Large Scale Central

Garden Railroad Operations

Operations
#41

You have to open your minds. LCL was considered 2nd class freight and was handled as part of the “Freight” operation on most roads.

Express was sort of the 1st class operation of the baggage department and included 'The baby chicks" as mentioned, fish, bees, pigions, and just about everything the couriers carry today. It was part of the "Passenger" department, and was included in the passenger consists with "Express reefers", express box cars(Usually with through steam lines in later years), and bagage cars.

The IPP&W is intending to start a proper operation of passenger trains with all the passenger operations, as soon as we have the crews to operate them. The passenger trains will be the only trains on the pike that will have a set time of arrival and departure at most stations. This time table will take into account switching of “Add-on equipment”, or the servicing of head end equipment at stations along the line.

Mail cars will be part of the 1st class trains, and will require special handling also.

RailOp may not give us direction on all of this, but it is easily figured out. I haven’t looked into it yet.

#42

As far as LCL; it isn’t “Rocket Science” to put a box car on the head end of the local freight, or mixed train, after “Loading” it at the freight house, and making a point of spotting it at the stations or freight houses, along the road for LCL deliveries.; while the loco with the brakemen switch the local industries. The conductor usually was in charge of LCL deliveries, along with all of his responsibilities for the rest of the train, much to his chugrin !!!

#43

On a passenger train; the express and baggage was the resonsibility of the “Baggage or express messenger” on the train. Sometimes he might be helped by the rest of the crew if he was on good terms with them and had a “Heavy load”.

Mail was a different story.

Mail cars were staffed by the Post Office, and were a relatively “High security” operation. The “Mail cars” were provided by the railroad as part of the mail contract, and had to meet certain specifications for security and conditions, depending on the route.

#44

Dennis,
A good possibility would be to have the unit stay at a station for a minute after its arrival. We have the “train” report in to the Dispatcher upon arrival and the instruction from the dispatcher is usually, “what one minute before departure and please announce your departure to the next station”. That is if the trackage is clear and there is no meet planned.

In reality, after you give people the authority to move “after they wait one minute” almost everyone fudges the time frame.

#45

Thanks guys , food for thought . This early morning DR freight with the new DR boxcar …

[img/] closer showing the logo

[img/]

#46
Quote:
In reality, after you give people the authority to move "after they wait one minute" almost everyone fudges the time frame.
Just long enough to take a whiz on the coal pile.
#47

Ric…

Not to be a “Nit Picker”, but…The dispatcher has the “Authority” to give the conductor of a train “Clearance” to proceed, or occupy a certain section of track.

No-one gives anyone "Authority"
#48

Fred,
Your railroad your rules, but my railroad my rules. If the fun is taken out of playing with these toys, people quit coming. We are out for everyone to have an enjoyable experience and want to come back. If there is a reason to stop a train from going to the next station, the Dispatcher should state it, but if not - give the trackage rights in one radio communication. Running an Interurban or Branch line or Tourism run, there can be too much chatter on the radio and then other trains can’t have theirtime to talk to the Dispatcher. Track authority is given, but station stops need to be made.

#49

Fred and Ric,

I think you are both saying the same thing, just using different words to say it. On Fred’s RR, the dispatcher has the authority to give clearance to the engineer to proceed, on Ric’s RR, the dispatcher passes his authority along to the engineer.

Or have I missed something?

#50

Steve,

Dennis asked - “but I was wondering how long a time you operators were remaining at a station , to simulate the activity ? I wanted to know …what and how , you guys were performing passenger ops on your layouts .”

We don’t run to a schedule, we use track warrants ( authority by the Dispatcher as to who has the right to occupy a piece of trackage ) With passenger ops, you still want all the station stops to be made, so on the KVRwy, we ask all station stops to be 1 minute. As I said some people will hold for exactly the one minute, others say that was about a minute and take off for the next station stop. Some enjoy the experience, some like to complete it and get inside to continue eating.

#51

Having some experience with railroading as employee and for a longer period as customer, I think you all are missing something regarding interchange. Standard gauge cars are interchanged because the contents are being shipped to or received from an off line point. The load drives the process. For us dinky gagers, interchange is the transloading of freight from standard gauge cars to narrow gauge ones. You now have a lot of labor moving freight across a platform and the additional problem of mismatched capacity between standard and narrow gauge cars. One standard gauge car might require one and a half to two narrow gauge cars. Any body seen half a car? Not only are there capacity differences but dimensional differences from railhead to car floor. So, to model a standard/narrow gauge interchange, you need a platform between the standard and narrow gauge tracks and a crane of some kind to handle loads too heavy for labor to handle. A gantry crane spanning both tracks would be a good piece of equipment. An elevated track over hoppers would be necessary to transfer bulk dry material like stone.

I was in heavy and highway construction for allmost forty years. When I started, nearly all base rock was handled in low side gondolas. These standard gauge cars averaged about 63 tons per car. A 4 lane road required over 1000 cars per mile depending on base thickness, turn lanes, etc. A project easily ran to 5 miles. In my area, we were a little over 100 miles from the mines. We tried to get the railroads to commit to 100 cars, 20 being loaded, 20 being unloaded, 40 coming or going, AND 20 lost in the system. All of this rock would be handled at the team track nearest to the project. Team tracks got nearly every car type on the railroad.

I think modelers underutilize the team track concept. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a narrow/standard interchange modeled. Don’t mean to sound too preachy but I think so much has been misunderstood and never gets in the hobby press.

#52

Keith Kirwan said:
Having some experience with railroading as employee and for a longer period as customer, I think you all are missing something regarding interchange. Standard gauge cars are interchanged because the contents are being shipped to or received from an off line point. The load drives the process. For us dinky gagers, interchange is the transloading of freight from standard gauge cars to narrow gauge ones. You now have a lot of labor moving freight across a platform and the additional problem of mismatched capacity between standard and narrow gauge cars. One standard gauge car might require one and a half to two narrow gauge cars. Any body seen half a car? Not only are there capacity differences but dimensional differences from railhead to car floor. So, to model a standard/narrow gauge interchange, you need a platform between the standard and narrow gauge tracks and a crane of some kind to handle loads too heavy for labor to handle. A gantry crane spanning both tracks would be a good piece of equipment. An elevated track over hoppers would be necessary to transfer bulk dry material like stone. I was in heavy and highway construction for allmost forty years. When I started, nearly all base rock was handled in low side gondolas. These standard gauge cars averaged about 63 tons per car. A 4 lane road required over 1000 cars per mile depending on base thickness, turn lanes, etc. A project easily ran to 5 miles. In my area, we were a little over 100 miles from the mines. We tried to get the railroads to commit to 100 cars, 20 being loaded, 20 being unloaded, 40 coming or going, AND 20 lost in the system. All of this rock would be handled at the team track nearest to the project. Team tracks got nearly every car type on the railroad. I think modelers underutilize the team track concept. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a narrow/standard interchange modeled. Don’t mean to sound too preachy but I think so much has been misunderstood and never gets in the hobby press.

Keith, Some good points! On the NG/SG interchange it all depends on which hobby press you’re talking about. :wink: :lol: The following is a trackplan I designed and had published in the GARTENBAHNprofi

In that example the transfer point is “Bahnhof A” (Station A), the SG tracks are blue. Feeding the oil storage from the SG happens off layout, transfering at the freight shed can happen across the ramp/platform or through the freightshed. On the upper right there’s a second feeder track that serves both the cement plant - most of that off layout - as well as a gantry crane and is also team track. It’s all there - admittedly in “euro-trash” fashion (right TOC :wink: ), but it’s the action that counts not the global location. At least that’s how I see it! :wink: :slight_smile: :wink: PS oh yes, I like to design layouts with a happy balance of scenery to track. Never liked the “spaghetti bowls” in any scale.

#53

My layout is the Roundy Rounds setup but it is evolving inro a much more point to point operation. I have a stean-era layout and my engines could operate backwards but I have a rail bus that would look odd backing up half the time. I have a turning wye at one side of the layout that can be one “point.” Shall I consider building another wye or turntable at the second “point.”

#54

A small turntable not much bigger than the bus would look really neat…:slight_smile:

#55

If you’re going to build a turntable, might as well build one big enough to handle all of your locomotives.

#56

Are there any turntable plans around? I’d like a gallows-style.

#57

Transfer point…Mt Union on the EBT. Transfer shed and a transfer gantry crane…not to mention…a rather unusual way of servicing their customers without ‘breaking gauges’ so to speak. I’m considering some 1:20 standard gauge cars just to be difficult…

#58

If you look here you will find some wonderful pictures of a gallows turntable. From this, you should be able to build one to suit your needs.

SteveF

#59

Doug,

For a quick fix (to see if it is what you really want) you could use the same turntable coming from either end for the railbus. Just don’t let the railbus go past it. If you want to get real serious put different names on each end of the same station.

#60

Doug Arnold said:
Are there any turntable plans around? I’d like a gallows-style.

Doug, how far are you from Perris, Ca? The Orange Empire RR museum has a gallows turntable sitting up there in their yard. I have some pix of it, but can’t seem to find them now. OOps, spoke to soon…