Freight Agent/ car distributor :part one

 The idea is to creat a position whose responsibility is car utilization. He would receive some instructions at the start of the session like:

1) The apple warehouse needs 20 reefers.

2) The Flour Mill needs clean 40’ boxcars

Etc.

He might also receive several MTY car requests for one car.

He would scan the industries around the layout. At one small town there might be a boxcar that has been released by an industry at one end of town, matched by a request for a car at the other. He would write a switch list instructing the local to pull the car from industry “A” and re-spot it at industry “G”.

Also while scanning he might find several reefers that are MTY, which he would then bill to the clean-out track, and eventually these reefers would make their way to the Apple warehouse for loading.

My guess is he would have blank bills that he would hand-write to re-direct the cars in question.

There could be a bulletin instructing him to send MTY 40’ boxcars off-layout West for grain loading. These cars could be re-directed to the yard where they could be held for a train West.

I recently operated on a layout that had a Budweiser Brewery. This brewery needed Rbl insulated boxcars in quantity. A similar type operation could include a Freight Agent, who would constantly be on the lookout for suitable Rbl’s. He would re-direct all the Rbl’s that were suitable, every session.

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