Book for Operations

[PED]

I have built several layouts over the years but never got one into full operation due to moves. I now have built a new layout that I will actually be able to operate trains! However, my knowledge of actual operations is very limited. I am looking for a book(s) that give me a decent knowledge of operations that I can apply to my situation. 

Here is some info on my layout. I hated tearing down previous layouts due to moves so I built my newest layout in a older 26 ft RV trailer so I could take it with me in moves. Interior space is 7'6" x 23' which holds a folded dogbone mainline, good size yard in middle and numerous businesses along the way. It is N scale, Digitrax DCC with all Kato track. I "think" I have the space to operate as follows.

On the mainline I plan to have one or two trains running unattended all the time to provide a visual backdrop to my hands-on switching operations.  I want to be able to operate a "local" which is picking/dropping at industries along the way. Some switching can occur without encumbering the mainline but some will hit the main which would require me to stop or divert the mainline trains while local moves to next stop. This is a one man show. To make this happen, I need following:

1) Suggestion on how to make a simple waybill. It would be nice to have some software that could create a fresh set of waybills for each operating session. I expect to be able to stop an operating session at any time thus an operating session may span multiple days 

2) Book(s) on typical proceedures for a local to do switching to make picks/drops of a mix of empty/loaded cars. Few of the industries I have will feed each other so car movement will primarily be between the industries and the main yard (where empties magically get refilled for future deliveries). 

[Lonehawk]

Hi Ped,

I found Track Planning for Realistic Operation by John Armstrong to be very useful. There's also one by Tony Koester called Realistic Model Railroad Operation.  I also found this link helpful:

https://www.ncr-nmra.org/sites/ncr-nmra.org/files/clinics/Realistic%20Operations%20for%20Model%20Railroaders.pdf

As to waybills, I found some examples here:

http://mrr.trains.com/how-to/track-planning-operation/2011/12/waybills-for-your-own-model-train-layout

http://mrr.trains.com/how-to/2015/11/ask-mr-bonu-waybills-and-operating-forms

As to examples of switching ops, these two videos are very informative:

http://mrr.trains.com/how-to/operation/2017/01/how-to-library-operate-the-beer-line--part-4---the-snake-track-job

http://mrr.trains.com/how-to/operation/2016/10/winston-salem-southbound-series-switching-the-winston-salem-southbound

That second was particularly informative for the processes you're asking about.

I'm sure you can find more info by consulting the Oracle of Google, but that should give you a fair start.  As a relative newbie, these resources definitely helped get me pointed in the right direction.  Good luck!

[SouthPenn]

I can't help with the operations, but building your layout in an RV trailer is the best! 

[dknelson]

Two sources I recommend although one is not available off the shelf anymore.  That is why swap meets exist!

Bruce Chubb's softcover book from Kalmbach, How to Operate Your Model Railroad.  That is out of print, and yes some of it is dated as it was pre-DCC, but a lot of them were sold over the decades.

Kalmbach possibly still publishes a 2012 booklet or special issue titled How to Operate Your Model Railroad.  It is reprints of articles published over the years, most of them from the late Andy Sperandeo's excellent The Operators column.  I have photo-copied a few articles by Andy that are not in the book.  When I operate on a layout that uses time table and train orders I have to take the book and copied articles with me because otherwise I don't remember the right "vocabulary" or how to copy orders.  As it is Andy often uses Santa Fe standards which are not always the same vocabulary as BN in the 1980s.  

What is really needed is a volume that reprints all - perhaps culling out a few somewhat duplicative or redundant articles -- of Andy's operators columns.

Dave Nelson

 

[Graham Line]

It would be great to have The Operators columns available in a reprint.

[Lone Wolf and Santa Fe]

PED

1) Suggestion on how to make a simple waybill. It would be nice to have some software that could create a fresh set of waybills for each operating session. I expect to be able to stop an operating session at any time thus an operating session may span multiple days

    I used Microsoft Works database software to create my car cards and my waybills and then the address merge function to print them. I printed seven different days worth of waybills each of them on different color paper so I could have some variety. Some of the days represent changes in demand for cars which are seasonal, or maybe some industries just don’t send or receive cars every single day…. When you run out of waybills in the color of the day then the rest of the cars are considered to be empties and returned to the owners railroads to the staging yard to the east or west of the layout. Cars for the home road go to the yard and wait for another day. Most of the loaded cars take about three or four days to be picked up, sorted out, sent on their way ‘beyond the basement’ and then return as empties or with a load destined for an industry on the layout. Because of this the multiple days worth of car cards work out great. To keep it simple the waybills only use the industry on the layout and either east or west as either the point of origin for shipments being received by a modeled industry, or as the point to where the loaded car is being sent towards.
Sample waybill:

Sample car cards with waybills instered in pockets:
    More details of how I play the operation game can be found on this page here: http://www.trainweb.org/lonewolfsantafe/lwsf08.htm

My database also includes other information about the car which is not printed on the cards such as the date it was purchased, who from and for how much, also information about after market details and couplers. I also have cards for each locomotive.

[gshin]

Hi,

I would suggest checking out the book Compendium of Model Railroad Operations from the Operations Special Interest Group.  You can find their web site here.  The OpSIG has a quarterly high quality magazine on model railroad operations too.

Regards,

Greg

[PED]

Thanks  all. Lots of good info to explore. I have been exploring the features of JMRI and may gig it a try at first. My concern is that it is overkilll for my needs.

[gregc]

dknelson

Bruce Chubb's softcover book from Kalmbach, How to Operate Your Model Railroad.

i 2nd Bruce Chubb's book.   you can still buy it used

 

and Frank Eillison's  the Art of Model Railroading

there's also Tony Koester's Realistic Model Railroad Operation