Op Session yesterday and waybills

 I went to an op session yesterday at Rich Steinmann’s Erie-Lackawanna Morris and Essex division layout. I have to say I had a great time. I was able to physically finish the session, which for these days is always nice. But I got a good job and was kept busy and challenged for the session. 

Specifically I ran the Morristown and Essex switch job, the M&E switches a town, waits for an interchange from the EL, and switches a bit more.

I got a long look, for the second time, at Rich’s car cards and waybills and I’m fairly sure I’ll be stealing his template. His layout is set in northern New Jersey. Railroads in this area are packed close together and cross often. It’s this type of railroading that lead so many railroad historians to comment that America’s railroad industry was over built. Out West, where I’m from, tracks are generally few and far between. Here in the industrial east, each hamlet has four different railroads serving it. It’s no wonder there was an impression of over building. Three railroads could go bankrupt and cease operation and there was still three more still going.

In order for me to get a mental handle on this situation I asked which line carries traffic from Chicago. Rick smiled and replied that it was not that simple, and then proceeded to point out four different points on his layout that connected with routes to Chicago. It’s just not that simple. 

Even with all this his waybills were simple. 

On the job I worked waybills gave you four choices:

E (East)

W (West)

Essex (On my train that returns with me at the end of the day)

Local (Cars going to industry spots in my area of responsibility)

All the industries were clearly marked. Some cars were a bit confusing, but not totally improbable. We had two PFE reefers billed to a plumbing warehouse (We assumed they were cars of beer for the plumbers). It is not unreasonable to assume that the shipper had two loads of plumbing supplies to ship, and they had to impound two reefers because there wasn’t anything else  available. To be honest I was more concerned about an ART reefer being billed to the Swift branch house. First it was a produce reefer, second, it’s a Swift branch house, it would have been a Swift reefer. These are nit picky items. 

Back to the CCWB’s. Cars billed off the layout to points west did not need color codes, or station codes, or via lines. It was simply one letter, W.

Simple as that. I had a block of “W” cars and a block of  “E” cars for the EL transfer to pick up. I was told later I did not need to block them, the yard would do that. 

Can I apply this to my layout? I think so.

As you might know we have been trying to present a CCWB system that offers our operators a “Good, Better, Best” set of options.

A car going West off my layout might be going to the WLE in Zanesville, OH, or Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit, or Chicago. So “Good” would be if the car just got on the right train, “Better” might be in blocks of like cars, and “Best” might be if the blocks were grouped with like blocks in the correct train.

I have wanted to include colors on my CCWB’s to delineate between a Westbound car going to St. Louis (Blue) and a Westbound car going to Chicago (Orange).

So should my waybill read:

W-Chicago (In an orange text box)

As long as the guy gets the car on the Orange train, I’m good with that. A better operator might get all the Chicago cars together in the correct train. In either case, as long as that car goes in the correct train, and ends up in the correct staging yard, WINNER.

Now I am also billing cars with preferred movement waybills. These waybills, which are printed on pink paper, represent cars for which a premium shipping cost is paid by the customer. Things like expedited LCL, Auto parts, or perishables would most likely be moving on these preferred waybills. 

These cars go into  particular trains, all scheduled 2nd Class freights. So admittedly I’m throwing another curve at the crews. Two cars with waybills directing that the car goes to Chicago, but one is printed on pink paper. One cars goes into train 71, and the other goes in an extra.