Here are some pics of one of my latest projects.  I am kitbashing Walthers Cornerstone Vulcan Manufacturing kits into buildings for Harlan and Hollingsworth, a shipyard and railcar builder.  I bought one kit an later found another assembled kit at a train show.  I have "disassembled" the assembled building and combined it with kit parts and scratchbuilt roof sections to make the new building.

Mike Rose posted a switchlist generator over on the Operations Forum and I modified it for the W&N to explore additional capabilities.

Here's a link to my version.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Av-G9-8pxpQ5dEJQTWZKRjJ4OUU0NTZzVjV1dUhXb3c

I will continue to use car cards but this is an alternative.

Here's what's on my workbench this weekend:

A : A 36 ft flatcar kitbashed from an MDC cast metal underframe with a scratchbuilt superstructure and mostly Tichy details.

Building the Employee Timetable

Once all the planning has been done and the meets and conflicts resolved, it's time to build the employee timetable (ETT) page  that  the crews will use.  I have a separate worksheet for the ETT to make sure I don’t “damage” the formulas on the planning worksheet. 

Developing the String Lines

On my layout there are 3 stations on line with major industrial switching, Birdsboro, Coatesville and Montchanin.  Under the previous timetable, the locals worked Birdsboro and Montchanin.  Coatesville is brand new.  Eventually it will have its own switch engine, but I don't have enough cars to support full operation.  So I need to figure out how to work Coatesville. 

My current timetable I use on the W&N is set for a 3 hour session with a 4:1 fast clock using 12 hours of the timetable.  I only have 12 hours worth of trains and operate the same schedule every session.  The current session has 4 first class passenger trains, 6 2nd class through freight trains and 2 3rd class locals.  Currently no extras are operated.  It is designed to keep two road crews busy.  In addition there are two  yard engines