I'm a fan of keeping things simple.  RMC ran an article a few issues back about operations, where it described how the local agent would assign the next available freight car to whatever customer needed a car at the time.  That's how I plan on operating my layout.  Customer X needs a box car, so the next available box car gets billed to go there.  When loaded, it goes back.  I suppose I have an advantage on my layout, since I have the yard on one end.  Everything goes in and out of the same yard, which keeps it pretty basic.  I don't worry about where it's going after it leaves my layout, or what the car is loaded with, or anything else that doesn't directly impact the way the car is handled.

As for train schedules, I model a short line where trains were run as needed.  I plan on doing much the same thing.  I do have some schedules (modeling a prototype is a handy thing here), but it's basically one train out and back every day.  I'll run that one train, with a few extras as needed to meet the customer demand and to keep whatever operators I have on hand busy.

While my layout has plenty of industries to switch, there's much more to the operating scheme than car cards vs. switch lists (I use car cards).  Whatever method you choose for car routing is probably fine, provided it's clear and concise.  One enhancement I am adding is a simulation of customer demand by instructing crews which of the available cars are actually ready to spot (e.g. the customer has maybe five cars on their way, but only space for four right now, so the switch crew needs to know which ones are to be spotted).  I'm representing this using an idea picked up from Lee Nicholas' Utah Colorado Western, by inserting separate "spot" cards into the car cards.  The waybill may read "To: Customer XYZ" but won't get spotted until the OK is received by the agent.

Beyond that, however, what TRAIN does what is a big part of developing operations for me.  I have a variety of locals and through trains, and most of the through runs also stop somewhere en route to perform a block swap.  I'm still refining this as full formal sessions are approaching.  Each train has specific procedures and fulfills a unique role in the railroad doing its daily business.  For example, a particular eastbound might take cars blocked for the UP to hand over to UP via the Ogden, UT gateway.  Another might only take eastbounds for the D&RGW.  The yards have to keep things blocked to ensure efficient handling.

We have just had our 4th operating session on the Pennsylvania Midland. Most of the PMRR focuses on loading hoppers with coal at one of two of the online tipples. New Island Coal tipple #3 is served by the Shenandoah & Tidewater Railroad and are taken to the B&O Interchange where they are then hauled either to the Ohio River at Parkersburg, WV or to Baltimore for export.

Cars loaded at New Island #1 are hauled in unit trains of 20 cars to the Allegheny Power plant at Kingston, WV. The cars at Kingston are unloaded inside the Allegheny Power plant thawing shed and hustled back to the tipple for reloading. The entire round trip including loading, travel over the PMRR mainline, unloading at Kingston and return to the mine is about and hour.

All trains from the tipples are run as extras. Those that are handed off to the B&O are emptied by hand in the hidden mole staging that serves as both ends of the railroad. The PMRR track plan can be seen here:  http://www.rockrail.org/pennsylvania-midland

I wanted to avoid the car card/weighbill scenario and have a shipper driven scheme instead. Using the car request generator from Dallas Model Works ( http://www.dallasmodelworks.com/interchange/myindcarreqgen.asp ) I generate switchlists. These are then copied and pasted into my own PMRR switchlist form and given to whomever is going to switch the branch line industries at the several towns. Cars are brought back to the B&O and are picked up by either a through freight or a turn from either Parkersburg or Cumberland. So far it's working well. We'll continue to experiment and refine as we go along.

For car forwarding I use car cards and waybills.  I wrote my own MS Access program to generate car cards and waybills.  The waybills are single shipment and many are swapped out after completing a car cycle.

Train operation is timetable and train order using a 4:1 fast clock.  One session covers 12 hours of fast clock time and I run 6 through freights, 2 locals and 4 passenger trains.  In addition there are 2 switch engines, one primarily handling yard duties and the other an industry job.

The era is set at 1900-1905 Philadelphia and Reading Wilmington & Northern Branch.

I am also working on 1/4 size waybills instead of CC&WB and changing the fast clock to 3:1 and going to an 8 hour session.

I model the German Federal Railroad (DB) which has a high amount of passenger traffic. For that operation, I'm using a time table based on the actual timetable for the area I model. I've had to slightly tweak times since I don't have the space to model at a true 1:160.  Actual operations of the trains are a combination of automatic running and manual operation by signal indication.

I've also been interested in freight switching and over the years have played with many different systems including switch lists, car cards, and computerized options. I've decided on using car cards based on those shown on Werner Falkenbach's site, but modified slightly.  At first I was looking at the Fremo style cards with waybills, but decided that N scale was just to small for reading reporting marks, especially if I weather cars.  There is also a lot of information on the standard Fremo card that doesn't apply to N scale and isn't needed on a home layout.  By having a card that only identifies the car type, any car of that type in the train can be used, making switching a little easier as well. The cards are in German to keep a touch of authenticity. I added a picture of the car to the card. I'd like to be able to operate with friends and family and not everyone will be familiar with the standard Wagengattung (sort of like AAR) letters.  The cards are laid out in Excel and formated so each one fits on a standard business card. I went with a vertical format so the can be read while in the card boxes at stations. They are double sided allowing each car to travel between two destinations. I printed them out using Avery's business card stock at first, but more recently just on card stock and trimmed with a paper cuter.

Each station (two so far) has card boxes from Micromark, one box for each industry or freight house. You can see them here: http://web.me.com/tommyl/BD_Kaiserslautern/Blog/Entries/2011/3/20_This_and_that.html

​More recently I've been looking a coping prototype switch lists. There has been a lot of discussion about this on some of the German forums that sparked my interest. 

Keeps me way too busy sometimes........ :)

Thanks for sharing guys!  I always find it interesting to hear how others in the hobby put there layouts to work.  And to add my own operations to the list, I use something similar to Norfolk Southern's practice. 

For my local switch jobs I use a "work order" which is a single sheet of paper that lists all online customers with cars they have released and cars they have requested for spot.  I use a simple switchlist to keep track of what cars are in the train.  

For my Road Trains I simply just use a switchlist.  

This method is simple to use and very easy to set up.  Car routing is listed in my Timetable and I have built in dwell times for all my industries which simulates the cars being loaded or unloaded.  After the dwell time expires the car is ready for movement for its next destination.

Has anyone tried any computer programs like Ship It?  I have heard both good and bad comments on those type of products.  The most repeated comments was that it is complicated to set up and use.

Has anyone tried any computer programs like Ship It?  I have heard both good and bad comments on those type of products.  The most repeated comments was that it is complicated to set up and use.

One headache I've seen from the computerized switchlist generators is what happens when a car gets misrouted or left behind.  The software assumes the car moved everywhere it was supposed to during the session, and any errors or omissions in car routing start a cascade of invalid entries on the switchlists.

Another problem is how many of the programs concentrate so much on individual car routings they ignore train makeup (i.e. the software worries about getting a particular car in a train instead of trying to get cars into blocks and then blocks into trains).  Too often this results in a yard crew having to unrealistically cherry-pick cars to build trains (partially so they avoid the consequences of missing a car routing as noted above).  I think a major part of the issue lies with developers understanding computer programming but not how a railroad runs.

One headache I've seen from the computerized switchlist generators is what happens when a car gets misrouted or left behind.  The software assumes the car moved everywhere it was supposed to during the session, and any errors or omissions in car routing start a cascade of invalid entries on the switchlists...  I think a major part of the issue lies with developers understanding computer programming but not how a railroad runs.

That sounds exactly like the way NS's Centralized Yard Office seems to work!  It only works as long as everything is entered into the computer exactly correctly and as soon as it is done - which never happens.  Add to that the fact that the people running the programs do not really understand the people running the trains, and it's a recipe for mass confusion.

I'd rather do things the old fashioned way, on paper.

One headache I've seen from the computerized switchlist generators is what happens when a car gets misrouted or left behind.  The software assumes the car moved everywhere it was supposed to during the session, and any errors or omissions in car routing start a cascade of invalid entries on the switchlists.

I get around these issues by ignoring the "specific car to a specific industry" and instead fill the industry car requests with whatever appropriate type car is available in the staging yard(s). If Adams Tool needs an 40' boxcar, the request can be filled with C&NW 164787 or B&O 987764. When the car(s) are delivered, the crew picks up whatever cars are already spotted at the industry if any and returns them to the yard.