Not sure the best catgeory for this. So I posted in general.
My question is to the “one man”, or “lone wolves” out there, and smaller sized layouts, which appears to be many of the people here. I am curious about the styles you use to operate and any differences from large layouts and/or group sessions.
Do you use car cards, waybills, timetables, JMRI or other computer generated system? Do you more often operate a single train from start to end of the run, or start up multiple trains and have meets? Do you run every generated train in sequence or just run whatever you feel like at the time?
I would think there is no “right” or “wrong”, only opinions. I am just looking for various styles to consider. After trying car cards for a very short time I found it time consuming to setup, clunky and unrealistic, amd somewhat restrictive to variety. Since then I have been using JMRI operations and have tweaked it all kinds of ways to get traffic and specific cars to flow just like I want and how would expect the real world to work. And most importantly the unpredictablity and suprise of what car and cargo is arriving from staging. I am very happy with it and it works for me, but am I missing out on anything by not doing it another way?
That said, I used JMRI from mostly the beginning stages of the layout when I had only a handful of cars in existence and I suspect that has made it very easy to keep up with the growth to now, about 75 cars in service and dozens of industries. And for large and existing layouts it might be extremely time consuming or difficult to change to, so I am not advocating one system is better than another.
But as I am a one man layout, and “relatively” new to serious operations, I would like to hear others choices and pros and cons of them. Especially JMRI Ops users.
When I operate my 4x8 layout by my self, I usually just spot cars in the logical places(example, Box car to the paper mill, ect.) as the switchlist gets boring after a while. but when I have people over to operate, we follow a prepared paper switchlist.
Well mostly I just run the train in whatever way appeals to me at the moment. Sometimes I just watch it run around the circle. Other times I switch cars in and out from the sidings. But that’s for my test layout. If I ever get the “big one” built, I’ll look into doing it differently.
I have given up on being a “serious” model railroader and have gone back to üplaying with my train set (I hesitate to call it a layout) but , boy, am I having fun doing that!
I was going to write an article on exactly this subject, but interest was low.
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Here is (basic simplified) track plan for the STRATTON & GILLETTE railroad. I am not good enough at drawing track plans to make it accurate, but it gets the ideas across pretty well:
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This is the map of the area that layout represents. It is not any specific area anywhere, just a North/South mainline on part of a class 1 railroad that goes into Willoughby. From there there is a local line to Port Mary, which then also goes to Great Divide. There is a West line out of Willoughby to West Manchester:
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All of these towns are represented on the layout.
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The top half of the layout is Willoughby. Trains come into and leave Willoughby from staging via tunnels on either end of the layout. The outer loop connects to nothing and is just display for running passenger trains. The inner loop goes to most of the staging tracks and the yard and engine terminal in Willoughby.
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From Willoghby a “local” can go to Port Mary. In Port Mary a train can be assembled to either go back to Willoughby, or make the local run to Great Divide.
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The local run to great divide will return from staging as a different train. When a train enters staging to West Manchester it will reemberge as the train that went to Great Divide from Port Mary.
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There are no industries in Willoughby to switch. Willoughby is only there to make up trains and sort freight cars. It also changes out locomotives. There will be 8-12 industries on the layout in Port Mary for car destinations.
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The car float in Port Mary, and all of West Manchester and Great Divide are “Universal Industries” that can take any type of freight car. This allows me complete freedom when assembling freight trains on t
I use a car card and waybill system. Trains run in a sequence which was created based on the supply and demand of the waybills. I run one train at a time. The other trains are stopped on sidings or in the staging yard. All of the trains have meets somewhere along the line.
I don’t feel like car cards and way bills are time consuming. I think it’s part of the game. Draw the cards (waybills) and do what they say. I think it is believable because the trains are all based on the demand created by the waybills. I use a seven day waybill system in which every day is different. The waybills are color coded so I know which waybills are for which days. Only the waybills for the first day can be used on the first day. When the waybills run out then the other cars run as empties and are returned to their home road or to the yard to be used another day. Having different days means I don’t re-live the same day over and over. Some industries are seasonal and have more waybills for the certain days and might not have any on other days. And other industries I try to make a little variance from day to day. Occasionally I run a special train just because I feel like it. The special trains are from the “historic society” and feature old fashion steam locomotives and antique cars.
Other trains I run when I feel like it are maintenance of way trains which might include snowplows or ballast hoppers. These special trains add variety to my operations. When it snows in real life I run snowplows.
Here’s a day on the SSRy. The crew fires up #60 a RS-1 and heads for the N&W interchange and picks up the inbound cars and returns to Slate Creek Industrial Park and does the required work the crew takes the outbound cars to the N&W Interchange and returns to SCIP and parks 61 near the office and secures the engine for the night…
After lunch the crew heads over to Lakeside Industrial Park in the company’s pickup truck and fires up the S-4( #50) and heads for the CR interchange and returns with the inbound cars and after doing the required work they take the outbound cars to CR.
Upon their returned to LSIP they park #50 by the security office,they shut down and secured #50 for the night and heads back to SCIP where they clock out and go home…
I use switchlists and usually run one train anywhere from 5 to 7 cars plus caboose and locomotive. On occasion I have been known to run two and have meets but then operating my layout becomes a little more complicated.
I don’t do anything at the moment, as my new layout room is to be built soon.
On my old layout (which presently is disassembled and sits in storage), my simple track plan of a switching layout featured the two towns of West Sandusky and Troubridge. There was a small staging yard where a train was made up (class 1 railroad). The class 1 RR train would back from west of Troubridge east to W. Sadusky and pick up set-outs that the local switcher at West Sandusky would have left the previous day. the class 1 train swaps that cut of cars for the cut of cars delivered. There was a siding for these cars to be spotted and/or set out there. The local switcher at W. Sandusky sorts and delivers and pulls cars at the industries there.
In the mean time, the local locomotive at Troubridge sets out cars from staging onto the interchange track at Troubridge for the W. Sandusky local switcher to sort and deliver cars to the local industries at Troubridge. This small 1.5’ x 20’ had the capacity for between 25 and 30 cars, which could be taken off the layout and traded out for another set of cars. So, as you can see, there was really no need for any kind of paperwork, just randomly pick and choose the appropriate cars in a consist of anywhere from 4 to 10 cars on the class 1 train bound for W. Sandusky. This was a push-pull operation, so cabooses were mandatory. Even the local W. Sandusky switch job required a caboose when it left to go to Troubridge. The old railroad was simple yet fun. Operating “sessioons” would take between 1 and 1 1/2 hour.
At this point, I have no idea what kind of track plan I will build. I just know that it will be a small layout but bigger than the old railroad. I have been looking at different track plans but havent decided on anything yet. I’m looking forward to having continuous running, I know that much.
I thought it up after a real earthquake knocked some cars off of the track and knocked over some figures (people).
Two other events are mud slides and wildfires which are both common. A wildfire in the summer or fall means there will be mudslides when it rains in the winter.
No, I’d rather spend the time making my models - and don’t have enough prototypical knowledge to really operate any of those methods.
Mostly just one train at a time, although I’m DCC enabled. Take for instance my two passenger trains, One is a RDC, the other a three lightweight cars with a GP 15 or 35 loco. I’ll run one from one of my 3 stations to the next east, and the other similarly west. But this is not similtaneous, as I’d rather have fun than fret! Frieghts enter the layout from a fiddle yard and drop cars or pick up cars from a small yard imediately off that yard. That train then acts as a road switcher servicing the 3 industries on the layout (counting a loco service track as an industry.) Direction is changed for switching the industries, if necessary, on a reverse loop.
As I feel like it.
There is also a separate Nn3 section which is DC. This I can only run when not runing on the main N Scale layout. This narrow gauge runs along the longer inside edge of my L shaped “two doors and a bit” plan. BTW, Tinplate Toddler “hesitates to call his a layout” - don’t be fooled he is way too modest and although small, it is exquisite!
Not a big fan of that. I worked in jobs that dealt with reponses to real railroad problems and quite frankly 95% of the time the result was that stuff stopped. If you like watching your trains sit there, good plan. I wrote a three part article in the OpSig “Dispatch office” magazine about things that go wrong (“Thing that go bump in the night”).
My suggestion is “NOML”, “not on my layout”. If you want to model a washout, don’t model it on YOUR railroad, model it on ANOTHER railroad. If I have a washout on my layout, stuff stops. If the PRR has a washout on one of their lines then I can model a detour train where they operate over my layout to get from one interchange around the problem to a different interchange to get on the line. Plus I can model extra trains of ballast from the quarries to the interchange.
If I have a derailment on my layout, I have to stop all my regular trains and run a wrecker. If I have a derailment on an adjoining line of my railroad, I still get to run the wrecker PLUS I run all my regular trains.
Much better to have the problem on another line off your layout, you still can run all your regular stuff plus get additional opportunities.
I am definitely not a “lone wolf” as I’m a member of a large club (65+ members), but I am the Operations Chairman. We currently use 3x5 car cards in 3x4 clear plastic bags (available at Michael’s) for pockets. The waybills are 2.5x2.5, more or less.
The reason why we use car cards is due to the flexibility, which is vitally needed for a club layout. On a home layout, your car roster is pretty regular. From ops to ops, you pretty much know what car is going to be on the layout. At our club layout, I never know which cars will be available because the members add and remove cars constantly. Car cards allow me that flexibility. To add or remove a car from the operation, just add or remove the car card. I can even replace a car with ease just be switching the waybill from one card to another.
If I use JMRI (which I tried), it means that I have to keep track of every single car that’s on the layout (and at last count, that exceeded 600 cars). Every time someone takes a car off the layout or puts one on, I have to update the program. No, thanks.
BTW, unpredictability and surprise are not realisitic. Real railroading is rather monotonous. It’s the same thing, day after day. A local switching crew can pretty much determine which car goes where just by looking at them. For example, I have a local crew that does an area about 1 mile from my house. Every time they come down, the spine cars go to the lumber yard, the tank cars go to the foam fabrication factory, and all the boxcars go to the multi-tenant warehouse. Every day, day after day. The only thing that varies is the amount of cars.
I will tell you that one of my neighbors had a lone wolf operation that was quite interesting. He had a layout with one freight yard and a mainline loop (no local wayfreights) that circled his basement. What he did was create a number of switch lists (like a doze
Paul,You would be surprise what can happen during your run.The train ahead goes into emergency and your train stops and waits. The DS parks you in a siding and keeps you there until three opposing trains pass you.
You make good time over the road only to be held outside the yard awaiting a arrival track to open.
You may even wait on the boys in MOW to clear or finish their work.
Brakie,
The unpredictability was in reference to the kinds of cars and loads that would show up. In actual use, railroading is a fountain of unpredictability for all the reasons you’ve stated and many more.
But when you were holding down a local job and you showed up for work in the morning, the cars and loads you switch are pretty much the same kinds of cars and loads you switch every day. I mean, the beer factory you switched out yesterday isn’t going to be shipping out turpentine today and carbon black tomorrow. Sure, the number of cars can change, from zero to a bunch, but the XYZ Factory that makes Brand X isn’t going to be doing anything but Brand X as long as it is in business.
Over a course of years the job changes quite a bit as companies come and go, but on a day-to-day schedule the switching is pretty constant.
I use a seven day waybill system in which every day is different. The waybills are color coded so I know which waybills are for which days. Only the waybills for the first day can be used on the first day. When the waybills run out then the other cars run as empties and are returned to their home road or to the yard to be used another day. Having different days means I don’t re-live the same day over and over. Some industries are seasonal and have more waybills for the certain days and might not have any on other days. And other industries I try to make a little variance from day to day.
Occasionally I run a special train just because I feel like it. The special trains are from the “historic society” and feature old fashion steam locomotives and antique cars.
When it snows in real life I run snowplows.