In conjunction with the connection of my yard to my switching layout, I have worked out a very basic operating scheme. As mentioned before, the operations method known as “wheel reports” appealed to me, so I made up a simple matrix based on the industries I will eventually have on my layout and printed out some blank forms. Since my layout takes place within a single town, instead of listing station/town names I listed specific industries. Each industry or yard has a unique number–right now there are only five possible destinations (northbound, WP interchange, fruit-packing plant, SP interchange/team track, southbound.)
I made up about twenty wheel report forms and scribbled out some basic ideas: some “through freight” traffic (cars being shuffled from the yard directly to southbound end), some bridge traffic (cars going to and from interchange tracks), some “harvest time” trains (lots of reefers to the fruit packers and interchanges), some “state fair specials” (stock cars to and from interchanges, representing 4-H club livestock traffic), plus a few things like a three-car MOW train southbound and a fantrip using a passenger car.
Now, it would be simple enough to make use of this routine as-is, but I wanted to add a little more detail, and I happened to stumble across a Western Pacific switch-list form which gave me some ideas. It includes columns for roadname initials, number, loaded/unloaded, car type, “from” track number and “to” track number, plus a box for remarks. First I’ll pull a wheel report at random, then I take it and a blank switch-list form and peruse the yard area. I jot down the numbers of the cars I need, with the number “1” for location (the yard is location #1) and if that car isn’t in the yard, I’ll check nearby spurs for something suitable. Once it is found, its number and location can be recorded on the switch list. Loaded/empty status can be inferred from traffic (a reefer going to the fruit-packing plant is probably full) or just guessed, but it really isn’t cr