Great introduction to operations!

Since a few months I'm reading a lot about operations. I live in Europe, and operating trains is not common at all here: we move trains for sure, but that's just due to the fact that they are designed to move. It is really rare to see people using waybills and time tables (or equivalents). In clubs I've been to, people scratch their heads because they don't know which train to move, not because they have to think about how to move them. I'm only aware of a few examples where people use cards to add some uncertainties to the moved (like "car #5 has a broken coupler"). 

This article is a great introduction to operations. It helped me to put in order certain things that were only theory in books for me, and I'll apply them on my layout. I would love to see it expanded with a new article about waybills! [edit: I've continued reading MRH after posting this message and oh! we now have an ops column in MHR! \o/]

I have a few questions about waybills:

• how do you know which waybill can be assigned to a given car? Do you just read the waybill to check what kind of car is needed, or do you have a code system to identify the car type quickly, beyond the AAR designation?
• how waybills are used on a through freight? You give a pack of waybills to the conductor and they are just carry them with the train (which has separated orders), or do you use waybills at some point (like to check if you have all the right cars and matching waybills)?
• what if a car has a bad order? Where is it redirected and how? Does this car gets a new special waybill?
• How do you handle incidents? If a car derails or breaks something, do you use a special waybille to carry it to the car shop?

Thank you for the replies, and thank you for the article, Dave!

Ops

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed and that it was helpful.

When you create your waybills you can put a car type on the form, and you can put a car type on the car card, so it becomes a matter of matching them up.  You will have to decide how detailed you want your car types to be.  If you are using a switch list program it will match car type to shipment exactly.  If you are using CC&WB or a manual system you can be more flexible.  The "risk" of too detailed a car type on a waybill is that often multiple car types can be used for the same shipment.  

There are LOTS of different car type codings.  The AAR has the traditional alpha codes (XM, HM, LO, etc.) then they have the 4 character alpha numeric "modern" codes (X340) and then railroads might have a car class code (X23, HTa, B-70-45, etc) and their own car type code (B4A, L5B, etc.). So you have many to chose from. Most people use the AAR alpha car type codes because they are generally known (so you don't need to provide a secret decoder ring) or use a description rather than a code (40 ft Box, Triple Hopper, etc).  I am more or less using the alpha AAR codes.

I have a certain flexibility based on my era, because I have more freedom to substitute cars, which I do on an ad hoc basis.  Since the operators have very limited opportunities to apply waybills, I do 98% of it, its not a big issue.

Here are two examples of CC&WB showing the car type displayed on them:

Waybills tell the crew where the car is going.  Not all cars on a through freight go to the same place.  A through freight may have "blocks" on it, groups of cars that will be handled together.  A through freight doesn't normally do industry work, but it does pick up and set out blocks of cars.  The major stations on my layout run as follows, south to north.

Wilmington-Elsmere Jct-Montchanin-Coatesville-Elverson-Birdsboro.  

Through freights run between Birdsboro and Wilmington and a Birdsboro and Coatesville.  A through freight between Wilmington and Birdsboro will leave Wilmington with cars for Coatesville and Birdsboro.  It may pick up cars  for Coatesville and Birdsboro at Montchanin.  It will set out Coatesville cars at Coatesville and pick up Birdsboro cars there.  At Elverson they might pick up cars for Birdsboro and it will set out cars the Birdsboro cars at Birdsboro.   In order for the through freight crew to know what to set out and pick up, they have to look at the CC&WB.  The cars in a block don't necessarily go to the place they are set out.  For example the "Birdsboro" cars in reality go to "four" places, Reading, St. Clair, Philadelphia and Birdsboro itself.  All those destinations are lumped together and the through freight handles them all the same.  When the cars are set out at Birdsboro the switch engine there will separate/classify the cars for the next through freight to handle.

I use a color code for the train blocks and have a block name on the "via" line of the waybill.

Here are a couple different ways I use the Via line and color coding.  In the first example, Green color is a "Reading" block that goes to Birdsboro (what I am calling a Birdsboro in the description above), all the green stripe cars set out at Birdsboro.  When the yard at Birdsboro is complete, the switcher there will separate the Reading, St Clair and Phillie cars to go to their respective staging tracks.  Depending on how backed up the yard is, I can combine any of those cars into a mixed block and send them all to Reading to be classified.  That gives me flexibility on how much work the yard job has.

I also use the via line to separate cars for the different industrial jobs.  For example both of these waybills send the cars to Wilmington (yellow stripe, Wilm-xxxx block code).  When they get to Wilmington the switcher will separate them to the appropriate class track and industrial job, the Delaware River Extension (DRE) cars and the Maryland Ave (MD) cars.  That way the industrial job quickly knows which cars to get for which industrial areas.

I don't specifically model bad orders because I haven't allotted the space for rip tracks or repair tracks.  If I did I would just put a special one time marker in the car card pocket to indicate it was a bad order.

I have a choice of several hundred tracks to switch on the branch I model, the rip track was not one I chose to model due to space considerations.

I don't necessarily model that but if you wanted to you could have special, one or two move waybills for "damaged" cars.  There are several options for waybills.  "Home shop for repairs" (empty car sent to home road), "Bad order" (load or empty to on line RIP track or shop) or "Bad order to Freight house or Team track" (to be transloaded to another car, then sent home or to a RIP track or shop).

I wrote a three part article in the Op Sig Dispatch office on incidents.  I spent a career responding to and managing real railroad incidents, plus helped design or maintain three prototype systems to document incidents.  If a model car is defective enough that it derails or it really breaks something significant enough to affect the operation I just remove it and carry it to the work bench because there is no model repair equivalent.  I rarely model incidents because on a single track line, if there is an incident the operation pretty much stops for hours, which isn't a lot of fun.

My basic philosophy with incidents is "NOML", not on my layout.  It is much more fun and there is much more "play value" to have the incident happen on another railroad or off my layout.  Having stuff happen on your railroads generally reduces operation, having something happen on another railroad or off your layout generally increases operation.   If I have a washout on my layout, it shuts down the through freight operation for the rest of the session.  If I have a washout on the PRR or B&O, it gives me opportunities to run ballast extras to the interchange points AND still run all my regular trains.  If the PRR has a bridge was out on the Schuylkill or Media Secondaries, I can detour trains over the P&R and W&N to the junction points where they get back on their railroad.  More traffic, not less.

... more

You asked: "how waybills are used on a through freight? You give a pack of waybills to the conductor and they are just carry them with the train (which has separated orders), or do you use waybills at some point (like to check if you have all the right cars and matching waybills)?"

To add another slant to Dave H's answer: Each train we run has package of cards that includes a cover card listing the lead engine number for the train and the number of cars, plus a card denoting the train (X572East, empties east from Lebanon), then the car cards and waybills, and finally, a card for the caboose assigned to the train. The conductor can check these cards against the train to confirm that the yard gave him the proper cars. We rarely run a freight of more than 30 cars.

The crews have the option of filling out their own switch list which includes the details for cars to be picked up and set out along the route.  This cuts down on the number of times the conductor has to handle the cards. He can take five minutes before the train gets rolling to write down all the setouts; pickups are added at each location.

You asked about "incidents."

We don't have that many, and it's a judgement call as to how they are handled.

We've had a car literally disintegrate when it was assembled with super-glue that decided to quit -- the pieces were picked up by hand, hauled away, and the train continued.  In another case, a coupler pulled out -- the car was set out on a nearby siding and a train going the proper direction was instructed to couple to the good end and haul it to a shop for repairs.  Failed engines usually have to be lifted off the tracks because they can't otherwise be moved.  But we don't have "situation cards." Operations keep us busy enough and there are situations that occur naturally from time to time; maybe once every four or five sessions.

Switch lists

All of the events and steps in my article are pretty much the same whether you use CC&WB, waybills, or switch lists.

About the only thing that would be different is that if you model after 1985 or use CTC, the TT&TO stuff would be obsolete and replaced with track warrants or some other more modern method.

Thank you!

Thank you both for your replies.  It's extremely useful!

The era I'm modelling is the present day: SRY switching on Annacis Island, BC. (I should create a blog about it.)  I use a 4 cycles waybill system (sometimes reduced to 2 or 3 cycles) and it works fine. Since I have a switching layout, I can afford to handle (rare!) incidents, mostly non working couplers. If I a car derails (even far more rare, fortunately), it actually increases operations: I have to bring a rescue team with new locomotive to clear the situation.

Where can I find the 4 character alpha numeric AAR codes?

I've noticed that present day operations are not often publicly documented for modelers. Or maybe I'm completely wrong and I missed an important resource?

4 Character AAR Codes

They will be in an ORER (Official Railway Equipment Register) which may be available on E-Bay.  There are two dozen available there now, the newest ones seem to be from the 1990's.  I have picked up some at train shows.  Newer ORER's may not have the secret decoder ring since its digitized through http://www.railinc.com, the AAR's data subsidiary.  My 1995 copy does, my 2008 copy does not.

This link takes you to a manual decoder for the 4 character codes starting about page 5 thru 40 (yes there are that many options).

https://eaneubauer.ipower.com/type.pdf

What type of "present day operations" are you looking to find out about?  Most of the modern operations are the same as "older" operations, just much of the documentation is done via computer.  Paper waybills aren't used but the waybill "exists" in the computer.  On major railroads paper train sheets for the dispatchers aren't used but the train sheet exists as a computer file.  Cars are switched using the same logic as they did with clerks and paper waybills, just its all done virtually in a computer program.

4 character AAR codes

There are some interesting tidbits just on pages 3-4 in that document Dave linked to.  In the 70's and 80's, C was for "Coke gondola cars" and L was for "Special type cars including covered hopper cars".  In the 90's and 2000's C was for "Covered hopper cars", and L was for "Special type cars".  That document is copyright 2007.  Kind of makes you wonder what might have changed in the 2010's.

I railroad employee I exchanged emails with at length maybe 15 or 20 years ago about a particular small one engine shortline operation said the paperwork they used on the engine was basically a PICL list, and the car type was listed using a single letter, from what I recall of the letter codes he told me I'm guessing that was the first letter of the AAR codes.

Car Codes from OpSig

The OpSig has this document on car codes.  Similar information, different format.  Not as detailed, but the format may be a bit easier to understand as you become familiar with the codes.

gs

MP/UP cr type codes

Just to illustrate the types of coding that railroads use on their documentation, here is the Missouri Pacific, then Union Pacific TCS car kind codes (TCS was the MP/UP's information system up until the 2000's when it was replaced.)

The TCS Car kind was the code displayed on all computer generated lists, switch lists, traces, information systems.  In the records for each car were buried the AAR car kind, bt it wasn't shown on the lists that made it to the yard or train crews.  A B4D was 40 ft box car without a cushioned underframe, an 8 ft door and less than 70 ton capy.  A BFO is a 60 ft boxcar with a cushioned underframe, double doors and 90+ ton capy.

By looking at the list you can see the things that are important to the shippers, thus important to the railroad.  I transcribed this list into Excel to make it easier to use at work back in the 1990's.  It may have changed with the new system and any new car types that could be added.

Great article Dave!

One of the most enjoyable reads for ops! It was very detailed and "very-accessible" at the same time and will sure take it's place on the top spots of my reference material for ops.

While reading it, it felt like i was following an experienced crew along the layout, that was explaining to me what is what and why/how it's done with respect to all the activities involved with the train.

Thanks again for the article Dave.

Yannis

4 Character AAR Codes

Thank you all for sharing these 4 Character AAR Codes with me. This is really nice!