Waybills, Part 124: Introducing my system

At a modelers’ meeting not long ago, I was asked an interesting question, one I couldn’t readily answer without visual aids. The question was, how do I introduce my layout’s system of waybills at an operating session, to those who may know nothing about it? I do have an introduction (with visual aids) that I’ve been using for years, and perhaps it would be of interest to show what it is.

I chose a number of waybills that would illustrate the main features, and printed them out on 8.5 x 11-inch paper (the waybills I actually use are only 2.5 x 3.5 inches in size).  The photo below shows that this method yields “visual aids” that can be appreciated by a group of people. 

My first pair of waybills is intended to illustrate the overall prototype format (a vertical division between the destination and consignee on the left, and the shipper and place of origin on the right; and with cargo shown below). Car initials and number are at the top, along with AAR car type (the latter not being prototypical). Here are a pair that I show (you can click to enlarge).  

These are an inbound load at left, to be delivered to an industry on the layout, and an outbound load at right, which will be picked up at an industry on the layout and moved to the SP main line to be taken to San Luis Obispo and put into a through train.

 I then show an additional pair of waybills, which were chosen for a particular purpose, beyond illustrating the prototype locations of information. The one on the left, in particular, dates from an early operating session, and the conductor who had this waybill came to me and said, “I can’t find Carlson’s Furniture.” I quietly pointed out the additional information after the name: “HS. TRK.,” of course meaning “house track.” In other words, conductors need to read the whole waybill. The same message applies to the second one; here the vital information is “TM. TRK.,” naturally meaning “team track.”

These waybills of course contain all the information a crew needs to handle them. But this isn’t true of every bill they encounter. The Empty Car Bill, modified from an SP document, looks like this for an inbound car:

This bill shows the town to which the car is destined, but does not identify the shipper. This is because the empty car was ordered by the agent in that town, and the agent knows which shipper get the car. That in turn means the crew has to stop at the depot and consult with the agent. In the model situation, there is no one acting as agent, so an agent’s message is provided (for background, see: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2015/06/operating-with-agent-messages.html ). Below is a sample, showing where PFE 40559 should be spotted.  

Next I show a perishable bill. This form was recommended by the AAR to be printed on pink stock, and the SP followed that recommendation. This also could tell the crew that they need to spot the car for  initial icing, that is, filling the ice bunkers before the car begins its journey to destination.

At this point, I show a pair of tank car bills for a privately owned tank car (in this case, General American). A private owner could request that empty cars move to the desired destination on a regular freight waybill instead of an Empty Car Bill, so that movement would be expedited, rather than wait for each successive railroad which received the empty, having to prepare an Empty Car Bill.

Lastly, I show a card that is waybill-size and requests a re-spot of a car. This was modified from a UP route card. The car initials and number are shown toward the bottom, and the places from which and to which the car is to be moved are shown.

With all this being spelled out, I have found that crews understand and use the waybill system very well. So I guess the key elements must all be there.

Tony Thompson