Layout Operations
Designing for Operation
My main interest in the hobby is operations. Naturally, the layout was designed for this purpose.
Before the layout was started, many hours were spent planning and designing the layout for the type of operations that I wanted. I knew early on that I wanted to model a portion of the railroad that featured and took advantage of the following types of operation...
Through several sources, I was able to obtain copies of the PRR Timetables, CT1000, Brief Books, etc. All this information helped me to define many of the trains operated in the area at the time modeled which I intend to duplicate on the railroad. I say helped because the schedule and listing of trains operated will change over time. As much fun as it can be to recreate the prototype faithfully, many experienced model railroad operators will tell you that operating a model differs greatly from the prototype for many reasons. The skill of your operators, distance between operating areas, etc., are just an example of some of the factors that can affect what trains you run and when you run them, or schedule them. I used the prototype information to guide me in creating a prototypical atmosphere, but tweaked the schedule, and added a couple of trains to better meet the needs of my layout.
Having been fortunate to have operated on many local layouts, I have watched as the trains, schedules, etc., deviate from the owners original plan. As the model railroad 'comes alive' and is operated, it tends to take on a life of its own. The railroad and its operators, over time, will define the actual trains and schedule. Many factors will influence this; traffic flow, meets, siding capacities, etc. Ironically, this is not much unlike the prototype, but as mentioned earlier, since we must make concessions in building the model railroad due to size constraints, etc., the schedule will also change from the prototypes accordingly.
I would still recommend doing the research that I did as it does give you some insight as to what the railroad did, where the trains ran from and to, and sometimes why. From this research you can build a basic understanding of the operation of the prototype, and from that develope a realistic schedule for yourself.
Operating Positions
The Northern Division was designed to accomodate 8-10 operators comfortably. The various operating positions include...
Northumberland Yard sees a lot of through traffic over the course of an operating session. The yard master works to drill engines into and out of the servicing area, ensures that outbound blocks are ready in the departure yard, assists road crews with any paperwork, communicates with the dispatcher, and assists the Yard Operator with his duties.
The Northumberland Yard operator's main function is to classify inbound cars and deliver outbound blocks to the departure yard.
While not as busy as Northumberland Yard, Buttonwood Yard, located in Wilkes-Barre, is another busy spot on the railroad. There are three locals handled out of Buttonwood, as well as two through freights. In addition, Buttonwood handles interchange traffic with the Lehigh Valley, Delaware & Hudson and the C.N.J., all of which have connections with the PRR in Wilkes-Barre.
The Wilkes-Barre Local Crew handles the industrial traffic in and around Wilkes-Barre. They handle two of the local switch jobs in Wilkes-Barre, as well as handling the interchange traffic in Wilkes-Barre.
The road crews handle all the various road jobs, most of which are based out of Northumberland Yard. When available, a road crew signs up for the next train as listed on the call board.
We run 24 scheduled trains during a typical operating session. This takes 8-10 operators usually about 4 hours to accomplish.
Dispatching
One of the operating positions on the Northern Division is the Operator at Kase Tower. Kase Tower is the name of the prototype tower located in Sunbury, Pa. It controlled traffic along the mainline, as well as traffic on to and from the Wiles-Barre Branch and the Shamokin Secondary Track. While most PRR towers utilized 'lever machines', fortunately for me, Kase Tower was one of the first installations of a CTC type machine on the PRR. I have always wanted to build a working CTC machine for my layout and by coincidence, I am modeling an area that had one.
On the layout, our 'dispatcher' is the Operator at Kase. He controls traffic on the main line, as well as on the Wilkes-Barre Branch all the way to Wilkes-Barre and the Shamokin Secondary Track all the way to Mt. Carmel. He sits at a model board that reflects the track diagram of the modeled portion of the main line, from which he controls main line switches and signals. The model board also contains the schematic for the staging yard, with TOL indications so that he can monitor traffic from and to off line.
The main line portion of the railroad is fully signaled and interlocked and controlled by the Operator at Kase, while both branches operate as Manual Block Territory and again, governed by the Operator at Kase.
A Typical Operating Session
At the beginning of each session, crews sign up for their respective positions and go to work! There are usually at least three road crews operating on the Northern Division during each session.
When available for a run, a road crew will sign up for the next train on the 'Call Board'. Instead of a time clock, we run by a sequential order of movements, or runs. There are a total of 24 scheduled movements during each operating session. Each run, numbered 1 - 24, is listed on the 'Call Board'. Next to the run number is the train symbol as well as the point of origin of that train, directing the crew where to report to pick up that train.
Just below the Call Board is a box containing Train Header Cards. The crew then takes the Train Header Card for their train from the box and follows the instructions on the card. The card, shown at right here, tells the operator the train symbol, the origin of the train (where to pick it up), the destination of the train, and lists instructions for that operator on what the train does.
The crew reports to the point of origin for that train and picks up the rest of the paperwork for that train, including the engine header card, which describes the locomotive(s) assigned to that train including the DCC address, and the car cards and waybills for that train.
The crew checks all paperwork against their train and when ready, calls the dispatcher, or "Kase", for clearance. The dispatcher will then give clearance to the crew. From this point on, the crew simply follows the instructions given on the Train Header Card, periodically checking in with "Kase" for clearance.
At the completion of their run, the crew returns to the call board and requests a 'Time Complete' for their run and places the train header card in the 'Complete' box, indicating that run is finished. The crew can then sign up for the next scheduled run.
Using the Car Card & Waybill Car Forwarding System
For my car fowarding system on the Northern Division, I use the car card and waybill system. The system is easy to set up and even easier to use. My system is set up for a random and proportional flow of traffic through the railroad. While the car card and waybill system has been talked about many times in the model press, little has been written on how to properly set this type of system up. To learn more about how to set up a system like this for your railroad, see my page entitled How to Set Up Car Card and Waybill Operations .
Initially, each car is assigned a waybill while it is in staging (see section below entitled 'Through Freights and Off Line Staging'). A waybill card is placed into the car card with waybill number 1 facing out. This provides the operators with information pertaining to the cars first destination. This will in most cases provide for several movements of the car before it arrives at that destination (Through freight to classification yard, classification yard to local freight, local freight to industry). Once at its destination, when I am re-staging the railroad for the next operating session, the waybill card is flipped to show the next waybill and its next destination. This process is repeated for each of the four steps on the waybill card. The fourth side of the waybill card normally routes the car off-line to a staging yard where the waybill is replaced and the process repeats itself.
While through freights bring traffic to the Northern Division from points 'off-line', the locals do all the work getting those cars to their final destinations. During an operating session, a crew operating a local freight proceeds to the area(s) his train serves as indicated on the Train Header Card. Once at an area that is serviced by their train, they locate the car card box for that area. This box has three slots; "Set Out", "Hold" and "Pick up". The crew will remove any cards in the "Pick Up" box as these are the cars they are to pick up. At the same time, they will determine from the car cards in their train which cars are to be spotted at which industries. From all this information, the crew will begin their work picking up and setting out cars. As cars are set out, the crew will place those car cards into the box labled "Set Out". Cards in the "Hold" box represent cars set out in the previous operating session and are in the process of being loaded or emptied and therefore 'held'. These cars can be moved to accomodate swtiching activities, but must be returned to their position once switching is complete.
Between operating sessions, the railroad must be 're-staged' and readied for the next session. I simply go around the railroad and move car cards in each of the waybill boxes over one box. For example, the cards that were in the "Hold" box are moved over to the "Pick Up" box and the cards from the "Set Out" box are moved over to the "Hold" box. Cards that are moved to the "Pick Up" box must have their waybill cards flipped to the next position so that the next destination is showing. The only time the waybill cards are flipped is when the car is at it's destination and ready for pickup. Operators do not flip waybills during a session.
Setting up a system like this results in some interesting operations as the randomness of this system provides for a variety of traffic flows from session to session. Interesting traffic patterns develop and operators are never faced with the same switching situations as each session provides for a different mix of cars.
Through Freights and Off Line Staging
I have modified my car card and waybill system in an effort to better represent prototype practices so that when a through freight train arrives at a yard location, like the prototype, it only sets out a 'block' of cars, picks up a 'block' of cars, and then continues on its journey. Only one of the through freights actually terminates in Northumberland, the rest continue on to other destinations.
There are two advantages here. First, like the prototype, when the through freight arrives at Northumberland, it only sets off the 'Northumberland Block' and picks up a block of cars for it's destination. Second, when a car makes its way onto this through freight, it will stay on this freight as part of a 'block' for three sessions, which means the car will not appear on the layout again for three months, providing for a nice rotation of cars on and off the layout. Here's how it works...
This process begins with the waybill itself. In most cases, Waybill #4 routes the car to an offline destination. Its destination may be anywhere in the country, and the waybill indicates the destination city, but also contains information which dictates which train the car should be routed on. For example, a car may read "To: Washington" and "Receiver: Enola Block" as is the case in the example to the right. In the instructions, it says "Northumberland; route via BF-4". This tells the Northumberland Operator to classify this car into the block for train BF-4.
Each through freight that begins and ends it's trip from off line staging consists of three blocks of cars. For the purpose of this discussion, we will call them Block A, Block B and Block C. Block A is the first block of cars in an arriving train, and it's car cards contain waybills for the cars destination on the layout. This is the 'Northumberland Block'. Blocks B and C are the second and third blocks of cars, and the car cards for those cars contain what I call 'Train Cards' with the numbers "2" and "1" showing respectively. These cars will remain on the train and return to staging.
When the train arrives at the yard, the engineer cuts Block A (the Northumberland Block) out of the train and sets it out in one of the receiving tracks in the yard. The yard operator has already placed a block of cars in the yard for that train to pickup. The engineer picks that block of cars up out of the yard and places that block at the rear of the train. In essence, what has just happened is that Block A is delivered, Block B now becomes Block A (to be set out during the next session), Block C now becomes Block B, and the new block of cars just picked up now becomes Block C. With switching complete, the train continues it's journey which takes it back into the staging yard, which is a double ended hidden yard.
Between operating sessions when I am re-staging the railroad, I will take the stack of car cards for that train and do the following;
This system provides for more realistic handling of through freight traffic, and due to the built in rotation of the blocks of cars, also holds cars offline for longer periods of time. If we operate only once a month, this means that each car remains off the visible portion of the layout for three months before it reappears to be routed to an online destination.
Since my off line staging yard is double ended, this system is self-maintaining. There is no advance set up required at all. Once a train is back in the staging yard, it is already set up and ready to appear in the next session.
Conclusion
When I designed the layout and the operations associated with it, I wanted to create an atmosphere that was as prototypical as possible, yet keep it as simple as can be. Most of the ideas presented here are not my own, but rather ideas that I have taken from other layouts and 'tweaked' them to meet my own needs.
I have always believed that a layout, being the stage, provides the atmosphere. The switching designed into the railroad provides the complexity of the operations. And finally, the paperwork simply provides the instructions. This has all come together well as I have noticed in having visiting operators come down that they were able to quickly jump in and operate with only a minimal amount of instruction. The paperwork did the rest in showing them what to do and how to do it.
I hope in sharing this with you that I have given you some ideas that you will try on your layout and you enjoy the same success that my operators and I have enjoyed!
