Good, Better, best part two

 On AIR1, My waybills directing cars to off layout locations were, in my opinion, ultra-simple. I had four staging yards: WM, EAST, SOUTH, and WEST. Each of these bills was a different color. My idea was that YM’s could block cars by color, or by the written word, that is, WEST, etc.

Recently I asked one of my crew members for some input about the coal waybills. His most telling comment to me was, “I blocked cars by their destination, if the bill read “EAST”, I sent it EAST. If the bill read “WEST” I sent it WEST. I have no idea where “Green” was.

So much for my ideas. 

My idea, currently, was to give the operating crew the ability to accomplish the same task, but with different skill levels. My current waybills are, in my opinion, ultra simple. They have a colored box printed on them. In the box is a directional destination and a city. The waybill might have an ORANGE text box that reads WEST/Chicago.

So, for example, a YM could block all the cars by color, all the orange’s on one track, all the blues on another, and so on. 

At the end of the day, this would be good.

Another YM might take the same cars and build blocks for Cleveland, Detroit, and Chicago, all orange colored. This would be better.

A third YM might build blocks of preferred movement cars for Cleveland & Detroit and put them in 2nd class train 97.

His blocks of cars for Zanesville, Toledo, Detroit, and Chicago, which were not preferred, would go in an extra RC-1 train. This would be best.

Are you starting to get the idea? 

Either way, Good, Better, or Best, the Orange cars go to the right staging yard, the job gets done. The crew member gets a sense of accomplishment. And during staging, I do not pull out my hair.



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