Waybills, Part 125: Routing

 I have written before about the routing part of a waybill. But most of it was about reasonable routing, not actually the prototype procedure. The latter is the topic today. For the prior posts, I recommend this one (at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2012/05/waybills-24-routing.html ) along with a later follow-up on the same subject, which is at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2015/02/waybills-part-37-routing-of-loads.html .

On the prototype, the ICC approved routes, and rates for those routes. Immense numbers of official listings resulted. Here is one example of a routing book, which was issued for the Nickel Plate. This is an 8.5 x.11-inch book, and more impressively, it’s 1-3/4 inches thick, 1008 pages.  

The cover repays some attention, prominently identifying itself as Eastbound Routing Guide No. 1 (there would also have been Westbound Routing Guide books). It became effective on September 15, 1945. As you can note below, this only applies originating movements from the six states of the NKP (omitting Michigan), to destinations in 10 eastern states plus the District of Columbia. Other eastbound guides would be needed for New England and the Southeast.

The book begins with a list of participating destination railroads, and gives their abbreviations, in the destination states. This only occupies three pages. 

Second, a list of destination stations is given, occupying pages 7 to 71, completing Section 1 of the book (entitled “Stations from and to which routes apply”). Shown below is a randomly chosen page, page 19, showing destination stations in Maryland and giving each one a number. 

Next, these station numbers were grouped with routes by number, which is Section 2 of the book, pages 75 to 1000. For each railroad on which the final consignee is located, routes beyond various interchanges from NKP to final railroad are given. These are listed in groups by final-interchange railroad. In the example below, page 111, part of a larger list of approved routes via Baltimore & Ohio is shown. As an example (you can click to enlarge), route 32 is to hand the car off at Fort Wayne, Indiana, and move via PRR to DuBois, PA, where it is handed off to the B&O, which will deliver to final destination.

 Finally with all these route numbers defined for each final railroad, we can show approved routes by number, from specific groups of NKP stations. The originating NKP stations are listed by station number. There is no need to tabulate those for NKP employees, as those numbers are in every employee timetable. Each group of NKP station numbers has a corresponding list of ICC-approved route numbers to groups of destination stations on the final railroad of delivery. This of course appears impenetrable by itself (see example page 99 below). But as shown in the previous example page, each interchanged railroad listing contains the explanation of route numbers, followed by further interchange railroad(s) and junction(s).  

So how would a clerk use this book? Say you're at Frankfort, Indiana on the NKP (station 2206) and you have a shipper wanting to move a load to Frederick, Maryland, on the B&O (station 1385). The shipper in the great majority of cases chooses routing, as is their right, and they may have specified interchanging from the NKP to the B&O at Fostoria, Ohio (south of Toledo). The clerk can find on the page 111, shown above, that this is route 33. Then on page 99, above, route 33 is shown as approved between these station numbers. 

My friend Jerry Stewart, at one time a Chief Clerk in Chicago, told me that even an experienced route clerk would need plenty of patience and time, and still might not find an unapproved route anywhere east of the Mississippi. Still, routing was checked in the way just described. What about roundabout routes, deliberately chosen to lengthen the delivery time for price purposes? Routes could be strung together, but each segment still had to be an approved route. 

I am omitting a second large issue, rates. Each route had an associated rate. But I’m not going there today (for a little more on it, see this post: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2025/02/waybills-part-118-more-information.html ). Arbitrarily chosen routes could well result in higher rates. 

Does this affect how we create model waybills? By no means. Aside from the inconvenience and lack of importance of doing so, you would need a really big set of routing guides. You saw above the size of this single NKP book, and I mentioned that there were probably five or six more, just for the NKP. Imagine now a set of books for all the Class One railroads. Jerry said a complete set would fill a couple of 20-foot shelves. But I find it interesting to see how this work was done in the pre-computer age.

Tony Thompson 

 

Making a silk purse . . . Part 2

Recently I posted about making a “scenery” version of an old Athearn reefer, lettered for Fruit Growers Express, by modeling it with its doors open (see it at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2025/10/making-silk-purse.html ). I had only intended to describe broadly what I was going to do, and then show the final result. But I received an email asking if I would show more of the process. Luckily, I did take a few photos during the process.

First, having removed the old ice hatches that were shown previously, I also sliced off the “hinge” bulges and the bulge for the latch bar, along with removing the clunky running board. Then I cut off the Athearn locating posts under the running board, and glued them into their roof holes. This is shown in the photo below, at left. 

Then I used Tamiya putty to fill the hinge holes and scale 1 x 6-inch styrene strip to cover the latch bar hole. Some of the running board post holes also needed putty. This step is shown at right, below, with the roof also cleaned up. 

With those steps completed, I touched up the new areas with brown. I added a Walthers white metal Ajax brake wheel (no longer produced), and turned to the underframe. I used the Athearn coupler boxes, secured with 2-56 screws, to host new Kadee no. 158 couplers, and replaced the steel-axle wheelsets in the Athearn metal sprung trucks with InterMountain wheelsets. 

Next I reattached the Athearn ice hatches, replacing two that were damaged with new Athearn parts, and installed the Plano running board with canopy glue. Lastly, I represented latch bars with scale 1 x 3-inch styrene strip. This doesn’t really look much like a real latch bar, but will suffice for this “scenery” model, following Richard Hendrickson’s dictum that this is a place where “there should be something there.” 

Now I could mask the sides and ends with Tamiya tape, and spray paint the entire roof brown, to blend everything together.  And with a coat of protective flat overall, I proceeded to weathering, following my usual method using washes of acrylic tube paint (for more on that, see the “Reference pages” linked at the top right corner of this post). 

I now added the doors, using strips of ordinary Scotch tape as hinges. This allows a choice of how widely open the modeler wants the doors to be, dependent on how strongly creased are the pieces of tape. Here is my choice. And though I don’t plan to do it, the doors can be closed, too.

The purpose of this model, as mentioned at the outset of these two posts, was to model as “scenery” a reefer with open doors at a loading dock. It’s shown below alongside the dock at Guadalupe Fruit Co. in my layout town of Ballard.

This was an interesting project, because not many of my freight cars are intended as scenery; and I learned a few things in the process. Can’t beat that.

Tony Thompson 

The AAR publicity photos

 Back in the 1950s, the AAR (Association of American Railroads) issued a set of large-format photo prints (8.5 x 11 inches) on heavy paper to schools and to the general public. I’ve never seen a complete set, though many people seem to have a few or a handful. I am told there were 60 photos total, all numbered (highest number I’ve seen personally was 55). The great majority are in fact publicity photos contributed by individual railroads. They are interesting in a number of ways, and I thought I would show a few.

The lowest numbers are very early images of different kinds (no. 4 is the famous photo of the two engines nose to nose at Promontory in 1869, with people everywhere). What I have always found amusing is that to avoid  publicizing individual railroads, whenever lettering is visible, it was replaced (sometimes a little crudely) with the legend “East & West Railroad.” It is a particularly entertaining detail when the original railroad is blindingly obvious, like this one (you can click to enlarge): 

 Similarly, a steam photo, showing filling a tender, is quite obviously a Norfolk & Western Class A 2-6-6-4, with its engine number, 1203, visible on the cab, but of course with the “East & West” name on the tender. The locale certainly looks like Roanoke Shops. 

But in many ways the more interesting views to me include the ones showing aspects of freight service. A good example is this photo showing loading of a meat refrigerator car with hanging meat. The Swift Company label is on a couple of the visible carcasses.   

Another interesting example is this view (supplied by United Fruit Company) showing a banana ship alongside barges of refrigerator cars. Two of the reefers are visibly lettered “MDT,” so in this instance the AAR did not feel compelled to replace the initials with “E&W.” The same goes for the inset photo, showing banana handling, with a Northern Refrigerator car in the background. 

Lastly, I liked this photo of a railroad stores building, with material stored outdoors, under cover but open to the air, and on interior shelving (the inset photo). This is something rarely modeled but an interesting challenge, and an “industry” that can ship and receive a wide variety of cargo.  

These are just a few of the AAR photos in the set, but should serve to show the range of interesting views that were included. And school children and others who viewed them hopefully obtained some idea of what railroading was all about. 

Tony Thompson 

Operating SP passenger trains

I’ve posted on related topics to this one several times, mostly about individual passenger cars. One informative post is about fitting cars to trains (see it at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2021/05/mainline-passenger-cars-on-small-layout.html ) I also posted about an alternative to the trains mentioned below, namely the coast mail train, nos. 71 and 72, shown in this post: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2012/10/choosing-model-sp-passenger-cars.html .  

The two distinctive passenger trains of the Coast Route, on which my layout is located, were the Daylight and the overnight Lark, all-Pullman in my 1953 modeling year. As I have often commented, my layout’s staging is too short to host a 12- to 15-car version of either train, which is the size they ran in my era. That leaves two options: operate the layout during a period of the day or night when neither train would operate, or operate a conjectural second section of either train.

In 1953, both trains were normally pulled by Daylight-painted GS-4 or -5 steam engines. I have a Key brass locomotive model that represents SP GS-5 no. 4458. It’s shown here as an eastward train passing the depot at Shumala on my layout, trailed by one of the distinctive Daylight combines, SP 3302 (Soho) and a coach (SP 2401, Athearn). This is necessarily a short train, usually six cars, and would be operated as second 98. 

This combine was painted by me, including striping by my mask and spray technique (see: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2023/09/modeling-sp-passenger-cars-part-17.html ). I have repeatedly found this far easier than decal stripes, as described in the post just cited.

The other distinctive Daylight cars were the boat-tail observations, of which I have another Soho model, which I painted and lettered as SP 2952. (That would make it a Class 79-PRO-1, whereas it’s really a model of the earlier 77-PRO-1 cars.) It’s shown below on a westward train, second 99, just leaving Shumala. 

Though these Soho cars are not very detailed or exactly accurate, they certain capture the look of the SP cars. For more about these cars, see Jeff Cauthen and Don Munger’s book about Lounge, Dome and Parlor Cars, Vol. 5 in the series, Southern Pacific Passenger Cars (SP Historical & Technical Society, Upland, CA, 2012). 

The other distinctive train, as mentioned, was the Lark, and again, I can operate a short train of Lark equipment as a second section. Here too, normal power was a GS class. Below is a westward train, second 75, just crossing Chamisal Road in Shumala. This is a Coach Yard model of SP’s modernized RPOs for Lark service, trailed by Lark sleepers.

Finally,  the Lark operated for some years with boat-tail observations too. The original two cars built for the Lark were both destroyed in wrecks by the end of 1942, and thereafter SP used Pullman-operated sleeper-buffet-lounge-observation cars, numbers SP 9500 and 9501. Shown below is my model representing 9500, though it is a Balboa 77-foot observation. It’s shown on an eastward second 76, just passing the engine terminal and caboose track in Shumala.  

Occasionally the railroad president’s car operated on the Coast Division. That car for many years was named Sunset, no. 140, and was the standard Dark Olive Green color. Coach Yard offered this car in brass a few years ago. This model would be anomalous on my 1953 layout, however, because the prototype was repainted from green to Two-Tone Gray in February of 1952. The more famous Sunset was the stainless steel no. 150, built in 1955, after which no. 140 was renamed Stanford. For more on the subject, see Munger and Cauthen’s Southern Pacific Official Cars (SP H&TS, Upland, CA, 2015). The model’s shown below on an eastward train. 

These various second section versions of famous trains are fun to include in an operating session, and within limits I have the rolling stock to do it. As noted above, most of them involve compromises in accuracy of the cars, but they serve the purpose.

Tony Thompson 

Another visit to Bob Hanmer’s layout

I have operated a number of times at Bob Hanmer’s very nice layout in the Chicago area, modeling the Great Northern as well as the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range railroads. A recent report about it is at this link: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2024/07/an-operating-weekend-around-chicago.html .

In that post, I mentioned my discovery that a paper manufacturer that I had chosen from Internet sources, to ship to the printing plant on my layout, Blandin Paper in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, was an industry I’d switched at Bob’s! Naturally I gave him a copy of my waybill for this, shown below. 

Bob enjoyed this little detail, and on my most recent visit, connected with this year’s Naperville meeting (which I’ve already commented upon: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2024/07/an-operating-weekend-around-chicago.html ), I was once again invited to operate at Bob’s, and he was pleased to show me the corresponding waybill departing his industry: 

This waybill is 4.5 x 5.5 inches in size, and many experienced operators will recognize it as a product of the Steve Karas waybill system (note that at the very bottom of the bill is a copyright notice for Steve — you may click on the image to enlarge it if you wish).  

I have long admired the products of this system, but haven’t wanted to write too much about it. Since Steve’s passing, the software has not been supported, and at the moment it’s probably not a good idea to consider adopting it. However, there is talk of the software being revived and updated, so if this is of interest, keep your ears open. 

While at the layout, I operated a couple of jobs, one of which was interesting as it was the mine turn to the Canisteo Mine, picking up loads and spotting empties at the mine’s loading spot. Our crew naturally was issued a train order for this move, as seen below (with the clearance card folded back).

It’s not a difficult job, just involves some switching moves at Canisteo. Below is a photo of the assigned mine switcher, used for local work. We didn’t use this engine, as our road engines, F7 types, did the work for our job. Note the long string of empties on the back track. 

On previous visits, I have admired how Bob has handled these ore cars, recognizing that regular loading with ore, followed by gravity unloading, during which any interior paint or rust would be scraped off, means that car interiors are neither rusty nor painted, but should have a bare metal appearance. Bob used a mask to allow painting of car after car with a nearly identical look:   

I found this a nice touch, and very much typical of the overall fine quality of this layout. Thanks again, Bob, for the invites, realistic operations, and the terrific layout.

 Tony Thompson 

An op session briefing

Before each operating session begins on my layout, I present a short briefing, as do many layout owners before sessions. I want to make sure the layout locale and background is appreciated, and that people know how my waybill system works, along with important items like the location of the bathroom and the fire extinguisher, and the emergency exit (just one, same as the entrance). 

So what do I cover, about the layout itself? I begin with explaining where the layout is imagined to be located in California, as discussed previously (see that post at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2019/08/conveying-ones-layout-locale.html ). I show an 8.5 x 11-inch version of the map below, mention that the railroad is Southern Pacific’s Coast Division, and state that the era is 1953.    

We always operate on the date in 1953 that matches the day of operation, so for example if we were operating on November 15 of the current year, the day on the layout would be November 15, 1953. 

This affects primarily crops being harvested and shipped out of my packing houses (as I’ve described: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2015/09/seasonality-of-crops-and-traffic.html ). Especially at times of diverse crop shipment, I may show a table of crop harvest times. Below is the crop table for vegetables in the area I model (there’s also a fruit table.). Peak harvesting is shown by black bars, “shoulder” seasons in gray. 

I usually also add a little about my layout goals, if any of the operators are new or haven’t been here for awhile. My goal is to recreate freight railroading as it was practiced on the Southern Pacific in 1953 in rural areas of the central California coast, using not only period-specific and locale-specific rolling stock, but also operational procedures typical of SP at that time. 

I often mention the prototype California vehicle license plate in use in 1953. I have an actual vintage one on the wall above the door, as you see below. In the 1950s, California issued full plates every five years or so, and during the intermediate years, issued corner numbers to be added to the plate to cover the old year. As shown below, in 1953 it was white. I have modeled this plate appearance for all my HO vehicles, as previously posted (see it at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2012/11/vehicle-license-plates-in-ho-scale.html ). 

I then run through my waybill system of car movement, using full-page (8.5 x 11 inch) blow-ups of each type of bill. I won’t say more about this segment of the briefing here, since I’ve already posted a full description (see: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2025/10/waybills-part-124-introducing-my-system.html ). 

Turning to the time of day for our 1953 operating session, I explain that we use a wall clock set to layout time, not the time on your watch or cell phone. It is a 1:1 clock, so not a fast clock, but it does differ from “real world” time. I wrote about my clock choice in a post a few years ago (it’s here: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2022/08/replacing-fast-clock.html ). 

It’s also important to introduce the layout timetable. I described my timetable components in some detail in a column for Model Railroad Hobbyist, back in October 2014 (you can still access it to read online, or download, for free, at www.mrhmag.com ). 

My timetable provides mainline train times, in conjunction with a line-up (about which, see this: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2019/01/line-ups-for-operating.html ), and contains schematic maps of each layout town to facilitate identifying industries and spot numbers. Here’s an example.

In that same post cited in the paragraph above, I included a copy of the train order form we use, to authorize trains on the Santa Rosalia Branch. I show the operators what the Southern Pacific prototype train order and clearance forms look like. 

I point out that pencils are available on the sorting shelves (see: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2025/10/small-project-layout-sorting-shelves.html ), along with small flashlights to assist in reading car numbers, if needed. Plenty of blank switch lists are available for those who like to use them, along with clipboards to use if desired. 

Lastly, I mention the kinds of track switch throws on the layout, from Bitter Creek and Caboose Industries, to Star and Peco, two switches back from the aisle that use manual push-pull operation, and a few powered turnouts, and I demonstrate their operation for those who haven’t seen them before.

I also point out that if a car comes off the track, feel free to put it back on. If it keeps happening with that car, tell me. Likewise if a coupler is troublesome, or a track switch misbehaves, I will fix it if I can during the session. But tell me: it’s the only way I know what needs to be fixed. And with that, the session is off and running.

Tony Thompson 

Riding the (Rio Grande) Zephyr in 1980

I recently came across an article I wrote for a local modeling publication after riding the Zephyr that was still being operated by the Denver & Rio Grande Western between Denver and Salt Lake City in 1980 (originally a joint train of the CB&Q, D&RGW, and WP between Chicago and California). I found it an interesting account, and thought I would share it here.

Background: I had organized (along with my colleague Mel Bernstein) an international technical conference on hydrogen embrittlement in metals, the third in a series of such conferences that I helped organize (eventually there would be six), which was held at Jackson Lake Lodge, in Grand Teton National Park in 1980. 

At this conference, we gave registrants T-shirts, the image on which is shown below. The upper emblem is that of the Metallurgical Society of AIME, a sponsor, and the lower one is Carnegie-Mellon University, where I was employed at the time.

After the formation of Amtrak in 1970, the D&RGW would continue to operate its part of the Zephyr until 1983. When it was discontinued, it was the last privately operated passenger train in the U.S. Because of the spectacular scenery through which it ran, it was often photographed. Here is a single example, an on-line photo in Utah not credited by photographer but dated 1981, the year after I rode it. 

Here is the text I wrote at that time, published in my local NMRA division newsletter.

“Yes, Virginia, there still are passenger trains in America . . . ones that leave and arrive on time, that serve good food, that have clean windows and clean interiors. But as you would immediately guess, they don’t have ‘pointless arrows’ on them.  

“You may have already realized that I’m referring to Nos. 17 and 18, the Rio Grande Zephyrs. Certainly a highlight, if not the highlight, our family vacation this past summer was a ride from Salt Lake City to Denver aboard No. 18. 

“To any railfan, the trip has to be a delight, from the moment you board the ex-California Zephyr or CZ cars like Silver Pine, Silver Mustang or others, and spot the three F9’s on the point. The cars are in just amazing condition, looking scarcely a third of their 30-year age. The same can’t be said for the F’s, which are prone to big bursts of black smoke at every throttle change; but orange and silver F’s can’t be all bad. And they do move pretty well, outpacing cars on parallel I-15 for miles south of Salt Lake. 

“One also discovers that the Rio Grande is a pretty busy railroad. We passed 15 freights headed west in 13 hours. I asked the conductor why we never overtook any headed east. He smiled: ‘They have the same schedule we do.’ 

“Most of those freights were fairly short, 25 to 40 cars, with three to six SD-40’s on the head end, and sometimes a couple on the rear end. In fact, I didn’t see any power on the road that wasn’t an SD-40, though the yards hold plenty of Geeps and other engine types.

“Several of the meets were ‘on the fly,’ both trains moving, no doubt a big help on the long grades.And I hadn’t appreciated how much of the traffic today is coal. Many of the trains would fit perfectly into a Chessie or N&W scene with no trouble (except for lettering, of course!)

“For those with an historical bent, there are lots of signs of the past. Many of the D&RGW’s fleets of GS gondolas and 40-ft. box cars are still around, most stenciled ‘MW,’ and there are still many of the orange-and-silver box cars running, too. Buildings and tanks in several places were still stenciled with old, round ‘Scenic Line of the World’ emblem usually 15 feet high. Most of the terminals still have turntables and roundhouses; just this summer, the Grande has been pulling down the last remains of water tanks and coal docks in some sidings.  

“But the real news is the Zephyr. An eight-car train with five domes, with all dome seats unreserved, means that everyone who wants to watch the scenery (and railroad operations) can do so with no hassle. Unlike what one usually encounters on Amtrak, the glass in the domes is unclouded, uncracked, and clean. The same goes for windows downstairs. 

“We ate all three meals in the diner, since No. 18 leaves at 7:30 AM. The food was pretty darn good. Incidentally, the menu still has the notation which it bore in CZ days: ‘It will be a pleasure to serve any dish not listed that you may wish if it is available.’ They mean it, too: we saw a couple ask for and get lamb chops that weren’t on the menu that night. The prices were reasonable, comparable in my memory to Amtrak, though the quality seemed higher.

“I talked with both the Salt Lake agent and the conductor about patronage of the Zephyr, and they agreed that it tends to be steady year-round, with skiers in the winter, fall foliage, and of course the summer vacation trade, which is heaviest. Train size varies from five to ten cars.

“On the question of how much the D&RGW loses on the train, both said that it isn’t much ‘now that the fare’s been raised.’ Four tickets for our family totaled $100.16, so it is not an expensive ride, even today. And both said that the railroad means to continue the train for the time being.

“I hardly need to summarize that it was a lot of fun. And as my wife observed, it was more relaxing than a trip of half the time on an airplane, and you didn’t have to eat out of your lap. Don’t miss it if you have the chance.”

It was fun for me to re-discover this small essay, about an interesting slice of time, and of course, to re-live that very pleasant journey. 

Tony Thompson