tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3218524178230712938.post5314017388590527153..comments2024-03-26T10:21:28.283-07:00Comments on modeling the SP: Waybills, Part 19: confiscationTony Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11593061828601275378noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3218524178230712938.post-76583365178510805862012-03-28T10:06:09.308-07:002012-03-28T10:06:09.308-07:00Thanks for the thoughtful comments, Andy. You are ...Thanks for the thoughtful comments, Andy. You are right that the example I chose to use from Otis McGee's layout is really not confiscation--but the process described would WORK for confiscation. I had the waybills handy since we have been trying to solve the problem of getting the right number of lumber empties to the industries that need them, and these happen to be home-road cars for this cargo on the SP.<br /><br />A car moving "For Loading," as you say, may well be filling a specific request. But it also may not. It was commonplace for "Equipment Instructions" to be in force on a railroad, directing empties (flat cars, say) to a specific yard where they were needed. That does not represent a specific customer request, it is merely an accumulation point for those cars. I agree with your suggestion that a yardmaster or car distributor would have to know the difference. BTW, I discussed "Equipment Instructions" in a blog post for January 30, 2011, entitled Modeling Freight Traffic-4" and showed the version in use on my layout, if you are interested.<br /><br />On your last question, Long-Bell entirely ships rough lumber on flat cars and probably prefers 53 ft., 6 in. cars. That is what the yardmaster or car distributor would know (though on the layout we could provide that detail as part of the Job Description for that job).<br />Tony ThompsonTony Thompsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11593061828601275378noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3218524178230712938.post-17875354196385172642012-03-25T19:58:26.837-07:002012-03-25T19:58:26.837-07:00Hi Tony, As with a number of other comments, I ha...Hi Tony, As with a number of other comments, I have very much enjoyed your blog and in particular your waybills thread. I also attended your waybills clinic at the Milwaukee NMRA convention. It is interesting to see the nuance changes over time. Thanks for making your journey available to the rest of us.<br /><br />I had a couple of thoughts on your recent “Confiscation” blog, and would be interested in your further comments. First, the definition of confiscation at the beginning of the blog refers only to empty foreign cars, rather than home cars. However, the example given at the end relating to Otis McGee’s layout involves an SP car, which I believe is a home car on his layout. That does appear to be an appropriate car under the Car Service Rules as based on the overlay waybill provided it appears the car was to be both loaded (Dorris, CA) and delivered (Santa Ana, CA) on the SP (I am assuming SP went to Santa Ana and serviced the relevant consignee). Query whether the correct technical term in that case is a “confiscation”, however, I don’t know that matters much.<br /><br />What it got me thinking about is any differences between a confiscation of a foreign car and, say, a “redirection” of a home car. It seems that maybe a confiscation of a foreign car might be easier in that it is being sent back to its home road, under the “For Home” section of the Empty Car Bill, and as such has not yet been directed by a Yardmaster or Agent for loading at a particular customer. Accordingly, I am thinking that confiscating a foreign car being dealt with under the “For Home” section of the Empty Car Bill will not disrupt an already organized plan to send an MTY to a particular customer - I am assuming that in the real prototype world a foreign road would not know when an off-road car of that foreign road will return and therefore does not plan for the directing of an off-road car until it actually returns to the foreign road (the four cycle waybill approach in the model world is, of course, inconsistent with the real world here, and there is disruption in a modeled cycle if a returning empty is confiscated).<br /><br />A home car being moved, however, has often been requested by a customer and then an agent and is now enroute (under the “For Loading” section of the Empty Car Bill) for loading by that particular customer. Redirecting that car with a new Empty Car Bill would disrupt the already organized move to that customer. In your Otis McGee example it appears that perhaps there is a general ongoing movement of empty flat cars north to Eugene to be available for subsequent direction to customers in the logging/lumber industry, so a redirection at Dunsmuir of a flat car would not disrupt an already organized move to a particular customer. This permits the rule you refer to on Otis’s layout in respect of confiscating empty flat cars destined Eugene or beyond. However, I wonder if in the normal case one would need to be careful before redirecting a home car moving under “For Loading” instructions on an Empty Car Bill.<br /><br />Lastly, I am wondering how the Dunsmuir Yardmaster knows what type of car to send to Dorris for the Long-Bell Lumber Co? There is no car designation on the short (overlay) Empty Car Bill. Is another car request form used?<br /><br />Thanks again,<br />Andy Love<br />Calgary, AlbertaUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13491204864482596401noreply@blogger.com