I don't particularly like

Wow that is a lot of wrong think,  you do not understand how car cards work.  2nd you will find out that lots of cars just go back and forth from supply to destination and back again in real life.

It’s never been a problem

Third way

There are ops programs of various types that will choose from the available cars to route to someplace that needs a particular type of car.

But you can do exactly the same thing with car cards and waybills.  You simply pull the waybill out of the car card when the car is empty.  There have been some excellent write ups on the process in detail, if I remember right also an MRH article?  Don’t have time to dig up links now, maybe later or maybe someone else can.

Even if you just leave the waybill in the car card and keep cycling it, as long as you don’t make the mistake of trying to keep all the waybills in all the cars on matching cycle numbers that I saw someone post about, the natural variation will almost certainly make any repetition unnoticeable anyway.

Thanks much for the feedback!

Thanks guys - really appreciate the feedback so far. I totally admitted at the outset that I may be missing something, and that could also include a lot of "wrong think" - not denying that at all so very much appreciate your patience.

Like I said, I don't want to get into a debate - CC/WB vs. Switchlists is as controversial as some other popular debates in the hobby - I was just wondering whether there was something out there that I missed that would do what I described.

If not, then CC/WB is likely the second next best thing - I would just use them to write up switchlists for the crews (alas, manually) since, again, on my prototype (c.1948) the crews used switchlists to sort & figure out their work and only handled the waybills when it came time to leave the car (either at the consignee or at an interchange point).

The next best thing would be to get rid of the car card and just fill in car information on the waybill myself, based on what cars are available at the time and/or near the place. That why the "one-time-only" aspect of these waybills would be helpful.

Again, no intention here to insult/denigrate/blaspheme anybody's particular way of doing things. Just trying to figure out if there's another way I'm missing.  And I did freely admit it might end up being just a recreating of the wheel

Thanks again for the feedback so far and for the additional food for thought.

Mulling continues . . .

Chris

What Chris is referring to,

What Chris is referring to, is having the same car show up at the same customer once the cards have gone through the cycle. If a New Haven Boxcar was spotted at an industry, either loaded or empty, once that car was picked up, there is a good chance that same car would not find it's way back to that same customer for quite sometime, months, maybe a year. During his time period late 40's early 50's, most cars other than coal hoppers, were not held in captive service. Agents were responsible for finding empty cars for a customer. Coal cars, once they left the mines, were either going to ports, steel mills, power plants, or small coal yards. Once empty, they were heading back to the mines.  

James Barnes, Jr.

why add waybills?

If using switch lists why add a physical waybill, just make the switch lists specify that train A leaves  car #1234 at x track .and train B's switch list would show that car #1234  needs to be picked up at X track .....DaveB.

I've often heard there are

Nope, there are many other ways to operate model railroad,tag on cars, switching by car type are two that come to mind quickly.

That's only if you set it up that way.  If you don't set it up that way it can be as "random" as any other system.  To be quite frank, the car movements on a model railroad aren't even close to "random".  If you have 3 cement hoppers and 1 industry that receives cement, then there is a 100% chance that the place those cars will be spotted are at that cement plant.  But then that's prototypical.  Cars move with a purpose and, yes, the same cars can serve the same industries on multiple trips.  I model the RDG so in a former life I would occasionally run a trace on all the RDG cars on the Southern District of the UP (a small number) and there was one RDG boxcar that carried parts from the Dana Corp in Reading, PA to an auto assembly plant warehouse on a regular basis, same car, same number, multiple trips between the same origin and same destination.  Unit train cars do that over and over and over.

On my layout I have an area with a textile mill and flour mill.  Either could get boxcars from anywhere, but I intentionally drive cars from southern, southeastern roads to the textile mill and cars from the midwest to the flour mill.  Why?  Because they grow cotton in the south  and they grow grain in the midwest.  The cars become part of the "scenery" and the story.

The absolute most prototypical for any era from WW1 to the 1980's is some form of CC&WB with handwritten lists.  That duplicates what the prototype almost exactly.

There is also a debate about "switchlists".  I don't use the model ones because I have used the prototype ones and I know the difference.  Personally, I think the way a crew approaches and thinks about the work they have to do is more prototypical with CC&WB than a computer generated list, particularly in yard operations.  For me its a trade off.  I would prefer that the crew think about what they are doing more prototypically and the having piece of paper match the prototype is not as important.  My preference.

That's means you haven't actually "automated" the switch list, you are just using a computer to print out lists.  Post 1980's, physical waybills more or less disappeared.  The waybill still existed (and does today), its just a virtual document in a computer data file.  That's what "remembers" where the car goes.  If a system is truly automated it has the equivalent of a waybill file.  JMRI has that ability which is why a car can appear on successive switch lists or "manifests".

Check out JMRI.  If the computer tracks the cars there is NO need to have physical waybills.  The real railroad didn't use them once they computerized their information systems.

A lot of it is era dependent (you haven't said what era you're trying to match).  JMRI is free, very popular and a generates a nice switch list.

Remember the waybill cycles

after the 4th or 3rd turn depending on the purpose of the way bill,  remove the way bill from the car card and use the Return when Empty on the waybill to get it back to the proper/owner/railroad/staging yard drawer or were ever empty cars go on your layout.  

Take that free waybill and stick it into the next available car/car card that matches the waybill.  Now that new car card and waybill combo will run that waybill program.   When it completes turn 4 or 3 or 2 depending on what the purpose and program/route for that way bill is pull that way bill and assign it to the next available car that matches that waybill.  Let the Empty Car return to home using the Return When Empty on the Car Card.

Why add waybills?

That's a great question DaveB - I'll try to give at least a decent answer

The short answer is because I don't think prototype crews make switch lists that correspond to each other that way (unless, perhaps, there's a hot car that *must* be transferred from one train to the other that day, and both crews know this ahead of time). Normally, they would just get a list of cars in their train at the start of their workday, and they pick up lists of cars that need to be picked up at each town along the way. They don't know any of that ahead of time.

To illustrate, at the beginning of a session, the state of my layout/trains is as follows:

• 4 wayfreights are sitting at their points of origin (4 different staging yards/tracks - they all come from different points on the compass) with a "Wheel Report" (basically, a switchlist form that lists all the cars in their train and where those cars are destined).
• In each town, there's a switchlist that lists the cars in town that need to be picked up, and where they are destined.

The only indication on a wheel report or switchlist that a car needs to be transferred to another train to reach its ultimate destination is a note in the margin next to the car in the list (e.g. "xfer to HDX-7 at East Haddam"). But this is just an aid for the crew that I include. A prototype/qualified crew that has a car in its train (or picks up a car in a town along the way) that is destined for an industry in a town that its train doesn't visit would know 1) what train *does* visit the destination town, and 2) where its train interchanges with that train. The crew would know to leave that car there. But, as the layout owner/host I do what I can to help - thus the margin note 

The reason for adding waybills (or in my case so far, a "Car Transfer Form") is - under the above scenario, using just switchlists - there isn't any paperwork that can be left with the car when a train leaves the car at some point for another train to pick up. These transfers sometimes happen during the session, sometimes they don't (the car is left at the interchange point after the subsequent train has already been there and left - so the car has to wait to be picked up the next "day." The subsequent train would only ever wait for a car if it's "hot" and they knew about it ahead of time - though, admittedly, some train crews would wait for the other train out of habit/by schedule/by rule).

Because the subsequent train crew doesn't know what cars there are to be picked up in a town until they get to that town, there's no reason for them to have those cars-to-be-picked-up on their wheel report/switchlist. They don't get the switchlist for the town (i.e. the list of cars-to-be-picked up) until they get to the town.

I hope I'm explaining this clearly. My understanding of how my prototype worked is evolving and certainly isn't perfect - and I don't have the army of RR freight clerks (or freight agents at all my industries, for that matter) - that would allow me to mirror the prototype perfectly. But that's where I hope the computer/software can help.

Maybe that's just not a realistic expectation - and would certainly explain why the CC/WB system is so enduring.

Really appreciating folks taking the time to weigh in. I always enjoy learning more about how others have tackled the problem of realistic freight car movements on a model railroad.

Locals

Trains rarely "exchange cars" so to speak, at least they don't conceive of it that way.

A train sets cars.  The train that sets out the cars doesn't necessarily know who will pick them up.

A train picks cars.  The train that picks them up doesn't necessarily know who set them out.

They aren't switched by TRAIN, they are switched by DESTINATION.  The train with the cars knows that cars for this station range are set out at a particular place.  Period.  If its a car for the stations of Dora, Eve or Fay, it sets out at Helen.

What ever train that works Helen and Dora, Eve, Fay gets to Helen, sees there are cars for Dora, Eve, Fay and picks them up.  All destination driven.

Most way freights leave origin with the cars to set out, pick up along the way and then set out the cars they pick up at termination.  Then those cars are switched by the yard engine, put on through freights, they take the cars to another yard.  The cars are switched up there, then put on another way freight, and that way freight spots them.  Typically on a local the outbound block is a "PULL" block, it doesn't matter where the car goes, the local takes it to where it terminates and the yard figures out the next train or destination.

Where are all these swaps happening?  You say the locals are originating at four different places, how are they every connecting.  Are they all meeting at a yard?

On the prototype the waybill drives the movement.  Lists are made FROM the waybills and a CC&WB IS a waybill.  It is physically two pieces of paper but it is duplicating ONE single piece of paper, the only reason its two pieces to to avoid having to rewrite the same info over and over and over.  If you use CC&WB then all the list has to be is a list of the cars and the destination.  And the list of cars can be abbreviated by using the first initial of the reporting mark and the last 3 digits of the number, the destination for a car that has to be spotted needs the station and industry (and/r spot), but for other cars all it has to be is the station where its going to set out.

Seems like you are making things harder by re-inventing the wheel.

Maybe

We try to stay out of the mindset of managing waybills or creating switch lists and focus on moving loads and empties around. Our waybills are two-sided, either inbound or outbound, loaded or empty.  It is the information we care about, not the appearance of the document.  If two-sided is too much, a one-sided waybill will work, covering the jump from shipper to customer, or the empty trip from shipper back to 'the railroad'. Easier to print one-sided.

The waybills represent an order for a car; Northwestern Hardwood wants a load of sawn oak to hand off to a maker of furniture frames.  The waybill gets paired up with an double-sliding door boxcar where it comes on to our railroad.  We have a "mole" hand-operated staging yard at each end.  Lots of ways to do this. If you assemble enough cars for a single destination, like the long, slow Podunk local, then you might want a train list.  Lots of ways to do that, like an envelope or or written list, or a rubber band around the fistful of paper containing your car ID's a destination data.

The important aspect is matching up the customer with the right car type (the load) and the right destination (somewhere east). Your decision in this debate is where you need to place the information to make the trains run.

Switchlists are something else, something for the train crew to handle. They have nothing to do with classifying cars, meeting schedules or any of that yard or trainmaster or dispatcher stuff.

Our railroad has a line-up of regular trains that run. Each train has a recipe card that tell what cars are handled by that train.  We file waybills by destination, then pull orders off the top of the waybill decks as called for by the recipe. Then we search out cars to fill those orders.  If we have managed our car fleet well, we have the cars we need. 

We aren't searching out specific reporting marks and numbers; we're looking for a center beam bulkhead flat car to handle wrapped lumber. If we have a home-road empty, we send that.  If it's going to Canada, we look for a BCOL car.  All of the little decisions people agonize over in planning their grand operating scheme are handled on a simple level, one at a time.

Start with your first puzzle: how do I get a freight car to where it's going, and go from there.

I was going to add that single use waybills can be done.

Although I find them to be cumbersome when operating. I would rather flip a waybill and see this boxcar needs to go to destination B or C. I don’t want to think when operating, I follow the system and focus on running the train. 
 

I am experimenting with waybills marked by car type so I can shuffle them around. My reason is that I found about 30 prototype industries, my layout will have about 10-12 under the current plan and I have virtual industries in staging. Most of the virtual industries are small but local businesses and some still exist without rail service today. My layout is based on the yard so I sort cars by destination including the virtual industries. I plan on being able to block trains by town and destination in the future when more of the layout is built.

I am playing around with the waybills to add variety and balance as I add industries to the layout. Most cars service the largest industry at some point in the waybill cycle currently. The amount of prototype coal docks suggests the need to rethink coal traffic patterns on the line. 

There was also a tremendous business locally in tobacco, grain, livestock and poultry that was seasonal and single proprietor type businesses. Some of these only operated once a year like the turkey train. The tobacco rush probably lasted several months and every clean boxcar around would be scavenged to fill orders. There was about 30 warehouses in the city. A pile of special waybills could be used to commandeer empty boxcars from their normal 4 destination route. 
 

I find the hardest part about waybills is making up the story. That is where I get repetitive and boring. 

Operating System Controversy

I don't see that there has to be any "controversy". People have different preferences for different systems. That's completely fair. Those preferences may inform which system works best FOR YOU.

It just seems that some of the particular tired arguments against CC+WB (too rigid/repetitive) come from a total lack of understanding of what you can do with the components. Perhaps sometimes people just need some better education on the different systems and how they work, but there will still come down to personal reasons to pick one system over another.

I also disagree that CC&WB is "unprototypical"/unrealistic - the car card and waybill together *as a unit* actually represents the important information for car movement off a prototype waybill. Just a few decades ago someone realized that if you separated the "car" and "movement" information off the waybill, you could make paperwork that is infinitely re-usable instead of reprinting stuff every session - *that* is one of the primary benefits of CC+WB. No one who really uses CC+WB effectively ever says you have *permanently* keep those two pieces together (except for the programmer of ShipIt!).

Some arguments however, are entirely justified - but this is where they all just come down to personal preference:

"I don't want to handle a whole pile of individual cards" - great. A switchlist or alternative system is probably more up your alley.

"I can't see/don't want to track individual car numbers" - ok. Neither a waybill or switchlist type system is probably to your preference. Try a tab-on-car, or some casual system that just relies on delivering a certain amount of a particular *type* of car to specific industries. One guy in my local group actually does switchlists, but *only* tracks the road name on the document, no numbers.

"I don't want to have to continually update data in the computer during a session."/"I don't want to print off fresh paperwork every time." - ok. Perhaps switchlists aren't your preference. Give CC&WB or some alternative system like tab-on-car, drawing cards or rolling dice, etc. a try.

Waybill Flipping and Single Use Waybills

On most layouts using CC+WB typically most waybills are flipped by the owner (or if a joint/club layout whoever is responsible for this task) *between* sessions as part of the session staging, not by crews during the session. Operators generally don't have to think about this, and shouldn't even tell the difference between a "waybill" insert that has all four cycles filled in, or just 3, or two, or just 1. As long as you use a similar template, they'd never know the difference if a "one-off" single-use waybill is made up just for a special move in one session.

I like to keep a bunch of extras in my storage box of single-move waybills for "deadheading" empty cars to specific locations for storage/car supply. Once inserted into a car card, these don't look any different than any other waybill in my collection other than most aren't necessarily billed as an empty to a storage track.

So the operator shouldn't have to ever think about this sort of thing when operating. Just follow the destination(s) on the cards. The layout owner or "car clerk" will set this up before the session.

Connecting Cars/Trains/Destinations

Multi-part answer...

As Dave said in a previous reply, the only reason cars would be set off to transfer to another train isn't so much (from the perspective of the train making the set off) about which train is going to pick up those cars, it's that the cars' destination is not on the route of this train, and this is the place where cars for that destination are set off.

E.g. Your train runs from A to B to C. At B is a junction with another line to D. If you have any D cars in your train when you get to B, chances are* the layout operations will have you setting those D cars off at B. You don't specifically need to know which branchline train will take them from B to D.

*There are a lot of possible exceptions to this based on the layout design and train schedule/operational plan. Maybe the local to D runs out of C, or B doesn't have the yard space, so D cars are hauled to C and set out in the yard there instead of B, etc. Just using this as a simple example.

If you're using switch lists, the program if it's set up correctly should identify the different route and junction point and the generated switch list should specifically tell you to set off those cars in a yard track at B and there should be nothing to question. No margin notes required. Switch list says set off in yard, you set off in yard. As far as your work on that particular train is concerned, you're done with those cars once set off in the yard. Any connecting cars for C from a previous branchline train should similarly be on your switch list to lift from the yard. Grab whatever's on the list and continue on.

If you're using CC+WB, the waybill will show the cars' destination as D. You know that D is not on your route. Layout map or other references (see also next para.) show D to be on the branch that connects at B. The waybill can also include a "route" line that can show this car moves "via B". Thus you would "know" to set off any D cars at B for the branch. (see also next para.)

The other potential piece that's not specifically part of CC+WB (or any other routing system) itself, but is very relevant here, is providing adequate "work instructions" to trains. Like a train information sheet that details what train train does, where it runs, and what work it performs.

An example train instruction sheet for the train described above:

No. 10

Local train

Operates A to C


Max cars: 15


At A:


- Train originates. 

- Obtain assigned engines from shop track and follow yardmaster's instructions to build train.


At B:


- Switch local industries. Lift cars for C.

- Set out cars for D in yard track [to connect to branchline local to D - optional text].

- Lift cars for C from yard.

At C:


- Train terminates.

- Yard train per yardmasters instructions and park engines at shop track.

Vary instructions as necessary based on layout specifics. If no yardmasters, provide any specific information train may need for yarding, etc. If there's any unique or peculiar oddities to a particular location that's relevant to a particular train, this can be noted. If there's any work a train needs, or almost as importantly *doesn't* need to do at a location (maybe B has an assigned industry switcher, so no. 10 only sets off cars in the yard and doesn't do the switching. Or maybe no. 10 does do this switching but you also have a no. 12 that's an A to C straight shot that doesn't handle anything for or at B. etc.)

The waybills, car tabs, etc. tell you where the car's ultimate destination is. The train instructions help crews understand their work.

A proper/good "train paperwork" packet includes:
- layout schematic map showing locations and routes so an operator can always orient themselves to your layout geography
- train information/instructions sheet (above)
- car paperwork (CC+WB or switchlist; not required if using some alternative system like tab-on-car where there is no paperwork)
- track warrant or clearance forms (if you use that type of dispatching system)
- any other helpful "reference sheets" unique to your setup

Agent Messge

I give my train crews "messages" from the "agents" rather than a job card.

Here is one for No. 52, the SWD local.  If it has cars for Mortonville, the switch breaks off in the wrong direction, so it has to take the Mortonvilles past and set them out at Montchanin to come back north.

Then the NWD local, No. 51 gets a message to pick them up at Montchanin and spot them at Mortonville.

Neither message references the other train.  All the "waybill" (CC&WB) says is the car goes to Mortonville, it doesn't say anything about the Montchanin move.

Related Threads

BTW, here's a good thread describing how one modeler effectively uses a "tab on car" system:

https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/a-new-variant-of-tagoncar-car-forwarding-12195695

Similar:

http://thelittlerockline.blogspot.com/2014/10/tab-on-car-routing.html

A different version of tab on car to classify ore loads on a mining layout:

https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/splitrock-operations-video-or-what-are-those-colored-balls-on-the-ore-cars-12212650

My blog post, with some nice discussion comments from the community, on using a spreadsheet and random numbers to control traffic on a CC+WB operated layout (i.e. how many (of each type) new waybills to draw to replace waybills that were removed when they completed "turn 4" as discussed above. (This really blows away the perceived "rigidity" of CC+WB. This approach may be considered overkill for some, but consider it a jumping off point for ideas on how to drive car "demand"...)

http://vanderheide.ca/blog/2017/12/28/simulating-customer-demand-on-a-model-railroad/

A 3rd Way - Neither CC/WB nor Switchlists

Our American model railroad club in UK was looking for a way to operate half way between JMRI switchlists and a freestyle operation during Freemo module sessions. One of our members devised a simplified method of operating using cards and waybills which is at  https://bearwoodamrg.wordpress.com/2017/04/04/the-bearwood-car-card-system-for-freemo/ and https://bearwoodamrg.wordpress.com/2017/05/18/bearwood-may-2017/

There may be some ideas you can develop/adapt here?

@Dave Husman

I'm beginning to think you may be right about my re-inventing the wheel. Seems that the approach that's closest to how my prototype worked would be a combo of CC/WB & switchlists. CC/WB to create the movements, and switchlists to help the crews with their work (and avoid having to handle stacks of cards and sorting them on the layout).

On my prototype, it's a little complicated as the locals don't work "typically" as you'd expect. Basically, I have a track that's oriented north-south that is covered by two local freights (north end freight HDX-7, and south end freight PDX-2) and pick up from/leave cars for (swap cars) at Haddam, CT. HDX-7 is a turn from Hartford, CT to Haddam. PDX-2 goes only as far north as Haddam and returns south. I also have a track that's oriented southwest to northeast and intersects the first track about 1/2 way at Middletown, CT. That track is covered by one local freight (HDX-12) and it leave cars for and picks up cars from HDX-7 at Middletown. I have another track that's at the south end of the north-south track. That track is oriented west/east and intersects the north-south track at Saybrook, CT. That track is also covered by two locals - an easbound and westbound that covers the entire line (PDX-1 and PDX-2). Given how busy this line is, and the orientation of switches (turnouts), the locals - while covering the whole line & all towns - only switch trailing point sidings. So these two locals exchange cars at Saybrook in order to get the cars to a train that can deliver them. Yes, PDX-2 is one of those locals - and it also serves the southern portion of the north-south line on its way.

HDX-7 originates in Hartford, CT and heads south to Haddam (where it exhanges cars with PDX-2) and returns. HDX-12 originates in New Haven, CT and heads northeast to Middletown (where it exchanges cars with HDX-7), and returns. PDX-2 originates in New London, CT and heads west, heading up the north-south line at Saybrook to Haddam, exchanges cars with HDX-7 and heads back down the line to Saybrook on its way west to New Haven where it terminates. It exchanges cars with PDX-1 at Saybrook, either on the way up the branch, on its way back, or both. PDX-1 originates in New Haven and heads east to New London, exchanging cars with PDX-2 at Saybrook along the way. It terminates in New London.

Did I mention the New Haven Railroad was essentially one large terminal yard that covered all of southern New England? %^)

This is where you got me - you're probably right. I may be reinventing the wheel. Might just to CC/WB along with switchlists, as I mentioned. Although, I may eliminate the CC and just write in the car info on the WB as I (acting as clerk) find cars to fill the orders represented by those waybills. 

@everyone else

Didn't mean for my long reply to be just calling out Dave, but his was the first comment I read after my last one and asked some questions that I knew needed answering to (hopefully) make things a bit more clear.

@Graham Line:

 Agreed - so I think I may opt for waybills without the car card (I think it's the CC that's hanging me up %^) and just fill in the car info on the 'bill as I find the right car type to fill the order.

@Shawn H:

That's an interesting approach - and develops what I (and Graham Line) said above. The waybills would already have the car type on them - I'd just have to assign an actual car (roadname/number) to that 'bill.

@Chris van der Heide:

REALLY appreciate all the information and help in evaluating the CC/WB system. I wonder if anything I said about how my prototype operated (reply to Dave above) would change your evaluation or approach - especially since my RR seems to operate a bit differently than the more-typical operations you describe. DEFINITELY gonna check out your blog post too - thanks for posting the link! I've already got it opened in another tab and will hopefully get to it soon!

@Southern Comfort:

Ditto with regard to the links you posted - I'm looking forward to checking them out. Thanks for sending them my way!

And thanks again to all of you that have taken the time to help me think through this process a bit. Your input & education (not to mention your patience as I continue to learn) is really helpful and much appreciated!

Chris

Bearwood

The Bearwood plan is more or less a conventional 2 move CC&WB system, it just limits the moves to from the yard to an industry and from the industry back to the yard.

Nothing wrong with that, and its perfect for a modular system.

I use virtually all one or two move waybills, so my system works like that, but can have moves that involve multiple steps and multiple connections because the moves start other places than the yards.

CC/WB how to address "repetition"

For a class of car, say an XM boxcar, I have various versions of the 4 turn waybill.   After a car finishes turn 4, the current 4 turn waybill is removed and a new one is inserted that has new destinations (both on layout and off).

No one has ever detected the "switcharoo" that I perform after a session is over with.

Keeps things fresh.

NH

Typically what I have seen is that rather than have the locals swap cars, the railroad hauls the the cars to the yard from which the local originates.  Rather than have the local haul the cars from Hartford to Haddam to give the to the PD train, a through freight hauls them to "P" and they come out on the PD train right from the start.

That assumes that there is some sort of through service between Hartford and "P".  If there isn't then having the locals swap would be the alternative, or if that's just the way you want to do it, that works too.

One concept railroads use is a "block".  If on the WB you had a block name/code for the areas served by the locals, for example Haddam North would be HAN and Haddam South would be HAS.  Any time a crew or yardmaster saw the HAx code they would know the car goes to the Hartford to P line.  The PD crew would know that they have to spot the HAS cars and leave the HAN cars at Haddam.  The HD crew would know they had to spot the HAN cars and leave the HAS cars at Haddam.  By using those codes it eliminates the need for the operator to know the geography.  If you just go by destination, if a car goes to "Dora", the crew would have to know whether Dora is north or south of Haddam.  With the codes you can group cars by those codes, you don't need to know where Dora is specifically, you just know its a HAS so it goes to whatever train works south of Haddam.  

What do you do with outbound cars?  Inbound is simple since each line is more or less binary.  Pulls are more difficult, since there are way more options for outbound cars.

NHRR

My current method of dealing with outbound cars (those currently on the layout that need to be picked up) is to route those to their destination if they're a load, and to route them back toward their home road if they're an empty. Currently, I do that myself, acting as freight clerk, and filling out switchlists for the crews to know what to do with those cars.

Your (Dave) post highlights two "problems" with my layout:

1) it's based as close as it can be on what I know - and am learning - about how the actual New Haven RR dealt with freight on the lines I model (which is as I described - no through freights on either the Valley Line (the north-south line) or the Airline (the southwest-northeast line). There ARE through freights on the Shore Line (the east-west line), but on the portion of the railroad I model, they just run through - they don't drop off or pick up any cars. So on my layout, all the freight moves are handled by 4 different local freights, all interacting with each other. But that's how my prototype did it.

2) Since I'm doing it how the prototype did it, it almost immediately puts me at a disadvantage cuz I don't have the staff the prototype had! :^) Prior to each ops session, I basically fill the roles of industry clerk for every industry on my layout (ordering empties for loading, telling the railroad I have a load to pick up, ordering commodities to be delivered), town freight agent (creating switchlists that note what cars in town need to be picked up, based on the industry orders & if empties, noting routes based on Home Route rules), and yardmaster (creating wheel reports that reflect all the cars in each local at the start of the session, which are all the cars ordered by the industries - or that are empties headed back to their home road). This pre/between ops process - which I don't mind, btw, since it really feels like "actual railroad work" - because it's mostly manual, takes as long as the operating session itself, sometimes longer. My initial reason for creating this thread was to explore ways I could automate or otherwise reduce this pre/between session work.

I say "mostly" manual since the only automated part of this pre/between ops process is a spreadsheet that generates the car movements (simulating the industry orders/needs). You note what cars are where at the beginning of the day, then run the spreadsheet. The spreadsheet then tells me which of those cars need to be picked up, and also tells me what industries need cars (and what type of cars they need).

I describe this process in more (though maybe not sufficient) detail on my website here:

http://www.thevalleylocal.net/home/operations/httpblogthevalleylocalnet201408spreadsheets-switchlists-its-how-i-rollhtml

Other than seeking to automate more of the pre/between session (clerk) process, the other impetus for my post here was to address & correct the somewhat/admittedly contrived "Car Transfer Form" I've made up to ease some of the work for conductor on one train having to leave a car for another train. My current system, if it didn't have this form (and since I don't currently have waybills), would require the conductor to either wait for the subsequent train to tell them what to do with the car (not prototypical) or tell the agent in that town what to do with the car and the agent would tell the subsequent train (more prototypical, but there's no physical agent in town). The prototype uses a waybill that's left in the bill box at the station when there's no agent.

Heh - so I guess what all this boils down to is:

1) I really need waybills

2) I'd really like an automated way of creating them for each session. Bonus if at least the car info/destination from the 'bills could automatically populate the appropriate switchlists (otherwise, I'd be transcribing the waybill info to the switchlists myself - or requiring my conductors to do that).

3) As someone who is trying to follow the practices of his chosen prototype, the answer to every "why" question has to be "because that's how my prototype did it" - at least to the extent I actually know what my prototype did.

Sorry for the gallons of ink being spilled on this thread, but really appreciate the continued conversation and you all being willing to spend some time participating.

Chris