Really great article and

Really great article and equally great modeling. I have already read it twice and drooled overall of the photos. Mike, you are an awesome inspiration for us all.

Jim Six, Millersburg IN

Great Article, Got Some Pics to Share (again)

Here are some pics I took many years ago (June, 2007). I loved the Guilford colors!

Beautiful layout

  The contrast between this and the G&D in the same issue really shows how far the hobby has progressed .......DaveB

Thanks Jim

Appreciate the feedback jim. It has been a long journey. More good times ahead for sure. What a hobby this is!

Mike Confalone

Allagash Update

Congrats Mike on a great update to the changes of your layout. Your passion and perspective to our wonderful hobby is beyond impressive. I very much enjoy your weathering clinics and techniques on MRH and really like using PanPastels and other mediums for weathering. I not only have followed your work here at MRH but also on the new FB page you launched. Keep up the great work and thank you for all you do to encourage and help those in our hobby. I love the Oxford County Alco S-6.

Wow

Loved it!!

Great article on a neat railroad.  I like the idea of taking what was a strictly proto freelanced railroad and then updating it to a subsidiary of another railroad that was the result of a merger of a bunch of local railroads.  It combines both the freelanced and prototype together in one whole. 

First Ever!

As an operations-shy newbie, this is the first operations article I have read that inspires me to try it! Thanks!

Ops

If you use single move waybills, what do you use to direct an empty car to someplace to load or provide disposition of an empty car released from an industry?

Waybills

Each car has two waybills assigned to it. One loaded and one empty. I have a master file with the bills. When I need to route a loaded paper car from one of the mills off line to a consignee, the loaded bill goes with the car. If the car returns next session as an empty, the bill is swapped (between sessions). Pretty simple system. Not 100% accurate, but close enough for me. 

MC

2 move

So you really have two move waybills, except they are separate pieces of paper, you don't "flip" the waybills, you just replace it with a separate piece of paper.

Two one-way bills

That is correct Dave!

MC

@ Mike

Is there any chance we could talk you into posting a picture of a pair of them?  I'm sure more than a few of us would truly appreciate it.

Thanks

Steve

... and organization

It would also be interesting to see how you organize them and manage matching them up.  Another modeler has a similar system of two separate pieces of paper for the shipments and his system is a bit of a nightmare keeping the paper synced up.

"Get to that level"

One of the best things I did recently was buying one of Mike's over-weighted, gorgeously weathered freight cars from Mike on eBay. It runs regularly on my layout and whenever I go out to work on the layout and it's sitting in a consist, it reminds me, "Get to that level!" (An added bonus is that it's so heavy, when it's running it acts as a keep-alive! I run it as the first car behind the locomotive.)

Enjoyed the article

Really enjoyed the article Mike. You made a good case for how you treat operations on the Allagash. I am with you in that I would rather it be more relaxed and slower paced so you can get more enjoyment out of it. 

I would also love to see you go into more detail on your new operating plan including the design and operation of your realistic looking Waybills.

Although I use paperwork for follow cars around the layout on the SC, I do use waybills in a master file for all of my industry cars. I’d love to use waybills in these master files similar to yours.

Kindest Regards,

Tim Garland

Waybill samples

Here is a sample for anyone interested. The Excel template is a two-bill set up, so you can do two freight cars at a time. Both of these show a paper car loaded at the Allagash mill, headed to Albany, NY, and then the return empty. I'll post a pic of the "master file" later.

Nice article Mike

Very nice article Mike

Mike

Very nice article

I wasn't crazy about the Allagash becoming part of Guilford, but you can't not love the predecessor paint schemes and especially the D&H Alcos.

Variety

How many waybills/shipments do you have for each car?  

I would assume from the waybills that you have a selection of a few waybills for each car and you select a shipment for a certain car for a certain service, then go back to the file to get the matching half of the move when the first part of the shipment is complete.

Since there is no waybill number, I would assume the waybills are filed by car number.

Thanks Mike

Thanks for sharing and in a timely manner

Steve

Guilford

Thanks Ray.

I put the personal feeling aside. From a modeler's perspective, early Guilford ('85 or earlier) is hard to beat. '86 and onward it gets nasty.

MC

Nice article

As always the pictures of the Allagash are impressively realistic.  The one that made me really think this time is the photo of the paper mill at New Portland.  I keep trying to figure out how to fit a believable glass factory in my space, putting most of it on the photo backdrop as you have with that paper mill might just be the way to do it.

On the operation side I’m intrigued with only 5-7 operators and 2 sessions to get a 24 hour cycle for a railroad the size of yours.  I can see where that would get you a much more relaxed and fun operation, probably a lot more realistic too.  I have enjoyed running a yard on layouts with a much denser more action packed operation, but you have to be wire for a challenge (a couple cups of coffee helps too), and you feel mentally wiped afterwards.

Do you operate the layout yourself between the first and second half sessions?

I’m interested in seeing how you keep the waybills organized too, if you’ve got a system that works for a layout that size it will certainly work for the small one I’m planning!

Oh and I like the idea of 1984 and Guilford too.  I have a fondness for the black with orange stripe paint since most of my rail fanning has been during that era, I’m still getting used to the Pan Am schemes.

Allagash ebooks

The Allagash ebooks go through the entire process and have photos of the waybills, the waybill boxes etc etc. 

MC

Mike, great stuff as

Mike, great stuff as usual,  did you demo and rebuild the paper mill that is in your scenery out of the box series? 

never mind just realized different location of paper mill in this article..looking foward to seeing that progress.