Transfers: accommodating crew members differing skill levels

 One of the problems I am admittedly overly concerned about is crafting jobs that can more easily accommodate different operators skill levels; the pace at which they accomplish tasks. Given an op session length of four hours some operators can switch 100 cars, while others can switch 10 cars. Both have fun. One has greater “through-put”.

What I don’t want is for one guy to finish in two hours and have to sit around, while the other is busy,  happily switching cars,  but by the end of the session has left 90 cars in the yard, un-touched.

So I adopted the idea of transfer runs to allow each operator to draw additional cars, at his own pace.

What I was missing was a timing procedure.

I believe I found it last weekend. I was operating the Paper Mill job on Jim Rogers B&O Charleston Div. Layout. Jim has a series of card boxes at the mill. They have various labels, which I do not specifically remember, but something like:

Spot

Processing 

Working

Filing paperwork

Pick-up

When the paper mill job arrives with their first transfer from Clarksburg yard they put those cars cards in the “spot” box and spot those cars. 

When he put those cards into the “spot box” he moves the cards already in the “spot” box one box to the right into the “processing “ box. He moves those cards one box to the right, and so on until he removes the car cards from the Pick-up box. He picks up those cars, assembles a transfer, and heads off to Clarksburg yard. Once at Clarksburg he picks up any cars for the Paper Mill, returns to the mill, and starts all over again.

The car cards work their way through the five card boxes, simulating the time it takes to work each car, creating a timer of sorts that runs at the pace of the crew member working the job. If a crew member can work the mill job and run one transfer good. I was able to run four transfers in a four hour session, and I took plenty of time to rest, talk, and otherwise goof off.

I thought this system was brilliant. Thousands of you are probably thinking, “Well, hell, Paul, I’ve been doing that for YEARS. What rock have you been under?”

This system is a variation of the age old three box system: set-out, hold, pick-up.

It’s twist is that that old three box system was spread over three sessions, this system, AND THE WAY IT IS USED HERE, regulates the movement of cars in ONE session. 

If I were to employ this system at my freight house, cars destined to connect with through freights early in the session would be billed into the pick-up box, during staging. Cars for connections later in the session go into the next box TO THE LEFT of the “pick-up” box, and would get pulled after the first transfer run had been accomplished.

There is a great deal of attention necessary during staging to keep these industries running smoothly, but I consider that worth it IF the results are a better dovetail between operator skill level and job.

What are your thoughts? How are you regulating the job intensities on your layout to the different skill levels of your crew members?


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