Operations Questions

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

As a general rule, what are the hostlers duties, what are they responsible for?

Would part of their job include bringing a coal hopper into position for unloading at the coaling tower? Or would that fall to the yard switchers? Who would handle spotting cars on a yards rip track and/or a nearby mow track?

I think it’s obvious that the yard master assigns motive power to a train, but don’t know for sure.

In my case, I usually have two trains pulling out at about the same time during an ops session, one going east, the other west. One has 8 setouts and pickups, the other 7. All trailing point turnouts. The layout has about 85 feet of mainline, dcc… HO scale. Operating this is pretty simple the way I’m doing it now with car cards/waybills. It takes operators about 45 minutes to do the job. At present all “picked up” cars are returned to the yard. I’m looking for ways to add a little more variety and a wee bit more challenge and need some suggestions.

I have 3 passing sidings, 2 of them long enough to hold an entire train and the other only about a third that long. Industries along the way for the east bound are:

1- Coal Mine

2- Freight station (located on a spur)

3- Machine shop (usually gets box or flat cars of tools, machinery)

4-Brick Distributor

5- Barrell Factory

6-Freight Trucking firm

7-Lumber Yard

8- and one I haven’t decided on yet, still named Mystery Industrial

The west bound goes to:

1- siding for team track unloading (stays approx. 1 minute and moves on, doesn’t drop off car)

2- Southern Aggregate (dealer in stone, some coal etc.)

3- Daniel D Oil distributor

4- Plumbing Supply business

5-Ice house

6-Seed/grain wholesaler

7- A&P Food Dist.

No industry is on the mainline, even the team track is on a passing siding.

If you have suggestions for spicin

2

As I understand it, the hostler does the general between-jobs upkeep on the locomotives. S/he would do things like changing brake pads, oil, fueling, light maintenance-type activities, I’ve seen pictures of a CGW hostler power-washing a locomotive.

I think it’s the trainmaster, not the yardmaster, that assigns locomotives to trains. I may be wrong on that, but I believe it’s the trainsmaster, as s/he would need to calculate how much HP is needed. The yardmaster manages operations of the yard itself - that much I know.

3

A hoslter moves locomotives and services them. Generally hostlers do not handle cars. Some locations have “helpers” or “herders” that work with the hostlers and they may handle a car inside the locomotive shop, but generally do not handle cars in yards. YMMV depending on the local agreement.

Normal answer to all questions is yard engine.

Depending on the and the size of the facility, yardmaster would be the last choice for the job. Normal engine assigments are made by the locomotive foreman at the service track, the local mechanica foreman (no service track), the power chief or locomotive manager (in the dispatch office), the local manager or the yardmaster. Normally the power chief (an asst. chief dispatcher) or locomotive manager in the dispatch office decide how much power and what type of engines will go on the train, the local mechanical/service track manager will pick the specific engines. At locations without mechanical forces (no service track, RIP track or shop), the yardmaster and power chief/locomotive manager will decide on the power, typically with the chief or manager setting the requirements and the yardmaster picking the individual units.

Most obvious answer is at stations with a runaround track, assign work by station regadless of which way the spur goes. So if you have 3 stations then one train gets 2 and the other one and they split the industries no

4

Thank you for those answers, it looks like I need to rethink my hostler’s duties a bit.

Anyone else care to chime in?

Jarrell

5

It depends on the location or RR’s contract with the union. For example, in some places the Hostler sets the fueled and serviced loco(s) on the ready track, and the road crew takes it to the departure track where the train is already made up, on other lines/locations the Hostler delivers the consist to the departure track and makes the connections when the blue flags come down. Then the road crew gets on and relieves the Hoslers. You set up a procedure on your railroad, and follow it. jc5729 John Colley, Port Townsend, WA

6

Thanks John for the information. You mention ‘ready track’, where is this usually located? Is that the track(s) running from the engine servicing area to the yard, or a separate track entirely, set aside to hold engines?

Jarrell

7

Jarrell,

As other have mentioned, a hostler services and assembles the road power. Train makeup usually is the Yardmasters job. He works with a job plan for each train. A hot freight may have a limit on number of cars/tonnage and specific blocking instructions.

The Dispatcher will ask for certain types of engines/horsepower to move the train. He is the one who is responsible if the train has a delay because he did not request enough road power.

A yard job would do work like company stores/fuel track/coal dock within yard limits. On my layout, I have a yard job that works the local industries(a large Swift packing plant among them) and the freight house/engine terminal. He really does not have a lot of yard classification to do and this fuills out his time. The yard is not a large classification or crew change terminal. It supports several way freights and road trains setout/pickup out of this small terminal.

Jim

8

Jarrell, glad to hear you’re into operation. Operation transforms a layout into a railroad. Your hostler question was pretty well covered, I agree with Jim. You asked for suggestions. Given that a siding is a double ended track and a spur is a single ended track, railroads usually have industries on spurs, seldom on sidings. You stated all you industies are on trailing point tracks. I always try to throw in a facing point track to switch, a common practice on the prototype. Also in practice cars are moved toward the destination, even if another car is already at that location. Crews have places to stash cars customers aren’t ready for.

So here’s a thought, divide you industies between two locals as you have. Make one the Frist Through train, the other the Frist Local job works its industries. By timetable rules the local has to ask the dispacther for working time if it will foul the mainline. Meanwhile the Frist Through train will be moving via warrants threading its way along the mainline. Your short siding can be used as a place to store cars. When the First Local finishes its work it becomes the Second Through train back to the yard while the First Through train becomes the Second Local, etc.

If you can get an employees timetables from your favorite RR in your time period, look toward the back and you’ll find great information concerning operation.

Hope this help, good luck, Rob

9

Ok Jim, thanks for the info. I’m kinda sorta set up that way but will have to change a couple of assignments to be correct. Guess I could say the union on my rr wants it a certain way.

Jarrell

10

Rob, I think operations are great… otherwise it’s just a roundy round and that gets me bored pretty quick. I suppose if you’re essentially a model builder… i.e. just loves building structures etc. you might not get into operations too much. Then again, maybe you would.

What I’m doing is trying to come up with ways to keep 2 engineers and their switchmen busy for about an hour, using the 2 trains servicing about 15 industries. I’m throwing in the hostler duties and also yard switching. That’ll keep another two fellas busy for a little while at least.

Oh, I do have a ‘tourist train’ on my railroad, usually a steam engine pulling 4 or five passenger cars. That’s a job for another person if they want something to do.

See, I’m in a modular railroad club that doesn’t have a home and we meet at members houses. Only two members, myself and another fella, have home layouts. Mine is in no way complete or near complete, but the track is all down, wired, many 'industries spotted etc., so we ‘usually’ do operations when the weekly meeting is at my place. There’s about 11 to 15 attendees so there’s no way I can keep all those people busy with my mid sized layout, but I’d like to make it interesting for those that do run trains. The others usually grab a drink and catch up on the latest OR lie to each other about how great a modeler they are… :slight_smile: Personally I don’t run a train when they’re here, those guys don’t have layouts and don’t get to run a train very much whereas I can do it any time I want. In fact, I like to watch them anyway and rib them about going over prototypical speed or coupling to hard.

Anyway, I’ve gotten some ideas from this thread and I appreciate everybody who responded!

Jarrell

[quote user=“g. gage”]

Jarrell, glad to hear you’re into operation. Operation transforms a layout

11

Very helpful info,

[:)][tup] especially regarding hostling and power assignments at locomotive service terminals.

12

Very intersting Jarrell, I also belonged to a modular club. We used to get paid to setup in malls. That was pre-Keosk days. I built a 6’ lumber mill module with a trackplan based on the John Allen timesaver; with scenery. My interchange track tied into the clubs inside mainline. I tried to get operating sessions going but there wasn’t much interest, like you say. I built two more 6’ modules based on Publishers Paper Mill, Oregon City, OR, near where I grew up. That way I could operate my own point-to-point shortline. I’m now working in G 1:29, I can see the cars, check the photo in “Favorite Scene” thread.

Thanks and have fun, Rob

13

Jarrell, The “ready track” is actually a holdover from the steam era and was a siding or two where engines were set after fueling and servicing was complete, to clear those work areas for more engines. They were usually kept powered up as they were often the next out on road jobs, but the wait might be an hour or four to six hours, depending on traffic levels demands. John