Model Freight Train Operation

[Zomboid]

I think what would help most is a mock up of one of the cards. That'll probably show that it's either really intuitive or... Well, not.

 

I'm imagining something like a top trumps card right now, which basically tells you what to do with the consignment, and how long you have to do it.

[Ray H]

I can't seem to attach the .PDF file below in a manner that allows it to be read. Printing the original then scanning and creating a visible image thereof may well detract from the appearance.

 

This is very much the first attempt to convert thoughts to paper. I've effectively scrapped the separate supplementary (printed) codes on the consignment cards, replacing them either with text or colours.

 

The idea of adding the weights of consignments is to avoid "overloading" the wagons and really only relates to "smalls" traffic if I get to the stage of incorporating their meaningful conveyance (or whether I revert to my original idea of having just a single consignment in a wagon.

 

I can't think of a practical way to emulate the real railway's ability to use several wagons for a single consignment because the consignment cards need to stay together but are then separated as soon as they are placed in the wagon card holders. In addition, because the consignments on the reverse side are unlikely to be the same, the consignments cards get separated even more as soon as the train conveying the consignment reaches its destination.

 

I've not included site maps of the station. Suffice to say they will be track plans with siding areas identified by one or more letter/number combinations. They may be coloured simply to aid distinguishing one area from another.

 

I'd be pleased to receive comments and suggestions.

 

Freight Card Samples.pdf

[Zomboid]

The cards themselves make pretty good sense to me, I can see how that would work now. The colours I'm not so clear on, I'll have a look in the morning and see if that's changed...

[The Stationmaster]

I can't seem to attach the .PDF file below in a manner that allows it to be read. Printing the original then scanning and creating a visible image thereof may well detract from the appearance.

 

This is very much the first attempt to convert thoughts to paper. I've effectively scrapped the separate supplementary (printed) codes on the consignment cards, replacing them either with text or colours.

 

The idea of adding the weights of consignments is to avoid "overloading" the wagons and really only relates to "smalls" traffic if I get to the stage of incorporating their meaningful conveyance (or whether I revert to my original idea of having just a single consignment in a wagon.

 

I can't think of a practical way to emulate the real railway's ability to use several wagons for a single consignment because the consignment cards need to stay together but are then separated as soon as they are placed in the wagon card holders. In addition, because the consignments on the reverse side are unlikely to be the same, the consignments cards get separated even more as soon as the train conveying the consignment reaches its destination.

 

I've not included site maps of the station. Suffice to say they will be track plans with siding areas identified by one or more letter/number combinations. They may be coloured simply to aid distinguishing one area from another.

 

I'd be pleased to receive comments and suggestions.

 

Freight Card Samples.pdf

One possible answer to more than one wagonload in a consignment is to use cards with a number/suffix.  Thus at ordinary rates of despatch once a week there might be 3 items of machinery as outwards traffic with sufficiently low weight to make them a single wagonload.  But every now *& then - just like 'seasonal traffic' cards similar cards with a suffix identifier are added to the basic card because the factory is producing and despatching a big order.  Hence every time you draw/deal such a card you'll look for a suffix card or you get a suffix card attached to it.

 

You then get a potential feast & famine situation with outwards traffic  (just as we used to get in their later years with Huntley & Palmer when virtually all they despatched by rail was shipment traffic and it only passed when it was ready to go and  either the ship was open for loading or it was going into a warehouse for a short while waiting the ship.  So nothing for several weeks then perhaps a wagon or two and the next day there would be 4 or 5 wagons.  Then nothing again for several weeks.  With the added 'bonus' that depending on how the traffic was packaged it might mean ordering in empty wagons because the depot 'made' very few ordinary opens from inwards traffic. 

[Chimer]

Continuing to play Devil's Advocate, while still loving the overall concept and thinking the wagon cards with the pockets are great ......

 

I see a problem with changing the destinations for consignment cards by changing the colour of the various yards on a daily basis if you have any industries served by the modelled yards that require regular deliveries of something.  For example, if you were to model "Fred's Foodstuffs" at station1, it might need regular bulk grain deliveries .... but a grain consignment card would only have station 1 as its destination 1 day in every 5.  And the consignment card you show delivering Fred's products could only logically have station 1 as its origin, and really wouldn't ever want to have station 1 as its destination - but it will, 1 in 5.

 

Also, if a consignment delivery isn't completed during one session, due to, say, having to wire for the right wagon, will its destination change when the colours change for the next session?

 

Do tell me if I begin to annoy you!!

[Zomboid]

I think having a mix of random consignments and non random ones might address that. Possibly even some that just recur. (every Friday a delivery of rat droppings is required by Freds foods, for example, no matter what else is drawn from the deck).

[Ray H]

I'm more than happy to discuss my suggestions and recognise that there may one or more significant points that I haven't thought of (which is why I've thrown it open for debate).

 

Although I've shown five colours on the "slider", there's no reason why that has to be either the upper or lower limit.

 

Likewise, the colours don't always need to repeat in the same order, nor for the slider to move the same way or in a sequence between days.

 

It would be possible to have a card for each colour with the same origin/destination (and it may be necessary to have two of each, with opposing sides to the fore) to address regular traffic.

 

You're right, the destination of the load is determined by the destination code applicable on the day of despatch, not the day the "wire" card is initiated.

 

I haven't given serious thought to the use of "wire" cards in fiddle yards and had probably subconsciously thought that wagons would be moved between them by hand without delay if necessary.

 

It isn't beyond the realms of possibility that regular traffic could have specific start & end locations indicated on the consignment card and this configuration could over-ride the day's (coloured) destination code. It would then be possible (for example) to have a single consignment card with opposing origin and destination points on opposite sides of the card with a single wagon restricted to work between the two locations. That would provide an alternate day service. Double the number of consignment cards and the number of similar wagons and there's the makings of a daily traffic. This returns to the concept of the same wagon(s) only moving between the same place(s) but I suspect that wasn't completely unheard of on the real railway with specialist wagons. Let's face it, that's what MGR trains frequently involved!

[Coder Tim]

Excellent thread, I really like the system you've come up with.

 

I had an alternative idea for randomising the destinations:

 

Instead of a fixed destination code on the consignment card you could have a pocket for a "destination" card and a list of valid destinations.  You would then have a deck of location cards.  When the consignment is assigned to a station you would draw a location card from the deck.  If it's on the list of valid destinations it goes in the pocket and is the destination for that consignment, if it isn't on the list it goes to the next consignment without a destination and you draw again until you get a valid one.  You could create the alternate day service by having a consignment card with the list limited to one location on the front and the other location on the back.

 

I also see one consequence of the double sided consignment system: it's going to be inherently self-balancing.  If a location has ten arrivals one day it will have ten departures the next.  You could add the unloading delay you were talking about earlier but you will end up with the same effect occurring over multiple days.  I think this will mean that you will never have to deal with a single location being overloaded over time and another location being relatively empty.  This could be a good or bad thing depending on whether you think it would be fun or frustrating to deal with those situations.  You could add some randomness to this by returning some or all of the free consignment cards to a central pool and drawing location cards to determine their new origin at the start of the operating day.  You would also need to add a list of valid origins to the consignments.

 

Anyway, just some random thoughts, like I say I think it's a really good system already.

[Ray H]

The consignment cards won't necessarily relate to consignments that require the same wagon type on each side. For example, it may relate to a coal load (I.e. open wagon) inbound and a local fruit load (i.e. van) outbound. As the coal wagons return empty automatically, we need a van to be sourced for the outbound load. This may require a "wire" card or there may be a van available off another inbound load the consignment card of which relates to a cattle load on its reverse.

 

I can understand the thought behind the destination cards. I'll give it some thought but I'm concerned that the scheme is already more complex than I had originally hoped. Adding another variable won't ease that situation, but thanks for the suggestion.

[chesterfield]

I have followed this thread with great interest.

 

I don't think anyone has offered you a one card system approach so at the risk of egg on face may I offer one to you?

 

Earle T Hackett has written on this system both in the January 2015 edition of the Dispatcher's Office which is the publication of the Opsig group and again in a PowerPoint presentation which may be found at [http://www.phillynmra.org/wp-content/uploads/Car-Orders-without-Numbers.pdf]

 

The system he outlines has strong resemblance to your idea of "wired"requests for wagons and I think you might find it interesting. It can apply to both goods and passenger traffic, closed wagons and open wagons.

Chesterfield

[Chimer]

I have followed this thread with great interest.

 

I don't think anyone has offered you a one card system approach so at the risk of egg on face may I offer one to you?

 

Earle T Hackett has written on this system both in the January 2015 edition of the Dispatcher's Office which is the publication of the Opsig group and again in a PowerPoint presentation which may be found at [http://www.phillynmra.org/wp-content/uploads/Car-Orders-without-Numbers.pdf]

 

The system he outlines has strong resemblance to your idea of "wired"requests for wagons and I think you might find it interesting. It can apply to both goods and passenger traffic, closed wagons and open wagons.

Chesterfield

 

That's very interesting.  Given that I recognise "staging" as "fiddle yard", my mind is working on translating that process to a typical UK steam age trip freight scenario where "industry" and "yard" are co-located and the role of the "local" becomes shunting by the engine of the "through".  I quite like the idea of leaving trains intact in the FY - you could perhaps have 2 or 3 different trip freight "consists" in cassettes which are sent through at random, constantly shuffled around by the fall of the cards.  And obviously other freight traffic such as long coal trains working through unaffected by the cards ...... hmmm.

 

Chris

[The Stationmaster]

That's very interesting.  Given that I recognise "staging" as "fiddle yard", my mind is working on translating that process to a typical UK steam age trip freight scenario where "industry" and "yard" are co-located and the role of the "local" becomes shunting by the engine of the "through".  I quite like the idea of leaving trains intact in the FY - you could perhaps have 2 or 3 different trip freight "consists" in cassettes which are sent through at random, constantly shuffled around by the fall of the cards.  And obviously other freight traffic such as long coal trains working through unaffected by the cards ...... hmmm.

 

Chris

Not quite like that I think -

 

staging=fiddle yard="yard", i.e. the latter is the place where the local trip originates and is formed up.

"industry" = the goods yard at your visible station, or stations, and/or private sidings on the layout.

 

The trip consists are, according to era, inevitably going to include some common and repetitive traffics - coal being the most obvious and a van or vans for goods smalls if you have a  depot to handle that sort of traffic but other things can be variable or be influenced by industries in the locality, seasonal traffic (if you go into that sort of detail) and so on.  Similar certain forwarded or empty wagons will occur at a specific rate, especially vans (unless there is some sort of local industry producing traffic at a variable rate).

 

In many respects the system Ray has developed takes the latter into account by reflecting the prototype system of ordering wagons for traffic needs - in other words empties are brought in to fulfil orders for wagons which cannot be met by empties 'made' locally.  That relates directly to traffic rather than to wagons although it would work under the system linked provided the cards for outwards traffic relate to it rather than to wagons and thus generate a need for a wagon rather than providing a reason for a wagon which is there.

  

[Ray H]

Many thanks for the link to the interesting PowerPoint presentation. It does seem somewhat simpler than what I'm hoping to attempt to test out over the next few months. However, it also seems quite restrictive the way I understand it. The main limitation appears to be that there is only a single "Order Card" for each physical (siding?) berth and that means that whilst the actual vehicle might vary, it will always be the same type of vehicle to be found in the same spot and once the use of an "Order Card" has been triggered that's that until the "Order Card" becomes available again. Each leg of a wagon's movement could take a (timetable) day to achieve which could mean that a berth lay empty for four days in an exceptional circumstance and more likely two (timetable) days. Please correct me if I've misunderstood the concept.

 

I can't see what happens if a specific consignment - either inbound or outbound - requires several wagons. Does that assume the use of several spots.

 

I fully recognise that having said that the idea appears to be simpler than what I'm hoping test, I hasten to add that my idea started out based around a single card. That number has reluctantly had to increase as I realised that the real railway couldn't have coped with the idea I'd developed so far.

 

I don't have enough of a variety of wagon types at present to test a completely generic based system. Instead I may  use some form of (temporary) mark on each wagon that I do have to represent the different vehicle types. I can then look to enhance the wagon fleet once I'm reasonably confident that the idea is workable.

 

I think that there was a significant difference between the organisation of the movement of wagons and loads on either side of the pond and what suited one side may not have been practical for the other.

 

I see it as similar to suggestion that a branch passenger was always composed of X number of carriages and thus always required a specific type of loco regardless of the part of the country we're talking about. We all recognise that such a simple concept wouldn't work. I'm sure that there were many occasions when a load of (insert load description) was sometimes conveyed by a 10T box van or a 12T box van or even a sheeted 7 plank wagon. Likewise, the use of a specific position on the mileage siding could probably never had been guaranteed.

 

Now that reminds me . . .    I probably need to provide for the use of one or more alternative berths on my consignment cards.

 

Thanks once again and do feel free to chuck in any comments you wish (save that I'd prefer that none of them wanted me to leave the country)!.

[Chimer]

It's definitely simpler, and just designed (I think) to provide shunting puzzles.  It certainly doesn't approach Ray's much more realistic method of first defining what needs to be moved, then working out how to move it.  But it does have some interesting features.

 

I have to disagree with Mike on the translation - the Powerpoint definitely shows "staging" and "yard" as two separate areas.  And the explanation describes "through" freights going from "staging" to "yard", where wagons are stripped out to make up "locals" which then go to "industry".

[The Stationmaster]

It's definitely simpler, and just designed (I think) to provide shunting puzzles.  It certainly doesn't approach Ray's much more realistic method of first defining what needs to be moved, then working out how to move it.  But it does have some interesting features.

 

I have to disagree with Mike on the translation - the Powerpoint definitely shows "staging" and "yard" as two separate areas.  And the explanation describes "through" freights going from "staging" to "yard", where wagons are stripped out to make up "locals" which then go to "industry".

Yes - but unlike the US approach to layouts British layouts tend not to have 'yards' (i.e. marshalling yards) but only terminals in the form of goods yards/depots and/or private sidings - thus in the vast majority of cases our trains come onto the visible parts of the layout from an offstage yard.  

 

On most of the larger, including home based, US layouts a train (or trains) emerge from staging and run to the yard where they are broken up or re-formed for either local trips or further mainline trains and the trips return to their starting yard, or another one on the layout, for the same to happen.

[Chimer]

Exactly, that's why I was pondering if/how the basic method could be applied in a more usual roundy-roundy fiddle yard/station with goods yard/fiddle yard scenario.  I think with minor tweaking it could, but I'm not sure how well it would work.

[Ray H]

I've at last got my layout in a state where I can consider testing the basis of the freight movements mentioned above.

 

Things didn't start well as the printer jammed and needed partial dismantling to resolve the problem after a considerable period of uttering expletives. In between time the printer was printing at slower than snail's pace.

 

Testing is being conducted in overview mode. For example, all cards are more like a thick coloured paper and they will be held together by paper clips. Even the consignment cards simply say "Consignment", there's no further description.

 

I've identified the wagons as simply as I can - 5-plank (PO), vanfit, etc.. There's no attempt at this stage to reference a specific wagon unless it is by inference when there's only one wagon of a type on the layout.

 

I've used a red card for the "Wire" cards and currently have just four for each of the two stations on the scenic section of the layout.

 

A wagon's description is printed on yellow card and I've used blue card for the consignment cards.

 

I created an Excel worksheet containing a row for each wagon (save that I eventually discovered that I'd overlooked a few!). I added a random number to each row in the range from 1 to 5 to reflect the two stations and three fiddle yards on the layout and converted those five digits into the letters A to E. The idea is to vary the translation of the code to represent different station on different days.

 

I'd previously labelled each stabling berth on the scenic section with an alpha-numeric code. For example GS equates to the Goods Shed which there will be at the larger station. I then labelled a stretch of siding at the other station on the scenic section with the same codes. These codes will be ignored at the fiddle yards. The reverse of the consignment cards showed a wagon type - not necessarily the same as on the front of the card - and a fiddle yard destination. My thinking at this stage being that this would route the wagon concerned back to a fiddle yard in preparation for its next usage.

 

This left me with wire cards with the originating station printed on them, Yellow stock cards and blue consignment cards showing a wagon type, the destination "station" and (where appropriate) the berth at that location.

 

I'd pre-positioned a number of different wagons at the two intermediate stations and in each of the three fiddle yards.

 

I placed an appropriately labelled yellow card on each wagon and subsequently added a consignment card on top. This is where I discovered I'd overlooked a few wagons.

 

Goof Number 1 had been made. I was mixing the three (fiddle yard) letters within the five alphabetic "destination" codes with the specific fiddle yard descriptions on the reverse of the consignment card. In other words I was using both sides of a consignment card interchangeably. I could have ended up with all the wagons going to the same place and (as I did because each side of the consignment cards required different vehicles) numerous wagons without consignment cards and several spares cards with no wagons.

 

I (think that I) need to:

• differentiate on the consignment between the directions the consignment will take (clockwise or anti-clockwise will suffice).
• make sure that the consignment cards that involve the use of a dedicated wagon have an out and back working on each side of the card.
• ensure inappropriate wagons aren't routed to somewhere where there are no facilities to handle them.
• devise a means whereby the smaller station (and the smaller two fiddle yards) aren't inundated with traffic.
• add the previously mentioned "turn around" time to the consignment cards to vary the loading on each train.

Back to the drawing board for a while at least.

 

Edited to rationalise the last couple of paragraphs

[Ray H]

Much of my freight rolling stock was obtained for an earlier layout that never got too far. My intention was that the composition of through trains would try to reflect that of the real railway and not comprise solely of four wheeled open wagons and vans.

 

I think there is still justification for the occasional use of these less popular vehicles on the present layout but this will be limited to operation between the various fiddle yards. Consequently I shall put out and back workings on the same consignment card and give each the maximum “unloading” (or turn round) time so that they aren’t available for each train.

 

These will be amongst those wagons where the destination is explicitly specified. The other vehicles that fall into this category are cases where I have multiples of vehicles that are not appropriate for locations without the relevant facilities such as Oil tank wagons. These will be treated similarly to the isolated examples. However, the destinations will be rotated within the group so that individual vehicles aren’t always limited to working between the same two locations.

 

I have always been alert to the fact that the smaller of the two stations has less than half of the siding capacity of the other station. Latterly I have been misguidedly adopting this approach for the two fiddle yards with less track than the third, totally ignoring the fact that I’d always intended to crane shunt at each, making actual siding capacity irrelevant.

 

I intend to use several card colours for consignments. An individual colour will represent a destination on any given day. I think that treating all three fiddle yards equally (and no less than the larger station capacity wise) will simplify the destination coding.

 

I am now able to have different berth codes at the two stations – berth codes being ignored in the fiddle yards.

 

My current thinking is to have three different destination colour combinations as follows – I’ve used a single digit to represent each colour in the following table and FY = Fiddle Yard, L = Large station, S = Smaller station.

 

   Location   FY1  FY2  FY3   L    S
Cycle A        1    2    3    4    5
Cycle B        2    3    4    1    6
Cycle C        3    4    1    2    7

 

This adds a further way of limiting traffic for the smaller station because unallocated colour consignment cards (e.g. 6 & 7 on cycle A) will be ignored on days when cycle A is in use.

 

The sequence rotation wouldn’t always be the same e.g., A, B, C, A, B, C, etc. Instead it may be A, C, A, B, C, B, A, B, C.

 

Released consignments cards – those when the vehicle conveying the consignment is judged to have been unloaded – will be turned over and added to the bottom of the relevant colour pile of consignment cards in the fiddle yards or the single card stack at the two stations

 

One further challenge that I may yet have to overcome is finding a way to determine which of a possible excess of different coloured consignment cards (at the fiddle yards) are used as the basis to create trains. Experimentation with the rest of the scheme first should indicate whether this is something that I need to add to the mix in due course.

[Ray H]

We managed the first run-through of the timetable on my layout yesterday. Realistic freight movements were still in my mind but I was more concerned with making sure the schedule was practical with enough time to shunt freights.

 

It wasn't and the timetable will be stretched when there's freight to shunt even though I thought I'd already allowed ample time.

 

There are potentially four destinations (and the trip's origin point) on the layout for freight traffic (including the three fiddle yards). There are then the individual places to spot wagons at each location on the scenic part of the layout.

 

Alas, what did gradually dawn on me was that the length of the loop at one of the stations (and a similar length of the majority of fiddle yard sidings across the layout) means that there has to be a normal limit of just eight wagons on each freight train (excluding the brake van).

 

I'm now left to ponder whether the scheme that I have dreamt up can realistically work within that limitation. I could accept an average of one wagon for the smaller of the two stations but that is a junction so there would most likely be something detached to work along the "other" route as well. Even two wagons would probably be insufficient for this.

 

The larger station probably warrants more than a couple of wagons to service its own requirement. Then there's the line beyond with its (off-scene) number of intermediate stations. That alone would probably merit the full compliment of my short trains.

 

I've already got three freights in the timetable and the layout's only a rural branch so anything more is probably far too many.

 

I need to arrive at a means whereby I can limit the number of wagons for each location but, at the same time, not always have two for one place, three for the next and two for a third destination if the current idea is to work.

 

Picks up pencil and paper and sets off in the general direction of the drawing board without any sign of a smile on his face.

[Chimer]

Ray

 

Don't know whether either of these are feasible given the way you want to operate but:

 

1.  For longer trains, could you make them up on two roads in the FY and combine them as the train pulls out?

 

2.  To avoid the need to run round, only shunt trailing sidings, so any given spot can only be accessed from trains going in one direction.  On the branch, this could mean wagons for intermediate stations going up to the terminus and coming back to be dropped off from the return working, or being picked up on the way to the terminus despite needing to go in the other direction eventually.  Operationally interesting?

 

Cheers

 

Chris

[Rivercider]

Apologies if I have missed it but how do you decide which of your three daily freight trains each wagon goes on?

 

Perhaps you could nominate one train in each direction daily as a through train conveying wagons to or from 'up the line' and this one does not shunt,

the other two trains each way then convey all the traffic to be dropped off or picked up at your on scene stations.

 

Then as Chris suggests above could you also make the through freight train over length if neccesary even if it is longer than one of your loops

as it will not need to call to shunt. There must be plenty of prototypical locations where this happened, for example the North Devon line

between Exeter and Barnstaple had a number of stations where passing two trains had to be carefully planned if one was too long for the loop.

 

Good luck with your plans, I think the secret is in achieving the correct balance between a regular identifiable pattern of normal traffic

made interesting by peaks and troughs in the regular flows, spiced up by seasonal or occasional special traffics and wagons,

 

cheers

[Ray H]

Thanks for the comments.

 

My prime objectives were to have variable length trains whilst avoiding the same wagons routinely running between the same two places and to develop something reasonably generic that others might find usable.

 

For those not aware of my layout (and its story line) I'll endeavour to summarise.

• The main fiddle yard represents the line towards Bletchley in the east and Oxford in the west.
• The first station (Virney Junction) has a single platform face with passing loop, a private siding at the rear of the platform and a two road goods yard alongside the passing loop. There is also a trailing junction off the passing loop to a second fiddle yard (parallel to the first) that represents the line back towards Aylesbury.
• The second station (Buckinhum) has a bay platform with kick-back to a private siding and a main platform. The run round loop leads to a short siding in one direction and a headshunt in the other but also has connections to two further parallel sidings and one long kick-back (mileage) siding alongside the headshunt off those. One siding has a Goods shed, beyond which is a trailing crossover connected to the run round loop as well as a small rail served building.
• The line continues to a single siding third fiddle yard that represents the line to Banbury. However, the story goes that (off-scene) and just beyond Buckinhum a recent examination of the bridge over the River Ouse has placed a weight restriction on that bridge so passenger trains are limited to a four wheeled railbus and although most freight has been diverted via the Western Region's line through Banbury the residue is tripped beyond Buckinhum by a small 0-6-0 shunter. Consequently there are no through trains between the two end of the branch.

There are probably seven "spots" for wagons at Virney Junction and ten at Buckinhum. There were a couple of small intermediate stations on the line between Buckingham and Banbury as well as the much larger Brackley.

 

The private siding at Buckinhum serves a factory and that at the Junction a warehouse, both owned by the same company with some rail traffic between the two. Likewise and probably rarely, there might be the odd wagon from the Banbury "extension" destined for the Junction.

 

The three freights that I envisage running are two from Bletchley one of which reverses at the junction and heads back to Aylesbury. The third is from Oxford, the latter possibly conveying some traffic that needs to be left at the Junction to go to Aylesbury. The two branch freights are recessed at Virney Junction in each direction for passenger trains to pass.

 

I could shunt Virney Junction heading towards Buckinhum which would provide scope to lengthen the trains - one main fiddle yard siding can hold three more wagons than the others. Likewise I could route any return traffic for the Junction via the fiddle yard to avoid shunting in the opposite direction.

 

Maintaining variable lengths with the right proportions in each trains make-up are the areas where I'm struggling given that a system that started out more or less with wagon, consignment and wire cards has already grown to include more variables. I would like to avoid the need to add in throw a dice options to determine how many wagons are bound for each location when making up the trains.

[Ray H]

Although involved with several other model related projects my mind keeps returning to this thorny problem.

 

The administration of the system that my original idea has slowly developed into is constantly causing me headaches and I'm the one who has dreamt the idea up so what chance has anyone else got? No, I'm not giving up but I am still trying to arrive at a solution that achieves something that bears a reasonable resemblance to the prototypical freight train operation of old without over-burdening the process.

 

I may be wrong but I have come to suspect that generally speaking rural branch traffic was inwards for much of the year with outward traffic being largely seasonal unless the branch was blessed with something substantial other than agriculture to generate a steady outbound traffic flow. On that basis I can but draw the conclusion that a large amount of branch freight movements comprised returning empty wagons. This makes a system based on consignments slightly one sided and a system that requires three types of card - wagons, consignments & wire cards - is never going to be the easiest to organise and run even though I'm convinced that it could be self perpetuating (at least eventually).

 

My current thoughts are based around three parameters:

1 - the day of operation

2 - the generic destination of the vehicle

3 - the more specific positioning of the vehicle at the destination.

 

Parameter 1 is designed to prevent the same wagon appearing on the scenic section each time the layout is operated. It would be possible to restrict vehicle movements by identifying a specific instance of a sequence or timetable by a colour or number and echoing that identity on each vehicle.

 

Parameter 2 provides the target ("station") destination for the vehicle indicating to the (layout) operator where the vehicle should be detached from the train or to which train it should be attached to reach that destination. Again, an identity attached to individual vehicles would provide the information and a model wide look-up table that could be changed each "day" would provide different combinations of destination/identity.

 

Parameter 3 is largely ignored off the scenic section. Its purpose is to indicate to the operator where the vehicle is to be placed on arrival at its destination. A local guide would be available to provide the translation.

 

For example, the timetable/sequence/day could be identified by a colour - e.g. green - and only vehicles carrying that identification would be moved during the related operating session(s). The vehicle would be removed at the destination indicated by the second identity and shunted to the (siding) location at that place in accordance with identity three. Parameter 1 would determine which vehicles were despatched from a (scenic area) station whilst parameter 2 would indicate which (destination of) train the vehicle should be attached and parameter 3 would be ignored.

 

Prototypically vehicles carried a label on the solebar but trying to incorporate the above three identities into a single 4mm size label would require better vision than needed to read the model wagon's number! I'm not even sure that it would be possible to incorporate two of the above three identities within such a scale sized label.

 

My current thinking is to use a specific colour for each of the three identities. That may require three different colours or portrayal of the same colour thrice so there needs to be some form of separation between the three identities.

 

I keep thinking that three colour spots will serve the purpose. One spot can equate to the prototypical label on the solebar but I can't help but feel that two further colour marks/spots close by would look out of place unless anyone can suggest where I might mark the vehicles with the required (coloured) identities in such a way that it isn't necessary to get close up to the vehicle to "read" them (and they didn't mar the vehicle's appearance).

[Chimer]

Hi Ray

 

I think you have over-thought / over-complicated your initial excellent idea of basing your traffic on consignments rather than wagons.  I have got a few half-formed simplifying thoughts in my head which would probably take me a couple of days to get into clear enough shape to turn into understandable words on here - but I fear they will involve throwing a few dice, which I know you're not keen on, so is it worth me carrying on?

 

Cheers

 

Chris 

[St Enodoc]

Hi Ray

 

I think you have over-thought / over-complicated your initial excellent idea of basing your traffic on consignments rather than wagons.  I have got a few half-formed simplifying thoughts in my head which would probably take me a couple of days to get into clear enough shape to turn into understandable words on here - but I fear they will involve throwing a few dice, which I know you're not keen on, so is it worth me carrying on?

 

Cheers

 

Chris 

Now that someone has mentioned dice, can I offer up my method, which focuses only on wagons and not what's in them (or not in them as the case may be)? It does depend on wagons having different numbers so if that's not the case it won't work.

 

It uses playing cards to select the destination for each wagon and a dice to randomise the selection so that wagons don’t always go to the same destinations every time.

 

I wrote it up and presented it at a BRMA Convention a few years ago and if anyone’s interested I’ll post the typescript of the presentation (possibly in more than one part as it’s about 2000 words long).