MOVING FREIGHT, REASONS FOR PURPOSEFUL LAYOUT
DESIGN
by
Jon Cure
When we take the step from running trains in circles to deliberately placing
cars on special tracks, we have taken the first step toward "operating" our
layout. We'll take a look at what to do with those 'freight' cars in this
section.
Most anyone who has played with even the most basic train set has noticed
there are freight and passenger car types. Generally these are not combined in
trains. An exception was the "mixed" train of times gone by. Passengers must
go to a station at a particular time to 'board' their train. Freight is loaded
at customer locations or communal gathering places like freight houses or team
tracks.
Freight trains are assembled and directed in a deliberate manner to move
customer's traffic to its destination. What goes into the various cars is
beyond the scope of this section; but examples are used to help clarify some
situations. It is quite fun however; to research out this kind of info; and
will help make operations on your layout more prototypical. There seem to be
as many different ways to fulfill customers needs, as there are customers.
Most will fall into some general categories:
Small lots, single loads and LCL (less than car load)
Regular customers, pool traffic, and dedicated cars.
Large customers, unit trains and intermodal
Obviously some overlap exists. An example of this would be a grain elevator
that one day ships out a few car loads; a small lot. A few days later it
originates a full unit train. We will examine the handling based on the
shipment types listed above. Another consideration would be whether the
customer was the shipper (consignor) or receiver (consignee). At one end of a
shipment might be a large customer. A good example would be a brewery. On the
other end a small customer; the local beer distributor. The railroad; or
railroads if interlined (transferred between 2 or more carriers) might switch;
(take cars in and out and place in certain locations) the brewery several
times a day. They would "spot" (place specifically) cars for unloading grain
and hops possibly also packaging and containers. They could also spot cars for
loading of outbound finished product. Don't forget that sometimes the customer
may be the shipper and receiver. An example might be copper ore moving from
concentrator to smelter, or kraft paper to a box plant. On the other end the
beer distributor, a small customer, might only get their cars every few days
or once a week. Depending on the location they might receive their cars via a
local that worked the areas industries and businesses. If not in an area where
a local was justified, they might receive their car off a roadswitcher or
manifest train that worked through that area picking up and setting out cars
at yards along a route.
This brings us to another part of moving freight; train types. Unfortunately
railroads aren't consistent in what the call trains that do different types of
work. In an attempt to offer organization the following terms are offered for
our discussion. Research on your own favorite road may turn up some uniquely
named operation.
Yard Switcher, (Switcher, Yard job) often will have colorful name. Makes and
breaks trains up as needed in larger railroad owned yards. Sorts cars to make
new trains.
Local (peddler, patrol, sometimes also called zone switcher or turn) takes
cuts of cars and works specific geographic areas spotting cars on customer's
tracks. May also work a small customer owned storage yard to get cars.
Manifest (hauler, forwarder, also sometimes called a way freight) This train
is a workhorse and jack of all trades. Working along a line it would set out
and pick up blocks of cars in small and large yards that the locals would
final distribute. Usually they would work between two large yards; like
between Kansas City and St Louis. Sometimes they might work an out of the way
industry in route.
Priority (1st class, hot shot, named train, overnight) These are the glamour
trains that got names like Blue Streak, Red Ball Express and
Overnight. Generally they are long haul trains with limited or no stops,
moving high value, time sensitive freight.
Unit trains (coal, potash etc) Often named for the commodity they carry; these
trains generally (but not always) move between two points. Often cycle back
and forth as in mine to power plant and back again.
Work train, just a loco and cars with supplies needed for right of way
maintenance (might be receiver of freight like ties)
Xtra (or special) could be anything but in our context might be a one time
movement like a military train.
Transfer runs, (interchange or interline trains) Move large amounts of cars
between carriers. These trains usually make short runs across urban areas
between yards. These were often the strongholds of old or odd-ball power the
railroads didn't want far from shops and help
Oftentimes the lower class trains (locals etc) cars might be the building
blocks of the higher class trains. Locals would gather and distribute cars to
their customers. At the end of their day or shift, or at appropriate time the
cars would make it into a large yard, either via the local or some kind of
distributing train like a hauler. The yard switcher would take the block of
cars and using a track called the "drill" or switch lead; would sort the cars
into tracks called the "bowl" or classification yard. Each track represents a
destination, group of destinations, or maybe a named train or customer. One
track might hold all cars for Kansas City and beyond. Another might be cars
for the "southside local", another might be to store empty boxcars awaiting
loading at a local plant. You get the idea. It's based on the needs there.
Some common tracks that cars might be placed on would be the cleanout track
where cars are cleaned, the icing track, or the RIP (repair in place) also
known as the "one spot".
As departure time nears at the yard the train may receive blocking. This is
simply putting groups of cars (called blocks) into specific order. As an
example lets say our train is called the KCCIF; the Kansas City, (to)
Cincinnati Forwarder. We might block our train with St. Louis cars, then
Louisville cars and finally Cincinnati cars at the back. As the train works
east it might set out cars at St. Louis and pick up cars going east. The same
in Louisville, set out that block and pick up cars for Cincinnati. On the last
stretch the train would only have cars for Cincinnati and beyond. Meanwhile
back in St.Louis, a yard switcher has taken the cars that were dropped off and
started sorting them. Some may go to various locals; others to storage and
still others may be interchanged to other railroads to continue their journey.
Later a local may pull it's own cars or a manifest will drop small blocks off
to locals in outlying areas. Using a "switchlist" the train crew will spot the
cars as the customer needs. Our brewery may receive hops on one track and rice
on another. The crew carefully places the cars as the customer has specified.
Another type of small load would be at a freighthouse or the warehouse of a
Forwarder like UPS. In this example a forwarder does the same thing as at a
freight house. Goods received at a loading dock are categorized by destination
and loaded into appropriate boxcars. When the cars are full of various
customers' shipments, they are closed up and pulled to be placed in an
outbound train. This is LCL and is not done by railroads themselves any more.
Some forwarders still do it this way; but most load trailers or containers,
and put them on intermodel flat cars or double-stack cars. This is the case of
the small unit customer (the package shipper) getting big customer service
(the forwarder).
Another small or occasional customer would be one using a team track. These
tracks could run behind a freight station or just be in a convenient field or
open area. A customer like a builder might just get one car load of shingles
there and back a truck up to unload it. A more regular customer might load
cotton there in season. Another possibility would be a large piece of
construction equipment. This variety makes these great 'industries'.
Moving to larger customers. A lot of them have pools of cars assigned. This is
usually dictated by special needs. An appliance shipper might only want Box
cars equipped with DF (damage free) load restraints. Another, opposite example
is an animal hide shipper would only use old worn out cars, and not receive
clean new cars to contaminate. Most covered hoppers and almost all tank cars
are assigned to a particular commodity. As hoppers get old they are often
downgraded from food service to Mineral loading only. Tanks or hoppers can be
cleaned and rehabbed to allow a change in commodity but this is usually done
at special shops. When cars are assigned to specific customers they are said
to be in 'pools'. A common example is Auto Parts box cars assigned to a
certain plant. These often have special devices to restrain parts. Though they
may go to several plants they are stenciled "return to" with an exact location
or agent. An example would be:
When Empty return
To agent
Michigan Central
Flint, Michigan
These cars are not to be reloaded for the return trip and generally travel
empty that way. Some companies have found customers for the backhaul, but it's
not real common. Since several railroads often share this kind of traffic;
they are obliged to provide some of the cars to the "pool". This is why you
will see cars from several roads waiting to be loaded or stored at these
customers. Also you would see those stencils sending pool cars "home" to off
line destinations.
Depending on commodity, a lot of really large customers may provide their own
cars. Examples are unit coal operations like Detroit Edison, or corn syrup
producer Staley, with its own fleet of tank cars. Some places mix it up with
cars provided by the railroad and some company owned. The lumber industry does
this frequently. These kind of industries may have what are called 'Industry
support yards' these are where cars are held awaiting spot. In some cases
they're like warehouses on rails with cars sitting for weeks at a time. Cars
traveling long distances often travel over more than one railroad. The point
where this traffic is handed off is called an interchange. Some interchange
takes place as whole trains of cars moving from railroad "A"s yard to railroad
"B"s yard. Sometimes the yards adjoin and there is an interchange track or
tracks. In more remote areas one railroad's line may have a couple of
connector tracks to another where they effect transfer. Sometimes these are
near the "diamonds" where one railroad crosses another. A short line (small
local carrier) or branch line may end at this "interchange" yard. These may be
treated on a model railroad like an industry that can receive most any kind of
car. Pretty handy!
Let's Follow a beer car from end to end and see how this all fits together.
We'll use SP 248001, a boxcar. During the night the empty boxcar from the
industry support yard is spotted at loading dock of the brewery's warehouse.
Over the next few hours forklift trucks will fill the car to its weight limit
with beer. A midmorning switch crew pulls the car along with others from the
loading tracks. When they're done working in the area they make their way back
to the main yard with a short train of cars. The cars; having been left on an
arrival track, are coupled to by a switch engine and sorted into different
trains, depending on destination. Our car is moving between Portland and
Denver so will travel over more than one railroad.
The first leg, over Southern Pacific on a through train symbolized (named)
PTOGF, the Portland to Ogden Forwarder, brings us into Ogden. The train is
switched out in the SP's yard there and our car winds up in a transfer run to
the Rio Grande. Upon arrival at their yard our transfer run is sorted again;
this time by using a hump yard. In this case cars are pushed over a small
mound and roll by gravity down into the appropriate track. This saves time as
the switcher simply needs shove cuts of cars over the crest. Our short block
of mixed cars is put on the rear of train 100 a hotshot to Denver and at the
evening departure time off we go. Early next morning we'll be in Denver. Again
the cars are sorted; our car winding up in a 'turn' working to Colorado
Springs and back. On the south side of town the two
A few days later the empty car will be pulled and returned to the yard. This
pretty much covers what the real railroads do. Similar things go on all over
North America every day. So what about modeling?
MODELING FREIGHT MOVEMENT
When we first start modeling operation most often the switching decisions come
from our imagination. We decide to set out a car here, pick up two there. As
we progress we get scenery and it becomes more important that we send hoppers
to the grain Elevator and tank cars to the refinery. We may go the next step
and apply colored tacks to route our cars. This might match with colors for
our yard leads so all the say blue tacked cars go on the same train. Numbers
could be printed or decaled on the tac. to locate an exact spot. On a small
layout an operator could write a switch list describing the work. A line on it
might look like this:
SP 481332 Box L to Ace lumber/ Turlock from SP yard
(The L is for load) As you can see this is limiting in distance because of the
instructions to move the car from yard to yard etc. Enter the waybill. Old
line Graphics (and others) offer a system of car cards that allow forwarding
of cars 4 times. The rail car itself is identified by a cardboard pocket. A
waybill can be inserted into the pocket. By rotating the waybill top to bottom
a new destination is shown and two others show on the back. With some
tinkering these can show routing specifics, interchanges and other layout
specific items. You must however fill out all these blank forms. There is a
computer program to print these too. Which brings us to computer generated
lists. The idea behind these is to let the computer keep track of the cars.
Unfortunately at this time none of the programs seem to offer real time info.
In other words the tracking of cars depends on information put in that updates
the computer. This is an area with a number of developments and even as you
read this it may be changing. The programs are definitely worth a look. Some
of the developers are on Line with the Layout Design SIG chat list.
Author Jon Cure