We use one slot for each industry and one slot for each yard track. Whether the cars on a track are pick-ups, set-outs, or holds depends on the destination of the waybill. Works fine.

It would drive me crazy to be shuttling cards back and forth between two slots for one yard track, but maybe that's just me.

The Bear Creek uses a single car card pocket for each yard track. If there will be multiple cuts on a track, there are some dividers/tabs that can get inserted into that car card pocket but strictly speaking they're not really necessary.

FWIW

Charlie

I've only one slot per industry. The waybill tells what to do, move to another location or the car is at the correct spot. These are mine boxes.

Wolfgang

So... the consensus appears to be that even two slots per yard track may be excessive.  That's fine with me, at least now I don't need to build 15 more slot boxes - which I would have needed if it had been 3-per. 

Now you've got me thinking: Is it really even necessary for me to have 3 slots at my industry tracks?  Example: A local crew arrives and finds a car in the spur, they will do one of two things: either take the car with them, or NOT take it.  Ergo, couldn't the 'setout' slot also function as a 'hold' slot?

Thank you all for your replies!

There seem to be two camps in the group of CC&WB users for dealing with the car cards associated with cars spotted at industries (not including yard tracks) when dealing with 4-cycle car card / waybills

1. For each town or switching area (or sub-area) have 3 boxes - setout / hold / pickup

Advantages:

• It's very simple for a crew working a town to know which cars are ready to pull.
• It's pretty simple to deal with restaging. All the cards in the setouts box go either to the holds or pickups box. Cards in the holds box may go to the pickups box. Waybills are turned when the car card moves to the pickups box.
• Only requires 3 boxes for an entire town

Drawbacks

• If a town has lots of spots it can take some time to locate the car cards for particular cars
• If a town has lots of spots the 'communal' boxes can get pretty full.

2. For each spot (or perhaps track with multiple spots) have a single box to hold the car cards for only those cars on that track.

Advantages

• The 'paperwork' for each car is always in the car card slot for that industry making it easy to find car cards for individual cars.
• Car card slots don't get as full in a busy location
• If industries have different loading/unloading times it's easier for the restaging crew to keep track of which setouts should immediately goto 'pickup' mode.

Drawbacks

• May need more car card slots (if there are more than 3 industry spots/tracks)
• Crews need to look at waybills to see which cars should be pulled (way bill destination is not for present location) and which cars should stay (billed to current location)

I think the decision on which way to go probably is mostly a matter of personal preference. The BC&SJ uses the second method. I have noticed that some crews don't seem very literate, that is they pickup everything in town without actually looking at the waybills to see if the car is actually ready to be picked up.

FWIW

Charlie

I have become more and more enamored with the idea of having one waybill for each industry spot. As the layout owner, I can go between sessions and move the cards to generate traffic rather then rotating waybills. I have based a lot of my ideas on the system outlined in the last issue of LDSIG journal from last fall (has it been that long since we had an issue?!?!). I wish I could remember the guys name.. don't have the issue here..

What I like about the system, besides my being able to generate as much or as little movement as I want by how many cards I choose to move, is that it creates a lot of flexibility.

To hold a car, just shove a "hold" card into a pocket.

To generate orders for empties.. just hand some of the waybills for loads originating on the layout to the yardmaster to fill. If your crew that night isn't up to that.. just stuck all the waybills into empty cars in staging.

I have other ideas too.. but more and more I am seeing succesful sytems being built around the idea of one card per industry spot rather then some kind of multicycle waybill system.

I bring this up because the method I concieved for this system to hold cars could apply to any system really. Just stick a red "HOLD" card into car cards that need to stay put. If you want to generate some mid-session loads just go around and move some hold cards around.

Another thing this guy did was to make the destination easy to read and color coded. This makes it easy not only for yards to sort the cars but for crews to know if the car is coming or going.

I think in the end that a hold pocked is not really needed. Just leave the cars in the industry box that have red hold car on them or have the name of the town you are already in prominently displayed depending on how you go..

Chris

 I have noticed that some crews don't seem very literate, that is they pickup everything in town without actually looking at the waybills to see if the car is actually ready to be picked up.

Charlie, are these kind of people invited to operate on your railroad a second time?

I like the idea of a box for each "industry" because it contributes to the feeling that the railroad is serving customers rather than just moving cars.

Ileturut cros on Bare Crick? hoO you talkin' bout, Otis.  hoo hasta rede when alla blak enjins is ourn and allA  grene un ochanech oranj ornch, dark yellers wuns be there'n?

The scary part of this is I could read every word and understand it.