WESTPORT TERMINAL RR

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Apr 8, 2009

Playing with a sense

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Back to operation, look for pictures from car card boxes.

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That’s the name from an article run by Ivo Cordes. It appeared in the Eisenbahnmagazin in the years 1983 / 84. This article brought me to FREMO.

Playing with a sense in the United States has a long tradition. Even Frank Ellison and his Lines Delta had a cycling system in 1944. The legendary John Allen had in the 60s a system for the car. So had the players at his operating sessions to move the cars following his system..

At the prototype to each freight belongs any freight papers. Copies of which accompany the cargo. With a model railroad the papers could not be put into the car. Therefore, there is the car card, they are considered by the players always parallel to the cars transported. In these cars cards, there is a pocket for the waybills. The waybills are a highly reduced and simplified version of the cargo papers. Only for playing the important information are included, ie destination, shipper and lading. As the only goal here is International Falls indicated. It is not important for the player or his imagination to determine whether the coal go to a conseigne in Arkansas or in Canada. It is only important how to switch the car in Westport. The train goes according to International Falls the next morning.

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Widespread are the so-called 4-position waybills. I use this for me in the basement. How do they do? Well, we will place a hopper. It is empty and will be loaded with coal. He is in Westport and goes in a train for Harbor District. There, the car is spottet at the pier. This tells position 1 of waybill.
After the session coal will be loaded and the waybill is flipped to position 2. Now the car is picked up by the next train in the next session. This car goes in train to International Falls. For me, this is the staging yard.

After the session the waybills will be turned again It is now heading position 3. In the 3rd Session - in this example - the car comes with a train from South Jct. to Westport. This is because my trains run in a circle. The train, going to International Falls arrives the left entrance from staging yard.. If this train emerges again, he comes at the right throat, from South Jct.
In Westport, the hopper goes into local to Third Street District and is set out for the coal dealer.
After this - now 3rd - Session, the waybills are turned to the next position. And the coal laod is removed. Because there’s under the load a steel sheet, I can remove the load with a simple magnet. In the fourth session the now empty hopper goes to the staging yard, this time to South Jct.
After the session the waybills are flipped again, everything starts from the beginning. The empty hopper is in a train from International Falls.

 
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This method works for me in the basement excellent. I play alone, sometimes a session goes over a month. When there’s a op session with friends this lasts one evening.. Until this hopper shows up again and a boredom could occur, it takes a long time.
Otherwise at FREMO meetings one session follows immediately the other. It is noticeable that always the same cars for the same customer occurs. Therefore, we change the waybills for each session.

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Also here is an example. The Bagel Bakery in Diamond Valley gets flour in a boxcar. In the fiddle yard this waybill will be put in a car card of a matching boxcar. If the car is delivered, after the session the waybill is removed. Thus, the empty wagons and carriages map shows the under the empty pocket, where the empty car goes. This could be e.g. Chicago. But not every meeting is the staging yard "Chicago" represented. So are the staging yards only marked by a color code.
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If the bakery has worked diligently, the bagels are shipped. There must arrive an empty car with an mty car order. An isolated boxcar is delivered. After the session those mty car order is turned (or exchanged with another waybill), and now the waybill for the outgoing, loaded car is seen.. The destination is marked with green staging yard code.

This waybill will be returned after the meeting to the station owner and are hence available for the next use.
With a distribution of loads to one week a more prototype-oriented operation is achieved..
Thus, Nico has reflected on his Eagle Pass about which days what loads are received or sent. You see this in an spread sheet together with a track diagram and labeled spots..

Data for Eagle Pass:

If the next day of the session Friday, there should be at the start of the day in the back track a boxcar without waybill, also empty.. And for this Friday he will hand out two waybills to the staging yard. One mty car order for pulpwood and a waybill requirement for fertilizer.

The FREMO data sheet collection as .xls

 

© Wolfgang Dudler