What Shall We Discuss?

brakie

Active Member
Guys,I get my topic ideas while I am trackside..Of course its winter and I am a fair weather railfan.
So,in that light is there is thing you would like us to discuss?

Some of my future plans is to discuss overflow cars,extra tonnage, handling empties,fill tonnage and passenger terminal operation.

What would you like to see discuss?
 

tetters

Rail Spiking Fool!
Handling empties.

I just started laying down the roadbed for my industry sidings and looking at the available real estate I have on the Ye Ol' Plywood Plains I thought for some of the larger industries I could incorporate another track to hold two or three cars as empties for pick-up.

Question I have is how would the loco deliver the "goods" and take away the empties? ...a rather chicken or egg type question I guess.

Or is just a question of scheduling where the industry or railroad has a timetable to remove empties?
 

brakie

Active Member
The way it works is the local will deliver a loaded car of plastic pellets to (say) American Plastic Corp for unloading.When this car is empty APC will call their local freight agent(today these agents are called customer service representatives).The agent will notify the yard clerk which will add the car as a pickup on the next day's local switch list.Of course if the local had to make a setout at APC and the empty was ready then the conductor could pick the car up and add it to his wheel report-there was another form he filled out but,I can not recall what it was-waybill?-This wheel report would be turned into the yardmaster.
 

Nomad

Active Member
How about operating an interchange? Say I drop some cars off at the interchange and pick some up. Would I sort the cars for the other railroad that I drop off ( as load or empty ), and would the other railroad do the same for me?

Loren
 

brakie

Active Member
As far as interchange cars no..The cars would not be in any order.The only exception is haz-mat cars..Those would be place in the center or at least one car length away from the locomotive or caboose.
As far as empties there is no particular order these cars are in..
I will discuss prototypical train make up in a later topic.

Also recall your road may not be able to pick up any cars bound for your road and your crew would make a "light" move back to the yard.The connecting road will bring them to you.This is a good way to have a connecting road locomotive on your layout.
Now like all things railroad there are exceptions.Some roads will allow the connecting road to pick up their interchange cars..
 

MasonJar

It's not rocket surgery
It would be great to break these out into their own (short) threads, so the info does not get lost...! There's great info here Brakie!

Another question I have (potentially another thread) is perishables and the "local" train. In years past, the mixed loco on a branchline would pick up passengers, mail, lcl, and preishables - especially milk.

Given that what you mostly hear about perishables is high-speed dedicated trains, can you shed any light on how these low-speed trains successfully handled this perishable good?

Andrew
 

Nomad

Active Member
Brakie, you say the connecting road will bring the cars to me ( to my yard? )
Is that considered a through train?

Loren
 

tetters

Rail Spiking Fool!
The way it works is the local will deliver a loaded car of plastic pellets to (say) American Plastic Corp for unloading.When this car is empty APC will call their local freight agent(today these agents are called customer service representatives).The agent will notify the yard clerk which will add the car as a pickup on the next day's local switch list.Of course if the local had to make a setout at APC and the empty was ready then the conductor could pick the car up and add it to his wheel report-there was another form he filled out but,I can not recall what it was-waybill?-This wheel report would be turned into the yardmaster.

Lemme see if I can make my own scenario.

**The Morgue Breweries needs its various grains (hops, barley etc...) delivered in order to make its various brews. It also needs frieght(refrigerated?) cars to load its finished product into. Now the way it works in my mind is that there are two tracks for this duty. One for the loading/unloading dock in which the bottled beers are loaded into the box cars. Another track where hoppers are spotted in order to dump their grains.

So I think I get the idea that grains would be delivered to the brewery by the RR and that the hoppers would be be picked up once they are well..empty. The brewery would call the RR when they are ready to be picked up.

As for the frieght cars to deliver the finished goods. Would the RR store empties in the yard while another car is getting loaded or would they immediately spot these empties at the brewery so as to not take up valuable yard track space? I imagine in an ideal world, it would work so that the lay-over time between getting a full car away from the dock and another empty in place for loading is kept to a minimum.

**The Morgue Brewies Ltd. in part was coinded by my bother-in-law. He mentioned years ago, he wanted to open up hard rock night club called The Morgue and use the tag-line "Come on in and suck back a Cold One."

I've decided to adopt the the name for my brewery company and the slogan as well. It fits nicely with my morbid sense of humour.
sign1
 

brakie

Active Member
Brakie, you say the connecting road will bring the cars to me ( to my yard? )
Is that considered a through train?

Loren

No..Its called a "Interchange Run" or "Interchange Switch Move"...These train would travel a short distance and might make 3-4 daily interchange runs if there was a need.
 

brakie

Active Member
Tetters,The empties can be held in the yard or a smaller "industrial" outlaying yards.These smaller outlaying yards usually holds cars for several industries and is switch by the local crew.
======================
Andrew,The mix train that went up a branch would pick up perishables and would continue their normal work.When the mixed return to the yard then the perishables would be transferred to the hotter perishable trains.
Now if the mixed served a meat packing plant or produce point* then a pre-iced reefer would be setout and usually picked up the next day.Some times that reefer could be picked up on the return trip if it was loaded.

* Some meat packers and produce points had their own icing platform.

Live stock is another matter that must include the Federal 28 Hour Law concerning the shipment of live stock.

That to will be covered.
 

steamhead

Active Member
How about how cars that re going to be dropped off at some sidings along the way...How would these be blocked..?? Would the first drop-off be at the end of the train or right behind the engine..?? What about an empty that would be picked up at a drop-off. Where would this one go..??
 

brakie

Active Member
How about how cars that re going to be dropped off at some sidings along the way...How would these be blocked..?? Would the first drop-off be at the end of the train or right behind the engine..?? What about an empty that would be picked up at a drop-off. Where would this one go..??

When the local was built in the yard the cars was place in town and industry order.The first car to be delivered would be in delivery order starting behind the engine then the second,third etc. However,as the local went about its business the train could be come unworkable.Most conductors would reswitch their train into workable order at a out laying yard.
Of course most crusty old line conductors would keep their train in working order.They would place the cars that required a run around move next to the caboose as well as any cars they planned to switch out on the return trip.The pickups would usually be switch into the middle of the train out of the way regardless if the car was loaded or empty.
As a old line conductor told me always keep your train workable and plan your work and work your plan never get your cabin in front of your face by not planing your moves and never move cars you don't need to.
Now cars with wooden frames such as MOW cars would need to place in front of the caboose until they was dropped off.However,if a run around move was to be made the car to be delivered at a facing point industry would be in front of the MOW car(s).The conductor would set the MOW car(s) on the passing track after the engine ran around the train.Of course some gutsy old liners would make the set out with the MOW cars in tow.Like so,Engine,caboose,MOW car(s) setout.
 

tetters

Rail Spiking Fool!
Ahhh...so cars that would not necessarily be on every train...like ballast cars, rotary snow plow or other equipment used to repair the track et all. You threw a curve ball at me there. I was reading your post going,

"Now what's he talkin' 'bout???" LOL!
 

brakie

Active Member
Ahhh...so cars that would not necessarily be on every train...like ballast cars, rotary snow plow or other equipment used to repair the track et all. You threw a curve ball at me there. I was reading your post going,

"Now what's he talkin' 'bout???" LOL!

Sorry,I shouldn't use a acronym without doing something like this first: Maintenance Of Way(MOW) cars .:eek:ops:

Yeah,those would be a addition to the local's work..They could pick up MOW cars at one work site and deliver them to the next work site.At the club we move MOW cars around just to foul up the local crews day..We are not above taking a passing siding out of service for "track repair".We will spot a work train there and red tag the siding on the CTC (Centralized traffic control ) board commonly called a Dispatcher's board.
 

tetters

Rail Spiking Fool!
I like that idea a lot. Just to add some variety to operating sessions. Park a string of ballast cars and ballast tamper in a siding and say the track is undergoing some preventative maintenance. A good excuse to have some extra equipement around too!

Thanks for having the patience to answer my questions.
 

steamhead

Active Member
Hi Larry....Thanks for the description as to how cars should be blocked...Now I know how to go about this. Thanks a lot..!!

I also like the idea of throwing a wrench into "normal" operations. Just to keep the juices flowing...!!!
 
You mentioned old head conductors keeping their train in order. I remember some crews used to bail out of the yard as fast as possible, spending little time getting their train in order. They were always looking for the "early quit". I used to spend more time in the yard putting my train together and actually caught criticism for it from other conductors and especially the yardmaster. I liked to have all my moves planned and when I left the yard my train was in order just the way I wanted it and I had all the moves planned. When I called the DS I always would tell him "I need 17 minutes to make a pick up" or some number and ALWAYS finish within that number. That is why I always spent so much time making sure my train was in order.

If you went out there and tied up the main line trying to make drops and pick ups because your train wasn't in order the DS would not work with you and you would be all day.

Oh yeah, I usually got the early quit too.:thumb:

Dave
 
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