If you’re like me and use car cards and waybills to operate your layout, you know what a pain in the caboose it is to come up with prototype shippers and receivers 4 times on one waybill.I’ve used the net, phonebooks etc.
What I propose in this post is this:A place where prototype bills of lading can be exchanged, along with typical cars types and loads in/out.It could be either current or no longer rail served.
For instance, Rice Lake WI. is close to me, and has active rail service.Two of the companies here are:
Shadow Plastics-They make garbage bags ,straws,etc. Cars received are covered hoppers(plastic pellets) and box.(Packaging mat’l) Shipped are box cars of finished product.It’s been around at least 35 years.
American Excelsior-This company manufactures erosion control blankets,cattle bedding and archery targets.They do thier own wood chipping so loads in are flats or bulkhead flats of pulpwood and box cars for pkg. mat’l and rolls of nylon .(used to be rolls of twine according to the woman I talked to) Loads out are box cars finished product.AE is one of the oldest businesses here.
There’s probably an easier and more concise way to post this info.
Great idea! There should also be a section for freelanced industries, such as ones on people’s layouts.
I actually bypass all that trouble by writing WFW and WFE for through trains, it makes it SO much easier for me and the yard operators. (Way Freight East and Way Freight West.) I saw someone using this tecnique in an old MR issue.
If you go to the NMRA’s website, under Special Interet Groups, you will find the Operations SIG has The Operations SIG Industry Database listing roughly 40,000 real industries throughout North America. This was created specifically with waybill creation in mind.
I get the same result by naming my staging yards, then putting the name on the waybill. A few cars have the same instruction on the car card itself, for empty movement back to point of origin. More than a few waybills simply read, “To Minamijima. Turn over on arrival.” The other side of the waybill reads, “To Takami. Turn over on arrival.” Thus an unusual car with no legitimate destination on the modeled part of my little empire can shuttle back and forth from staging to staging without messing up the system.
You can route that car as ‘overhead’ or ‘bridge’ traffic. Your railroad just happens to be in the middle of a route that starts on another railroad and ends with still another railroad. Unless you are modeling a dead end branch, much of the traffic is moving over your railroad.