I'm reviving this decade-old thread to ask for people's experiences with wheel report operation? I'm working on my own layout's operating scheme in preparation for a convention that includes layout tours & operating sessions. While I designed a wheel report system for my layout, based on a 1984 MR article, with accompanying switch list for operators who want to do some paperwork,I haven't used it much. It's a bit more detailed than some wheel reports because the whole layout is in one town serving about 20 industries and interchanges (vs just listing the town), but otherwise very simple: all the crew need to know is how many cars to deliver to each industry, and of what type. A switch list form lets them assemble a train and record its order and destinations, or they can just read it off the wheel report card. If there's a car in any of the sidings served by the train, those are picked up and placed at the end of the train (caboose is optional since everything on the Belt Line is considered to be within yard limits) and brought to the yard at the end of the route. The reports can be used in either direction. Southbound trains starting from Haggin read from top to bottom, and the order of the train is reversed from bottom-up for northbound trains starting at Westgate Yard in West Sacramento.

 

I have about 20 wheel reports made up. There are a couple of special-situation cards, including passenger fan trips (via streetcars and interurbans) and maintenance-of-way trains, but most are typical way freights. The addition of the CCT section (right now just a 3 foot staging track) means I can add some cards strictly for CCT served track and industries (which ran on only part of the belt line, mostly exchanging cars at interchanges.) Trains tend to be short, typically 5-8 cars serving 2-4 industries, matched to the capacity of the layout (about 40 cars each at industries & yards, so generally no more than 30-40 cars on the layout). They can be used solo, but theoretically two operators would have room to run at once (or crews with an engineer & conductor-brakeman each). If I wanted to add a hostler/yardmaster to make up trains in each yard I'd have to get more throttles, but frankly I don't plan a lot of group operating sessions, and that many people in my garage would get crowded. I have a few cup hooks in the layout to hang up a clipboard, but am overdue to install throttle holders; with my old DC throttle I had Velcro patches located along the route so I could stick the handheld throttle on a cable to the fascia to reach into the layout for switching or coupling.

 

While car card & card order operation is the most popular, I wanted a system that was fast, easy, and focused on the action of the train, rather than worrying too much about what's in each car or where it's going next. Are there any other users of this style of operation on this forum with feedback or experience to share? Do any of you write brief rulebooks or tutorials for visitors or new crews, or depend on one-on-one teaching to explan the system?

 

Wheel report form and switch list from my layout

 

Track plan, part of which is not yet built (the West Sacramento portion)--eventually once it's added I'll have to re-do the wheel reports to reflect West Sacramento industries.

 

Latest section of the layout upgraded to DCC and put back into service, Front & X Street. Lots of details & backdrop images to put back into place, but first priority is getting trains running again!

 

 

 

I made up a "wheel report" style operation for a modular club I belonged to many years ago, but I don't use it for my home layout nor have I operated on a layout recently that has used that style of operation.

This wheel report seems to simply be a tally of the number and type of cars.   Perhaps I’m missing something but what value does this add?  The switch list seems to provide the train crew the needed info. 

The wheel report doesn't specify which exact car needs to be switched, just the type and where it goes so its value is that it can be prepared ahead of time and used even if you don't know what cars are going to be on the railroad.

 

For example I prepared one for a modular club.  We knew which modules were going to participate, but not which cars were going to be brought by each member.  That meant that car specific systems would have to be done the day of the session.  With a wheel report, not a problem, you just use whatever is in the yard.

 

It also satisfies those people who think it's "too much paperwork" to write a switch list, or don't want to spend time digging out specific cars out of a yard.  It's at the low end of the spectrum of complexity and there are those people who want that level of simplicity.

"The wheel report doesn't specify which exact car needs to be switched, just the type and where it goes so its value is that it can be prepared ahead of time and used even if you don't know what cars are going to be on the railroad."

 

Can you clarify this? Are you referring to toy train wheel reports or the real thing?  The SP when I was a kid used things they called wheel reports that were lists of all the cars in a train, they were machine printed before the train left and the conductor used them to plan his moves along the way( with hand written  switch lists for the brakemen to use if needed).  Maybe the SP definition and use of wheel reports was unique? ....DaveB

Like a lot of documents on the railroad, different railroads called different documents the same name.  For example, on the railroads where I worked they didn't use the term "wheel report".  The list of a train was a "consist", the switch list for a train switching industries was a "work order" and the crew classifying a track got a "switch list".

 

I have seen train lists referred to as a "wheel report", I have seen a book the conductor maintained of all the cars on the train referred to as a "wheel report" and in model railroading a "wheel report" is commonly a list that shows which switching area or industry gets what car types.

 

My comments assume this discussion is about the model railroad document.

  Thanks for the clarification Dave,    The SP  "wheel reports" I recall might have been local terminology too, old Pat Amaya the local conductor that told me what they were   called was near retirement at the time so likely had worked for the railroad since the 1910-20's . He'd sit in his caboose and use them to write out hand written lists for the crew to use as they switched the local yard and industries. He'd also update where all the cars were after the work was done and apparently clerks somewhere would make up and print out  new "wheel reports" for the next days work.....DaveB

I am most definitely referring to "toy train wheel reports" as described in a Model Railroader back in 1984, although I have also been told that real-world wheel reports are something very different.  My intent is an operating scheme that is simpler than the car card system and easier to maintain without a complex system of cards or a computer tracking system requiring the location of each car on the layout being entered into a database and updated after every operating session. A "toy train" wheel report is just a grid with different car types on the X axis and different towns on the Y axis, with numbers at the X/Y points indicating how many cars of which type go to which destination: 2 boxcars to Able, 1 flatcar to Baker, 2 refrigerator cars to Charlie, and so on. On my own layout, the wheel report system I have devised uses industries rather than towns, because all of the industries are located in the same city, which I've mentioned before, the Sacramento Belt Line. I'm not at all worried about what's in the car or where it's going next, I just want to quickly generate a list of cars to be delivered to industries and interchanges etcetera; what I want is more along the lines of the hand-written switch list for the brakemen to use.

 

In practice, my crews have the option of taking the wheel report (which indicates cars and destinations) and turning it into a hand-written switch list by copying down the cars in the yard that correspond to the cars the wheel report requires, with their destinations. In the example above, the switch list generated by the wheel report I described above might look a bit like this:

 

SN BELT LINE WHEEL REPORT,

LOCO: SN 143

SP BOX 22511 ABLE

GN BOX 1033 ABLE

B&O FLAT 30552 BAKER

WP REFRIG 887 CHARLIE

WP REFRIG 1890 CHARLIE

 

This gives the operator a clear and simple list of what cars get pulled for the switching turn and where they're supposed to go. If there are any cars in the spurs being served, those become pickups, and are taken to the end of the run--in the case of my layout, westbound trains start at Haggin and work to Westgate (currently represented by staging tracks) presumably for the westbound freight to Oakland, eastbound trains start at Westgate and work to Haggin, and any pickups are dropped off there, presumably for the eastbound freight to Chico.

 

What I want, for lack of a better term, what those in the wargaming community call a "beer and pretzels" game--unlike detailed strategic simulations with order of battle detailed down to the squad level, the "beer and pretzels" wargame is for folks who want to put some chits on a hex map and start blowing things up quickly. It's the operating equivalent of a "shake-the-box" model railroad kit; sure, it's not as elaborately detailed as a laser-cut craftsman kit, but you can get it on the layout a lot more quickly. But it also requires some planning and adds some structure--to make another wargaming analogy, just running the trains in a circle or scooting cars back and forth without a plan and going "choo choo" occasionally is the model railroader's equivalent of a miniatures wargamer scooting around Army men on a table and making "pew pew" noises, vs. playing a miniatures wargame with defined rules, turns, and objectives--which, as mentioned above, can be detailed and elaborate, which some wargamers like, or simple and straightforward, which may be less realistic, but quicker to learn.

 

I'm currently writing up a set of operating rules in a booklet to hand to potential operating crews for a model railroad convention's operating sessions and layout tour; the rules for how to manage a switch list fit on two digest-sized pages including a sample wheel report. I still need to "playtest" these rules, but the idea is that someone who has never done operations beyond making trains go round and round at Christmastime can start running trains and spotting cars within 5-10 minutes.

 

That's the idea behind the "wheel report".  The wheel report works with jobs that go directly from a yard out to industry.  They are not as useful to support operations that requires connections between trains or switching cars in multiple locations  on the same shipment.

 

 

And that's why I've chosen "wheel reports" (model railroad vs. real world type) for my operating scheme. I don't have a need for operations that require connections between trains or switching cars in multiple locations on the same shipment; mine is a Beer & Pretzels model railroad! Even actually turning the wheel report into a switch list is optional, and indicated as so on my operating rules; if they want to go even simpler, they can just run the train from yard to yard. If they wish for more complexity, they can write up a switch list.

 

I'm still graphing up my timetable, but the prototype(s)operated 6 trains a day, 2 on a day shift (8 AM-4 PM) and 2 on an evening shift (4 PM-midnight) working from opposite directions, a night shift (midnight-8 AM) that worked both directions, and one train operated by a second railroad (SN shared track with CCT on the Belt Line) that principally served interchanges and a freight house; most of the wheel reports will be for the 5 SN switching turns, with some for the CCT train once I get my 70 tonner fixed up again (I accidentally stripped the screw mounts where the screws from the chassis attach the 70 tonner body to its chassis, so the couplers sit too high for reliable operation, and have to either figure out how to fix the screw mounts or whip up another CCT 70 tonner body.) Once I get a streetcar reliably operating under DCC I can add regular streetcar service to the operating scheme.

 

I've also included some "extra" wheel-report cards for things like Maintenance-of-Way trains and fan trips (using either diesels with heavyweight passenger cars or electric interurban cars.) I'm still definitely hoping to get more feedback from other model railroaders who use wheel reports; it seems like they're fairly scarce!