What about us contemporary modelers

Nothing against the author nor his chosen era - his article a well researched, informative and written piece. What I am pondering is those of us that model the 1980's through current period. I believe in this computerized era packets of waybills went the way of the local station agent and legions of yard clerks at each terminal.

As a modeler looking to replicate operations on the C&NW and UP during the 1990's in NE Illinois and SE Wisconsin I'd like to use proto-realistic paperwork during operations. Outside of Track Warrants for movement authority, any experts that can point me towards examples of prototype paperwork on the car handling end?

I have a feeling it is pretty much dot-matrix printouts of computer-generated switchlists and work orders, a la Lance Mindheim's CSX examples. I just don't know what the North Western (and later, UPRR) did during a similar era.

Second That

I really like the idea of a Car Card/Way Bill system but I model present-day New England regional service.  I, too, would like to see common examples of a modern "CC/WB" system that I can adopt for my layout.

-John

Excellent Summary!

Tony, thanks for pulling together an excellent summary of the most current thinking in the waybill/car card area.  I have seen no other system be as flexible and as reliable as the car card system for model railroads, regardless of era.  I have been eyeballing your waybill improvements and I am envious of the way your waybills look.  I will be changing mine to be like your very soon.   

In the way of a recommendation, in the past 5 years of using the 3.5" x 2.5" baseball card sleeves, I have only needed to replace one sleeve, and that was due to the spillage of an adult beverage on the sleeve.  I have over 600 cars in service, so there is a large volume of cards and cars in service.  I use 67 lb card stock for the bills, and that has proven very durable.  Considering the amount of handling, and the places where visiting operators have stuck these cards, I think the approach has proven darn near bullet proof since I started using them in 2007.

Bill Neale

Reinventing the wheel...

Bill, I daresay this is why the system has been in use with almost no change since roughly 1957, and even then it's roots go back as far as 1927, seeing as how the author of the 1957 paper references his early predecessor work being the result of 30 years of progress...that's 85 years of experience "tucked" into the car card!

You can't trick me into believing that by filling out paperwork or shuffling it, I'm somehow "modeling, though.  Ha!

Flexbill

There is an MS Access app called Flexbill that can be used to generate prototypical-looking waybills in different configurations depending on your preference.  They have a Yahoo group that isn't very active, but you can at least learn more about the product there http://groups.yahoo.com/group/flexbill/ .  There's also  a lot of other op session paperwork that you can create using Flexbill, so it's pretty useful beyond just the waybills.

Current Day Modeler

I agree with dmitzel.

There is much written about operating using past methodologies. I am trying to model what I see locally in Winnipeg, MB, Canada; BNSF, CP, CN, & CEMR. However, not working for a railway, I am not sure what are current day operating practices and would appreciate any help that I can on this matter. I have to think that there is  a lot less paper work being used but I am not sure.

Thanks for any advice that you can send my way.

Doug Lay

BUT DOES THE GUEST OPERATOR UNDERSTAND

Tony fantastic article, problem I have is your cards are too busy, to much information.  I have been into the operations side of the model rr hobby now for five years and have constructed and operate a large layout.  Most of the operators that come have been exposed to rail ops, problem one.  Second problem they are all in a rush and do not try and figure out the rr before they start moving cars.  I though guidance from some long time car card users simplified the cards and removed all un needed information and have towns color coded and second line or waybill says EAST OR WEST to move car. 

As President of Trainline my name has meaning, yes it was my Uncle. Thanks to all who sent me the information and copy of the magazine about the role he played in the LAST CAB FORWARD. 

Thanks Tony

Tony Thompson's article on creating more realistic waybills got me inspired to deal with my old waybill situation. I was having some issues with the ebb and flow of traffic on my railway and needed to create some new bills an probably remove others to adjust the traffic flow. I was not looking forward to this, but Tony's article got my juices flowing and I decided that If I'm going to mess with the waybills I might as well make mine more realistic as well.

My old waybills worked fine but were simplistic.

The newer ones are much more realistic. Mine are double sided as the empty car bill is on the other side of the loaded freight bill. I also have some empty car bill only cards so that I can send empties anywhere I need them.

My old car cards could be reused as I simply cut off the clear pocket at the bottom of the cards and re-taped a new one on. The new ones were printed 20 up on sheets of laser transparency film and then cut to size. The old simplified info is still on the top of the cards but it is covered when there is a waybill inserted and is easier to read when looking for cars in the yard.

I'm looking forward to our next operating session to see how it all works.

Rick Reimer

FLEXBILL at:RPM Naperville,IL OCT

Good Morning,

I will be giving a clinic on FLEXBILL and how we use it on some of our RRs here in the Chicago Area,  in OCT at the RPM meet in Naperville!   I am a modern day modeler UP BNSF and have a RR that we operate on (see Model RR Planning 2004  anyways  THE FULL SIZE RRs DO NOT USE CAR CARDS  and FlexBill doesn't either!!  It is a VERY well designed (by LEE NICHOLES & STEVE KARAS) waybill that is about as close as you are going to get!  The big thing I like about it is it is driven from the customers, just like the full size RRs  not a number on a waybill (that is in a car card)  Just like full sized RR you waybill the train, then the traincrew delivers the bills with the car then the waybill is DONE just like the full size RR  there is no car cards to flip you write on them whatever and then the are thrown out (TAKEN OFF THE LAYOUT) and then the empty bill is assigned to the car to get it picked up and sent elsewhere!!   It is great fun and now U need a clerk or FREIGHT AGENT.. Really KOOL  It put the fun back in a opp session!!

I am a retired SIGNAL & COM FOREMAN for Canadian Pacific RR (my checks said SOO LINE) and this is going to be the closest we modern day modelers are going to get (the full size RR have went to a IPOD type of set up) Paperless work orders! But there are still station codes and spot codes around and the FLEXBILL SYSTEM uses them both!  As far as AAR codes there are hundreds and all you can do is use what you need and is easy for the people that assign the waybill to the car, to understand!!  I worked at Bensenville's NEW HUMP for many years and there are way too many AAR codes to even begin to have a list  I just used the list to break it down to something usable!  Like A + equipped box car and B = is reg box car BH = high cube  C= covered hopper  CG gravity type CP pressure type  F= flat  FB = bulkhead type  V= autorack  VA = articulated auto rack  Z= roadrailer      Get an old equip reg book (just barrow one) and look and pick out what you need! 

        BILL PISTELLO

AAR codes

The AAR car codes can be found at http://www.opsig.org/pdf/AARFreightCarCodes.pdfcourtesy of our good friends at the Operations SIG.

Railroad codes

Here is a list of AAR railroad codes however a bit older.

http://www.ericsrailroadcarhistory.com/

Code numbers

OOPS. Look like Brian beat me to it.

The numbers are listed at the start of each railroad's listing in The Official Railway Equipment Register.  Look at the ACI code and ignore the initial 0.

Go to http://www.ericsrailroadcarhistory.com/ and click on the line 'Reading ACI labels visually' down toward the bottom.

I Googled for "Automatic Car Identification numbers," which took me to an answer on a Kalmbach board and then to Eric Neubauer's site.

Great stuff

I had my friend at CN help me a little with modern paperwork, but was yet trying to figure out how to do the modern way of switching.  Will look at the program and play with it a bit to figure it out. If there is anything Bill, you can suggest or mention to help learn it please let us know

Where can get?

Where can one get Flex Bill?  The Yahoo group is no longer in existence.  

Lists, cars cards and stuff

Well they did at one time back in the late 1800's and early 1900's.  They were called "memorandum waybills" or "car tickets" and were basically arranged like a CC&WB.

The real railroads also used "car cards" in the 1970's and early 1980's back in the day when computers were punch card driven.  When a train arrived at a terminal, they reported the arrival and the computer spat out a deck of IBM cards, one for each car, i.e. car cards.  As the cars were switched the clerks would 'switch' the car cards into PICL boxes exactly like model railroaders handle CC&WB.  When they wanted a track list they would take the stack of car cards for that track, feed it not the card reader with a few other cards and out would pop a track list.  When they got ready to run a train they would get the train headers and put them with the stacks of car cards for the cars going on the train and run them through the reader and out would pop a train consist.

One also has to realize that there many different prototype "lists".  There are track lists that are just a list of the cars in a track in standing order (with some other fields).  There are 'switch lists' that are used in yards which are lists of the cars in a track in standing order with the next track they are going to indicated.  There are train consists which are list of the cars in a train in standing order (federally required).  There are 'work orders' which list the cars to be set out or picked up at each statin along the route of the train.

Standing order means the cars are listed in the actual physical order that they stand in that track.  If the track is listed east to west then the first car on the list will be the east car in the track and the last car on the list will be the west car in the track.  The 22nd car on the list will be the 22nd car from the east end of the track.  The vast majority of model computer systems cannot maintain standing order and cannot generate a true "consist" (as required by Federal law) and cannot generate a yard switchlist.

However most model software does a pretty good representation of the "work order" which is generally not in standing order, but in station order.

One free software package not mentioned is JMRI Operations, which is used by a lot of model railroaders.

As far as prototypical lists, trust me, you don't want that.  Prototype lists are very heavy on codes, which are understood by real railroaders because we use the codes a zillion times a day and have memorized them.  For modelers it would be confusing as all get out, especially for a visitor.  Also there is NO standard for how modern lists are arranged or coded.  Each railroad and each software package does it a little bit different.  Even car type codes are not necessarily standard.  The UP and BNSF use different car type codes.  Station number codes, train symbols and status codes are all different between different railroads.

The waybill is not dead

Prototype waybills still exist they are just "virtual", a line of data (or actually lines).  they stopped being used as paper documents in the mid 1980's when the government accepted train consist that had the required information to qualify it as "shipping papers" for hazmat shipments.

The waybill really isn't dead, it just lives in a different place.

Waybills

Here’s what I came up with based on a design used by Ted Pamperin:

UP paperwork

For UP paperwork you need to look for UP (or MP) "TCS" paperwork or documentation.  TCS was the MP transportation list program and the UP adopted it after the merger, the CNW and the SP were also folded into TCS and their native systems were, for the most part, turned off. 

Back at the dawn of time (1960's) the government funded a university to develop computer software language specifically for railroads.  Several railroad bought copies of the software, then they each went off in their own direction with it.  So the MP, UP, CR, and SP system all had the same ancestor, but with decades of evolution and enhancements piled on top of it.

Since the software dates from the 1960's, most of the railroads have been rewriting their operating systems over the last decade in modern business languages.  The BNSF rewrote theirs a decade or so ago and the UP has been cutting over their new system over the last 5-10 years.  A "modern", post 2005 or so list may not be the same as a pre-2005 list in format.

Waybill

A waybill is designed so it can be folded in half lengthwise (4 1/4 x 11) and all the information needed to move the car was on the lefthand side.  Whenever you saw a stack of waybills back in the day, especially when being handled by a train crew, they were always folded in half.  The people who used the righthand side of the waybill were the billing clerks.

This is what a real waybill looks like:

But what a conductor is really looking at most of the time is this:

Modern paper

Here are two examples of a UP "Work Order", documents that are used to report cars set out or spotted, or cars picked up or pulled.

Here is a BNSF train list, not a switch list, but a list of the cars in a train, in standing order.

 Enjoy.

....

If you want to waste your life writing down a list of the same ten or fifteen or one hundred cars in different switch list orders, go right on ahead and knock yourself out.

If you stack your car cards and the very top line of your car card is your car number, then all you have to do to make a switch list is fan the car cards up and BOOM, you have an instant switch list.

I will never understand the pencil pushers.

List

Even though I have worked with prototype list systems for decades, I still use CC&WB, especially in yards because I find that the concept and strategy of switching in a yard is easier to capture with CC&WB than it is with a typical model computer list system.  Yes, with a list I am holding a piece of paper and real crews are holding a piece of paper, but what's going through my mind using CC&WB is closer to what real crews are thinking than with a typical model RR computer list.

The closest to prototype you can get (at least up to about 1980 or so) is to combine CC&WB with handwritten lists.  The CC&WB are the equivalent of waybills.  However, as you say (depending on the size of your layout), you can spend a LOT of time writing lists.