Interchanging Cars between Layouts

 Several years ago I had the privilege of attending a Pro Rail event in the region around Detroit. While there I was made aware of a round robin group made up of contemporary era layouts, led by Bruce Carpenter*, representing various different roads. Each of these layouts had numerous points of interchange between other layouts. 

So far this idea seems fairly mundane, except this group chose an interesting solution to interchanging these cars. If you, for example, had a UP layout that interchanged with the BNSF, you routed cars for BNSF to the appropriate staging yard on your layout. Upon the completion of your op session, you packed up the cars for the BNSF into a box, and sent them, via UPS, to the BNSF layout in the round robin group.

The BNSF sometime between sessions, received a box from you, unpacked it, placed the cars on the layout, and forwarded them as per their waybills.

If you were a CN layout, and you had cars for a DRGW layout, but did not directly connect, you mailed them to the adjacent layout, and he then forwarded them across his layout, and placed your DRGW bound cars into his UPS box heading to the DRGW.

I was told you often waited six months or longer to eventually get your cars back. Additionally if you had connections with multiple layouts you shipped multiple boxes after each session, and received multiple boxes of cars before the next session. 

I was told that all members of this round Robin group had agreed to use a uniform car card system; agreed to model a common era; utilized one person to weather ALL the cars, to insure a uniform look; agreed to have a uniform car labeling system to identify each cars owner; agreed to limit each individual transfer to 100 cars.

With this in mind you might have 5 or 6 HUNDRED cars in transit at any one time.

As I understand it this group operated this way for quite some time, and while I’ve heard that Bruce Carpenter is currently no longer involved (I heard he is building a new layout), as far as I know they are still going.

Whew!

So how does this apply to my layout? 

I have always been  intrigued by this interchange. How can I make it fit my 1952 era layout, when my local modelers model various era’s? The interchange needs to cross not just physical distance, but time as well. 

What I did on my AIR1 layout, when I interchanged cars with a friend, Jon Cure*, who had a layout set in the 1980’s, was I had two cars from my era, waybilled to his layout (as it would exist in 1952), and only the paperwork would be exchanged. Jon had two cars, of his era, lettered for my railroad (With artwork as it would appear in 1980).

These cars then came out of the appropriate staging yard, on his layout, at the next session, and were forwarded appropriately.

Okay two cars was easy. Now I have a modeling friend who models CSX in the contemporary era. He wants to interchange cars to my layout, set in 1952. As it turns out I, connect with the B&O, of 1952, in a location that is still part of the CSX in 2024. The commodity was fairly simple, the B&O of 1952 carries coal, as does the CSX of 2024. 

I suggested that he send coal hoppers into a staging yard that is adjacent to my layouts location, and on my layout I would pull a string of 55 ton B&O coal hoppers out of my appropriate staging yard, and then forward them across my layout to their final destination. All we need to do is exchange paperwork via e-mail. 

So I’m in the market for fifty B&O 55 Ton coal hoppers.

 

* I have to admit I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting Bruce in person. But I am still very impressed with his abilities.

*Jon Cure is probably one of the most knowledgable and accomplished modelers I’ve ever met. He owns and operates the SP Inyo Subdivision layout in Moorpark, CA. I sincerely wish my train briefs could come close to the quality of the ones Jon presents to his crew.