Car cards or track warrents?

[Capt.Brigg]

I'm at the point on building my layout where I need to work on the fascia boards. Car cards like we use at the Willamette Model Railroad club require a railing on the fascia to hold the cards. Track warrants like I have used at David B's layout need a place like a ledge to write on the warrant. My question is, which do you prefer, and why, and what program do you use and recommend to create either? Thanks for your input.

Capt. Brigg Franklin; CEO Pacific Cascade Railway in HO gauge.

[dknelson]

Capt.Brigg

I'm at the point on building my layout where I need to work on the fascia boards. Car cards like we use at the Willamette Model Railroad club require a railing on the fascia to hold the cards. Track warrants like I have used at David B's layout need a place like a ledge to write on the warrant. My question is, which do you prefer, and why, and what program do you use and recommend to create either? Thanks for your input.

Capt. Brigg Franklin; CEO Pacific Cascade Railway in HO gauge.

 

 

I don't understand the question, or more precisely, I don't understand the "or" in the question.  Track warrants (both on prototype and model railroads) are a way of authorizing the disciplined and safe movement of trains on specific tracks,  within a specified time frame.  They are in essence the modern and improved version of the old timetable and trainorder operations, which need operators to get the written orders to train crews.  Track warrants eliminate that middleman and involve direct verbal communication.  Both involve a dispatcher. 

 

Car cards are a model railroad attempt to replicate the movements of loads and empties on a layout in a way that makes sense and is practical (since model railroads lack an army of car clerks, station agents, and the like).  There are alternative ways of mimicking car movements on a layout.

 

I would say this in response to the question.  Too often you see the surface of the layout used as a repository for paperwork.  Car cards leaning against the car for example.  Car cards, switch lists, and other methods of car forwarding and car delivery that use paperwork really do deserve places on the layout, including at the major car destinations such as junctions and industries, as well as yards, to put that paperwork and if need be, work on it.  

 

Similarly, track warrant control also involves paperwork. Timetable and trainorder operations involve paperwork.  Again their needs to be places for the paper.

 

There are car card boxes you can get to hold the car cards for pickups and deliveries and these are usually mounted on the fascia.  A groove in a railing is not the only way.    But it still helps to have shelves near the car card boxes to organize the cards to keep them off the layout surface itself. 

 

Similarly, even if clipboards are provided,  shelves are useful for copying down train orders, or shuffling through a stack of train orders on very large and busy layouts, and also writing down and organizing track warrants.  So again: shelves along the layout at logical places to do work.  This is quite apart from the need for shelves to hold drinks, radios if they are involved, wireless throttles if there is no lanyard around the neck, and so on.

 

So to me it really is not an "or" issue.  If operations involve paperwork for moving the trains and picking up or setting out cars, there should be places provided to handle and hold that paperwork: shelves to be sure, and boxes for the car cards.  

 

On the subject of shelves I have seen permanently placed shelves that jut out into the aisle.  I have also seen sliding shelves that pull out like old fashioned breadboards under a kitchen counter.  

Dave Nelson 

[jeffhergert]

Going out on a limb here.  I think he really means "car cards or switch lists."

I actually use both.  I use a condensened waybill.  It goes with the car and contains the movement info.  This info is written down on train lists (wheel report) for train movements and switch lists for yard classification and industry spotting/pick up. 

But then I like the paperwork.  Railroad runs by time table and train order.

Jeff

[Eric White]

If someone gives me a stack of car cards, I use those.

If someone gives me a switch list, I use that.

However, I'm unlikely to make a switch list from my stack of car cards, unless there are two-person crews and I'm acting as the conductor. Then I might make a switch list.

As the layout owner, you're going to have to decide if you want to make car cards for each piece of rolling stock, or print out switch lists for each session. If I had a large layout (I don't, yet) the thought of filling out hundreds of car cards might keep operating sessions comfortably in the far future.

Eric

[davidmurray]

I have less than one hundred cars, probably 75.

I use car cards for ease of set up between sessions, and ease of dealing with bad order cars.

If a car malfunctions and needs repart, the skyhook moves it and its carcard off line to be repaired.  Then it can go back anywhere.

I then use trainorder cards telling the operator whet his train should do.

IMO a computer generated switch list that you do not check for proper placement of every car while go to choas, faster or slower depending on your operators.

If the switchlist says put car CN132456 at GM Oshawa, and you put it at Ford Oakville, then next session someone will be told to pick it up at  GM and move it to  Detroit, and have a hard time finding it.  Perhaps sometime in the future a list will call for picking it up at Ford, and all will be well, but how long,

Car card system the card says take car some place other than here, operator does it.  Layout owner needs to turn cards when they are at there destination between sessions, but much less work.

Dave

 

[Graham Line]

Apples and oranges.

A car card relates to an individual car and stays with the car at all times. A track warrant governs the movement of a particular train.

Information about where a car should go is contained on a waybill which specifies a destination.  Quite often, the waybill is slipped into a pocket on the car card -- making up the "car card and waybill" many people use.

The fascia rails you describe are useful for organizing the cards in trainorder but cards on them are susceptible to being brushed onto the floor.

My club provides blank switchlists for conductors to list set-out and pick-up information and reduce handling the car cards. In practice, the only people I see using them are either active or retired railroaders.

Some people say it it takes too much time and effort to write out a switchlist.  I say it gives you a chance to organize your work, and if people complain about the time, they have probably never watched a switch crew at work, and I would ask why they are in such a rush.

It is nice to have a flat, steady area to copy your track warrants, write switchlists, and so on.  My club provides pull-out shelves in several areas. They slide back into the fascia when not needed.

[barrok]

I use both car cards and switch lists, but I do not use car card boxes on the fascia - I use binder clips to hold the car cards onto the fascia.  Above each clip location I have a samll tag with the name of the industry.  They do not stick out into the aisle like boxes, and they can be moved if the location doesn't suit me.