About five years ago, I posted some thoughts about how car movements are directed on my layout, prior to and during an operating session. This was in response to a question about how an op (that is, operating) session is set up. That previous post is at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2021/07/selecting-cars-for-op-session.html .
Since that time, I have heard any number of layout owners talk about how they set up op sessions. One commonly mentioned goal is to make the layout “self-resetting,” or “continuously operated.” That usually means that at the end of an operating session, the clock and layout power can be turned off, and at the next session, days, weeks or months later, simply turned back on, and operations can continue.
To make this happen, train schedules obviously have to continue also, either onward through the “timetable-night,” or automatically the next morning. More importantly, from the viewpoint of the present post, car cards/waybills have to have been turned or changed at some point.
Sometimes the layout operation includes turning waybills when cars are spotted, while in other cases the layout owner may do that between sessions. But the goal is for car cards/waybills to direct operation in potentially continuous fashion. Cars naturally move from staging onto the layout, and move off again as part of their waybill cycle. Once waybills are cycled in staging, everything can repeat.
But often in practice, this “hands-off” approach doesn’t work well, with industries having too many or too few cars in some sessions, and even local trains that can turn out too big or too small. Part of the problem can simply be too many cars on the layout, or too many waybills for one or more industries. But fine tuning can only go so far in creating a reproducible continuous operation.
Often the answer is more intervention for each session, checking how the waybill numbers look for specific trains and destinations, and altering them to suit. No, this is no longer “automatic,” but it produces more consistent sessions. That was what proved necessary on my late friend Otis McGee’s layout.
My layout emphasizes individual car cycles, including the spotting of empty cars for loading. This gondola is being moved to Jupiter Pump & Compressor in my layout town of Ballard to receive an outbound load. The power is a Key brass model of an SP Class C-10 Consolidation, SP 2829, with its rectangular tender.
On my layout, I usually start my plan for each op session by simply choosing a number of industries set outs or pickups that seem appropriate, based on “walking around” the layout and comparing status of all sidings with the “industry actions” list from the previous session (as I described earlier: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2019/07/waybills-part-66-car-movement-system.html ).
I originally created the “actions” list, showing what cars were at which industries, which ones were to be switched, and which new cars would be spotted, just as a convenience for the following session. I often pair op sessions over a weekend, Saturday and Sunday afternoons, and with the “actions” list, it is quick and easy to re-stage everything for Sunday, merely returning to Saturday’s starting arrangement.
But since then, the list has proven to have other uses. I can readily check back on previous sessions and see what sequences had been followed, and decide if I want to continue them, or go in different directions. I also have a record of how heavily certain favorite cars have been used, and can make sure to rotate them off the layout so that I can bring into play as many cars of my fleet as possible.
To illustrate the amount of information, I show below the “actions” from the two sessions I hosted last April for the ProRail operating event (for my commentary on it, see: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2024/04/prorail-2024.html ). These were my 90th and 91st sessions on the present layout. I don’t mean for readers to examine this image (unless it’s really interesting), but only to show the sheer volume of data represented. Though the main goal originally was the re-set, I’ve found it to be a real tool for session planning. (You can click on the image to enlarge it if you wish.)
Because the list shows me what was set out and picked up in the previous session, often I concentrate on pickups and set-outs at industries that were not switched in the prior session, then fine-tuning the numbers of each local train for the branch, so things will work all right. The goal is interesting and enjoyable sessions for visiting operators, and good sequences of industries served for my vision of the layout.
This also applies to through freight trains. I regularly cycle the cars in these trains to maintain variety, and they rarely or never operate in successive sessions in identical consists. Below is an example of eastward timetable freight No. 916, just reaching Shumala on the layout.
I feel that there is more to say on this, and likely I will return to the topic in future posts.
Tony Thompson
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