Switch lists and Waybills

 On the AIR I use car cards and waybills (CCWB) to forward cars. From time to time I include a switch-list in the train packet to give the crews another clue that they have work along the way.

Sometimes these switch-lists have caused mild confusion. “What do I pay attention to the car cards or the Switch-list”.

Both is the answer.

The CCWB tells you where the car is going. The switch-list tells you where to spot the car. There is a subtle difference.

A car card that reads, “Newsome Agriculture, Webster Springs, VA.; warehouse loading dock” tells us specifically where that cars is going, ultimately. The accompanying switch-list, listing the same car might read; “east end Webster Springs siding”.

It instructs us to set this car out on the east end of the siding because later on in the session the Webster Springs Turn will show up to spot that car.

The train with the car and switch-list listed above, is a through freight and it’s just setting blocks out, not spotting cars at specific industries. I use switch lists to instruct the train crew that I have work for them, that’s not on their train brief. 

I use both on the AIR, and I’m aware of the debate that you should use one or the other. I view them as two versions of the same thing. CCWB’s are a dynamic switch list, one that you can arrange anyway you want simply by organizing the cards one way or another.

A written switch list comes in handy if I need a train crew to do something that is not normally in their list of tasks. 

I’m very comfortable with both systems, and happily reject the argument that one is more prototypically correct than the other, or that I must adopt one over the other.

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