I have a number of questions regarding specific points about car card operation setup. To make things easy I am going to write one post per question. My layout is very small and what I am modeling is not. The Norfolk Portsmouth Belt Line in 1965 - 1975 served 8 railroads as a bridge line from one to the other and served a large number of very large industries. So my layout is small with small short yards that will have to also double as interchanges.
Question # 2
I have the AAR definitions copied from Tony Koester’s book Realistic Model Railroad Operation but that isn’t all of them, is it?
If there are more where do I find them.
And what about locomotives? For example I have two EMD MP15DC engines. How do I define them using the same fields similar to the car cards.
If I can’t the computer program I am designing is trash. I am a database programmer but don’t know much about real world trains. In my database rolling stock is: Freight, Locomotive, Passenger and Non-revenue.
They are listed in the back of a Official Rairoad Equipment Register. The “old” AAR definitions are pretty generic. There are hundreds of “modern” AAR mechanical codes, but they are completely non-intuitive.
Most railroad use their own codes for car types instead of the AAR types. Modelers tend to use AAR types because they are more commonly known.
Locomotives are unique to each railroad. Some when by class number, some when by clas code, some went by model number, some by other designations.
You could do what the MP/UP does, ALL engines are “car type” ENG and cabooses are car type CAB.
I would put all rolling stock in ONE database and then have a field for type and field for class. So type might be XM and class might be B50D (box, 50 ft, Double door) or type ENG, class MP15DC.
RBL Refrigerated (insulated) Bunkerless Load restraints Used for canned good shipments. WSOR 503xxx.
E engine
Pretty simple. Somebody in the office knows exactly how the cars are equipped, but it doesn’t matter too much to the guys out in the field. We only supply cars for a few things, and those cars are pretty well similar; covered hoppers for grain, RBLs for canned goods, boxcars for corn meal. Just send out the next available cars, or whatever is marked up to go somewhere.
I have yet to find a really good proggie to make car cards, you may be better hand writing everything on paper then using a paint program using card stock to print them cutting them out. Or find your ole typewriter. I’ve tinkered with database and made my own BASIC programmed car forwarding system, the car card system just keeps winning me out for its simplisticalliouseness (hows that for a word)
I use a very simple XL spread sheet that serves both as my equipment inventory as well as to generate car cards. I simply start with a Word mail merge document to create mailing labels, select the fields I want to include on the card, edit the fonts and color as needed, then hit the print button. I use blank 3x5 index cards, and the lable wraps around the ends of the folded pocket to make a complete card.
That picture shows the earlier version where I stapled the card, but since then I’ve started using a 4" wide mailing label which works like a champ.
I would recommend that before you start getting up to your neck in figuring out the paper work, start doing some basic ops on your layout using a simple switch list. Set up a train, let’s say 24 cars long. Assume that the first 8 cars are destined for locations on the layout, the next 8 cars will get added to other trains that are made up in your yard for other destinations, and the last 8 cars will simply stay in the train and move “beyond the layout” at the far end.
This leads to the following questions…
A. What are the industries on the layout, and what kind of cars would they likely need (loads in/empties for loading) This will help you identify what those first 8 cars will be.
B. What are the other destinations for cars that will start out in your yard? You said you’re building a terminal railroad that interchanges with 8 other roads? Well, then any car coming into the yard has potentially 10 different destinations… The 8 interchanges, an industrial spot on the layout, or a through movement to another terminal.
C. What kind of traffic would be moving through the layout? Is your railroad a bridge line? (one that provides a connect
Thanks to my choice of prototype, the AAR car designation symbols are totally meaningless to me. OTOH, ordinary Japanese practice prefixes the car number with katakana symbols (vowels or dipthongs) that identify the car type and capacity (freight) or weight (passenger.) For the convenience of guest operators who can’t sight-read katakana, I have the English translations printed on the car cards.
For example:
WaRa12345 (don’t laugh. I have a photo of the prototype) is a box car, 18 ton capacity.
KiRo8214 is a high-speed DMU coach with first-class seating.
SeMuFu101 is a coal hopper brake van, 15 ton capacity, with a brakeman’s compartment.
Locomotives are identified by class, and numbered in order within that class:
C58225 is a C58 class 2-6-2.
ED1618 is an ED16 class 1-Bo+Bo-1 catenary motor.
DD13237 is a DD13 class B-B diesel-hydraulic.
The second letter (or only letter, for coal burners) specifies the number of drive axles, but doesn’t differentiate between a light branchline 2-6-0 (C56 class) and a large, high speed Hudson (C62 class.)
My car card deck is color-coded:
White card - closed freight car.
Pink card - open-top freight car (can accept a live load.)
Yellow card - coal hopper (can accept a live load, but only coal.)
Blue card - company service (locomotives, passenger equipment and non-revenue cars.)
