd just keep it simple. Otherwise you need to first establish a rule book, then create a timetable, issue bulletins and train orders. A bunch of paperwork! The car card systems work well for most scenarios. Many train order examples can be seen on my web site...
I know I (intentionally) glossed over a lot of detail, but I hope I didn't contribute significantly to the misinformation problem... I only meant to scratch the surface...
No. Not at all. I was actually referencing some of the web sites out there. It's just hard to explain very briefly. And now that the practice has been pretty much gone for about twenty five years... Those few which might remain are usually all crew copied, just as track warrants and so on, so even that is not the same. So a lot of folks with us today never even saw these items in real life use. What is written on my web site is necessarily very compressed. A discussion of how they were used and the many variable situations applicable, would be a bit lengthy. Mine has been reviewed by numerous industry pros, (those who worked long careers with such in jobs from dispatchers to telegraphers), for accuracy.
One thing I've considered suggesting to model railroaders for some time and never have (for various reasons) is that instead of car cards and train orders, they consider using switch lists and work orders. This is a much simpler operation and if you have Microsoft Excel, Works, or any other spreadsheet program, can be simple to create and maintain. Many short line railroads use this system for their entire operations. All you need to do is name & number all tracks where cars can be stored. Then, inventory each car on that track and list them as being "on" the track. If it's an industry, then the car is "on spot", if it's a yard or storage siding, then it's "on hold". It's up to you how to do the ordering, but typically, you list spurs from end of track towards the mainline and then your yard and siding tracks East to West or North to South. Once this is done, the generated switch list shows each car and its location with a blank line next to it. If a crew does something with that car, they simply notate what they did with it and then when they're done, they turn it in to you and you make the changes in the master spreadsheet. The Work Order is simply a list (usually one page) that tells them what they need to to during their shift. This might be to assemble a train and take it to a given spot or it might be to switch certain industries. Most shortline systems also allow for a "comment" to be placed next to each car as to where it's going (destination or next train) or specific information like what industry or storage spur/siding it needs to be moved to. It seems complicated when I type it out, but in reality, once you do the initial setup, it's not very hard. The railroads have specific programs that automate the process somewhat and track the movements, but when I was playing a game called "Freight Yard Manager" several years ago, I used Excel to emulate what I'm describing here and was able to setup 3-4 hour operating sessions within about 15 minutes using this method. It gives you a little more realism, but it also avoids the complexities of using Train Orders and Car Cards since you only have to have one set of paperwork per crew.
