Waybills, Part 123: improving 4-cycle bills

I have mentioned several times in this long series of posts on waybill topics, that my approach to creation of more prototypical waybills need not follow my own choices, for example, the use of baseball card sleeves, but can be applied more broadly. Today’s post arises from a reminder of an effort I made some years ago for a friend who wanted to keep his familiar four-cycle car cards and waybills, but wanted them to be more prototypical.

The ideas behind this system appear to go back to Don McFall in the 1980s; see his articles in Model Railroading, in the Fall 1982 (Vol. 13, no. 1) , and April 1987 (Vol. 17, no. 5) issues. Pre-printed forms soon became available from Old Line Graphics (which is apparently no longer in business), and something quite similar can now be purchased from Micro-Mark. 

I’m sure most modelers know this system well, but for clarity, one folds up the bottom of the blank car card and tapes it to form a pocket. The “return to” place on the car card can be billed in with a specific yard or staging point. The blank waybill at right (with cycles 3 and 4 on the back) can then be filled out as the modeler desires. Completed waybills are then inserted into the car card to direct car movement.

 The car card-waybill system, whether or not it is operated in the four-cycle manner, can readily be specialized for use. Lots of computer applications can create new versions of these forms, or adding text into digital copies of these forms; I use Photoshop. 

My friend, the late Otis McGee, originally used this four-cycle system on his layout. He had specialized the waybills with simplified destination and contents information, but color coded by the routing. This is a step forward.

Incidentally, I later designed a new, prototypical waybill for Otis’s layout to replace this four-cycle system, printed all the bills, and put the system into use. This process was described in a post some time ago (see it at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2011/08/waybills-10.html ).

I should also mention, without identifying anyone, that some users have gone to the opposite extreme and really avoided any specifics in their use of the system, though certainly it still directs car movement. 

On the other hand, some users have shown that it is quite possible to place realistic information on one of these waybills. If I remember correctly, this one was donated to me from Chuck Hitchcock’s old layout.

This is much the approach I recommended to my friend who wanted help, as mentioned in the first paragraph of this post. Here is one of the examples I made up for him to consider (his layout was to be located in Oregon).

These examples, I hope, indicate how a much more prototypical waybill can be made for use in the four-cycle system. I continue to dislike the rigidity of the four cycles, but realize it’s a simpler system than my own, and can be implemented by those who have waybill boxes and other requirements of the four-cycle system already in place on their layout.

Tony Thompson