I tried out my operating plan tonight, and it worked well. Plus I had a lot of fun. I'm really looking forward to all the stuff I have to do, building the industries, car cards and waybills, scenery, ballasting the track, and really getting this railroad to working. Oh, and I still need to name everything, the yards, the industries, etc.
I started with 10 cars in the east interchange and another 10 in the west interchange, plus another 20 cars at the various industries. 10 of these were headed to the east interchange, 10 headed west. Don't have my car cards and waybills done yet, so I made a switch list for the cars in each interchange.
Left out of the east interchange, set out the cars to be spotted and picked up the cars headed toward the west interchange, both trailing point spurs and facing point spurs which required a run-around move. It required some thought as I was only picking up the cars headed west. I had to move some cars around, shuffle the a bit, to be able to spot the set-outs.
Headed to the west interchange and dropped off the outbound cars, picked up the 10 cars there which were headed for the industries.
On the way back east, I set out the cars headed for the industries, again with both trailing point and facing point spurs. Picked up the cars headed east, then went to the east interchange and sorted the cars there.
In all, it took about 2 hours to handle the 40 cars. Had very few derailments or other problems. The uncoupling magnets work very well. And I only derailed cars or the loco a couple of times by running from frog to point with the switch in the wrong direction.
Here's a pic of the train coming out of the west interchange yard:
I started with 10 cars in the east interchange and another 10 in the west interchange, plus another 20 cars at the various industries. 10 of these were headed to the east interchange, 10 headed west. Don't have my car cards and waybills done yet, so I made a switch list for the cars in each interchange.
Left out of the east interchange, set out the cars to be spotted and picked up the cars headed toward the west interchange, both trailing point spurs and facing point spurs which required a run-around move. It required some thought as I was only picking up the cars headed west. I had to move some cars around, shuffle the a bit, to be able to spot the set-outs.
Headed to the west interchange and dropped off the outbound cars, picked up the 10 cars there which were headed for the industries.
On the way back east, I set out the cars headed for the industries, again with both trailing point and facing point spurs. Picked up the cars headed east, then went to the east interchange and sorted the cars there.
In all, it took about 2 hours to handle the 40 cars. Had very few derailments or other problems. The uncoupling magnets work very well. And I only derailed cars or the loco a couple of times by running from frog to point with the switch in the wrong direction.
Here's a pic of the train coming out of the west interchange yard: