layout with operations

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

so now that you all have helped me adjust the layout, i thought maybe you can help with operations… below is my basic operation session plan and the layout design is at the bottom… thanks!!!

trains:

csx transfer: drop ~16 hoppers from wva staging at newell… drop ~16 empties from newell at wva staging
ple transfer: drop ~16 hoppers from newell at pittsburgh staging… drop ~16 empties from wva staging at newell

requires: 32 csx hoppers, 1 csx gp38-2s, 1 ple gp38-2

ple local coal: take ~8 empties from steel mill, load, and return (always have 8 full at mill) RUNS 2x

requires: 16 ple hoppers, 1 ple gp38-2

ple finished goods train: take ~5 gondolas with coils from mill (5 gons always at mill) and ~3 empty scrap gons from mill (3

gons always at mill), pick up ~4 tank cars from welland chemical (4 tank cars always at welland), drop 3 empty scraps at assad

scrap, drop coils and tanks at wva staging… return with 5 empty coil gondolas and 4 tank cars, pick up 3 full scrap gondolas

RUNS 2x

requires: 15 coil gondolas (csx, ple conrail), 9 scrap gondolas (csx, ple, conrail), 12 tank cars (welx, gatx, utlx), 1 ple

gp38-2

ple mill switching duty: constant sorting of loads/empties of coal, ore, scrap, finished steel

requires: 8 ore cars, 1 ple sw1500

ple newell yard switching duty: keep csx transfer moving, set up ple finished goods train including getting tank cars from

welland chemical

requires: 1 ple sw1500

schedule:

ple mill switch duty: build ple finished goods train
ple finished goods train: leave newell and head to mill
ple newell yard train: build tank consist for finished goods train

ple mill switch duty: build ple local coal
ple local coal: leave newell and head to mill
csx transfer: head to newell
ple transf

2

You can to sit down and build a list of who you are shipping to, recieving from and what is in the lading.

Operations mean to send a specific car from point A to point B and return. If I was a Appliance Maker in Ohio and wanted your steel coil shipped in to say… Warshed Up Corp. in Sudstown, OH via the PRR or whatever railroad is best suited to your interchange.

You would take my order for … 1 load. Find a suitable empty car to haul the coil in, switch it for loading on your railroad then switch it off layout via Interchange. I would recieve it and unload it and it will return empty. That is called captive service. You would use two cycle waybills for that car.

If you happened to be out of suitable cars then you might whistle up SleepyTime Trucking and have them load the flatbed and send it to me. (JUST teasing) We gotta do this the hard way with rail cars, not trucks.

3

I used to operate my layout in a similar fashion…but it got boring…same thing every time.

Then, I started making up car cards and waybills…now I never have two sessions that are the same. I can control the waybills if needed, but usually let the traffic play out. Some sessions there is heavy traffic for a particular industry, while others have no traffic, but hey that is how it works in the real world.

PS nice looking track plan.

Mike in Tulsa

4

yeah. i figured id start with a rough idea of what kind of trains to run and how many cars i might need at the minimum… then move over to a car card/waybill system to advance things along…

i have to look into how i want to set up my car card system :slight_smile: do you use the two box system at each industry method?