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Now that work on the trackwork, scenery, structures, details, motive power and rolling stock is nearly complete on our Winston-Salem Southbound HO scale project layout, it’s time to try running it like a real railroad. But before a single axle turns, MRVP’s David Popp and MR’s Contributing Editor Tony Koester explain the planning, prep, and paperwork that must first go into setting the stage on layout of any size or scale.
WHERE GET COPY OF WAYBILL THAT USE ON LAYOUT?THANK YOU FOR SHARE GREAT DETAIL VIDEO
Is there any templates for any of the paperwork mentioned in the video??? The waybill, empty car slips, town diagram/map… sorry for the shortened dupe…
for Kurt Barnes: The waybill should reflect the originating railroad regardless of the reporting marks on the car. That is, if the car originates on the Atlantic Coast Line, then it would move to destination on an ACL bill. That is the simple look at it. So, if you want to bill cars that way, you will need a waybill form for every railroad of the era you are modelling.
I noticed that each waybill you shown, at the top it was from the railroad of the car. Example: Nickel Plate car had a NPR freight waybill. The Atlantic Coast Line car had a ACL freight waybill. Is this the way it should be? I need to make a waybill with the same railroad name on the car as is on the waybill? Or just use my railroad name on the freight waybill for incoming and outgoing freight. Please advise and as always your project railroads are both interesting and rewarding to watch.
Generally speaking, standard boxcars are not waybilled to return empty. That is usually reserved for those cars with special equipment inside or specialty cars (i.e. tank cars, covered hoppers, etc.). The basic rule for using “foreign” (not your railroad) cars is, if loaded, send them to or via the owning road.
I think that unless one has the absolute desire to make waybill forms for every railroad operating in your time frame, using the four-cycle car cards is a lot easier, especially on a switching layout.
after replaying the video, I noticed Tony said that each track needs a bill box, but he pointed to a single hole. I assume that he means each TRACK needs a hole in the bill box not a bill box for each track. this is, as usual, an EXCELLENT instructional video. Great job David and Tony!!
Well done and very informative. This video as well as David’s explanation of operating the Olympia railroad has given me a better understanding of making a layout come to life and having a purpose. I’ve dabbled in this just a little to let visitors ‘test’ my track plan to see if its functional and make any minor changes. I’m still a little ways from making up my own waybills, but when I do, I’ll be coming back to review this one again and again. Thanks for helping!
very nice! I need to learn more about the “operations” side of model railroading. It certainly adds a new dimension to just running trains. I’m looking forward to hear more from Tony (or others) about operations – tips, techniques, and various ways to go about the process.
I agree! To be able to make maps of the track arrangement/industries like that would be wonderful! Any chance of a downloadable version of in the near future?
As always, Tony and David did a great job presenting a model railroading subject in a new and refreshing manner. Providing the context for the Tar Branch as a link in the transcontinental network was inspiring.
David
Looks like there’s 1.5 min. of dead air at the end of this. Did I mess something?
I Enjoyed watching Tony go through this process. His waybills are slightly more detailed and somewhat different from the Micro Mark Car Cards and Waybills. Might be interesting to run the WSS with both systems.
David
As a novice I found this program very helpful and cannow see how it can amplify the fun of railroading. Making the Tar Branch part of the larger world gave me perspective I wouldn’t otherwise have.Thanks guys!
Another great instructional video. Absolutely great at explaining the whole setup process to a novice.
Good suggestion re: paperwork downloads, guys! Let’s see what we can do for the next Winston-Salem ops video featuring David and Jenny. BTW, you eagle-eyed viewers (Hi there, Marty!) missed the most important change in the credits (Hint: someone’s title). — KJ, MRVP assoc. producer
This is the best in explaining how to plan and make way bills yet. Since I’m a novice at this portion of model railroading, it has been of great importance in learning how it works. Thanks so much for clearing that up for me and I’m sure for countless others getting started.
FYI, just noticed on credits at the end, the title said “Scratch building a pipe load …..
Larry, that’s a “contributing editor”. Marty asked what a “contrUbuting editor” does – see the caption on the video 😉
Good job and made what was always hard to understand quite simple. We need more videos like this for operations and the variety of switching schemes that seem to be coming into play. Good camera work and lighting. As a retired video producer, please check your final master and we all have made errors when getting the job done.
Excellent information.
I totally agree with the others that wanted some place to download things referred to in one of the videos – here templates for the car cards would be fantastic as well as a copy of the word file you ‘borrowed’ so we can ‘borrow’ it too 🙂
Not 100% sure your statement about loading off road cars verses sending them home empty is correct? It’s my understanding a railroad like the Winston Salem Southbound would be encouraged by it’s interchange partners and owners to use N&W, SAL and ACL equipment for loads originating on the WSS, verses loading a Santa Fe boxcar that happened to show up on the system from Chicago. It is my understanding in the era of the WSS, interchange railroads were paid a percentage of the total freight bill based on mileage and terminal fees. Now if you originated a freight car load that was placed in a home road car, you received a bigger piece of the pie. It’s also my understanding this lead to the creation of Trailer Train (TT) Corp., Railbox and in later years per-diem boxcars. With Railbox any member could load a RailBox boxcar and this is what lead to better utilization of the equipment, cars spent less time heading to a home yard empty.
Wikpedia has annanswer for that:
A contributing editor is a newspaper, magazine or online job title that varies in its responsibilities. Often, but not always, a contributing editor is a freelancer or consultant who has proven ability and has readership draw. This contributing editor would regularly contribute articles to the publication but does not actually edit articles. Here the title “editor” implies a certain level of prestige, rather than a more traditional editing role. In other instances, however, a contributing editor may oversee projects or specific aspects of a publication and have more regular editing duties. At smaller magazines, the title can imply a staff member with regular writing responsibility and some editorial duties.
The combination of graphics and expert description finally made clear for me what operations is all about. One question: David and Tony referred to the layout’s staging area, but I couldn’t quite discern where exactly it is located. Loving the WSS series!
Great video, I can see I will be watching this several times. Couple of questions:
1) For this layout, does one Operating “Session” equal one train ? A train comes in from staging, works the industries and goes back to staging, is that a “Session”?
2) Once a car is delivered to the correct industry, does the car card get turned then or is it turned between sessions?
3) Does each “track” get a box or each “Spot”?
4) Not a question but an observation, the video content ends at 17:35 but the video continues with a black screen until 19:21. No big deal, just too much time on my hands.
I better start watching my local Barnes & Noble for Model Railroad Planning 2017.
Will template for paperwork be available?
Have you considered making a running list of material and other pop up items available for download so that we can go back and get them without having to go through video again?