Prototype Information
A meeting in 1876 of car accountants from 64 railroads (and letters from 21 more), led eventually to the first full set of rules for the movement of railroad cars in 1888. By 1904, there was a committee of Railway Car Accountants which oversaw the operation of these rules. On March 1, 1920, the railroads voluntarily established the Car Service Division of the ARA, which merged into the AAR in 1934.
National Car Movement Basic Rules
The AAR Car Service Rules provided a guideline for choice of these cars, as summarized in the back of many issues of the Official Railway Equipment Register (ORER), in E.W. Coughlin’s fine book, Freight Car Distribution and Car Handling in the United States (AAR, 1956), and many other places. Here is a summary of those rules (click to enlarge):
The Process.
A shipper who wants a car to load calls his local agent (or in a city, a Car Distributor) and says what the load is and where it’s going. The agent or distributor arranges to get the empty delivered to the shipper's location for loading. The shipper fills out a Bill of Lading with all the particulars of the shipment. The railroad would identify tariff rate and categories for the load, and choose routings to reach its destination. The agent or distributor uses the Bill of Lading to prepare the Waybill. The waybill then physically accompanies the shipment to its destination (via freight conductors). When the loaded car was delivered at its destination, the waybill ends up with that local agent, who prepares the Freight Bill to collect payment for the load's transportation.
On the operational side, the waybill is used by the switching crew to pull the car from the shipper's location to the local yard, who trainmen uses the waybill to classify the car by train, using a switch list to identify the car, its load status and location, and that process continues as many times as necessary unit the car reaches its destination
Return of Empty Car
AAR Car Service Rule No. 3 allowed that an empty car could be loaded and forwarded toward a Home District of the home road. The AAR created a map of railroads and Home Districts to aid this car movement.
If you are interested in prototype car movement, see Tony Thompson's Modeling the SP at https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/. Tony had done extensive writing on this fascinating subject.
Model Railroading Information
has used a variety of systems to imitate the prototypes car movement. Those systems included:
- 3x5 card with paperclip
- Tab on car
- Manual switch list
- Computerized switch list
- Car cards with 4 cycle waybills
|
3x5 card with paperclip |
Tab on car |
 Manual switch list |
|
Computerized switch list |
4 cycle waybills |
|
The WWSL
I have used all but the computerized switch list on various layouts.I find I enjoyed the car card system for car movement, and have modified it for WWSL usage.
Car Card. Each revenue and non-revenue car on the layout has a Car Card. This card is the physical paperwork related to that car. It has a basic description of the car such as type and color as well as reporting marks and number to identify it. The car card information is "permanent," ie. does not change regardless of what the car is currently doing.
Car ordering. The WWSL station agent is responsible for car movement. The agent uses WWSL Form 6 Car Movement Request to:
- Identify empty car requests from WWSL customers, the OPLC and the STC (the OPLC and the STC being considered customers).
- Identifies inbound loads for interchange based on an industry usage formula.
- Identifies industry switch requirements .
An empty car request results in pulling two cards from the car movement files: an Empty Car Order Card, and a Bill of Lading Card.
- The Empty Car Order Card is added to the Card Card when the required car
either arrives at the interchange or is pulled from the storage track,
and is used by the switching and local train crews to get the car to its
destination for loading.
- The Bill of Lading Card identifies the consignee (buyer), destination, routing and other pertinent information about the specific shipment the car is currently being used for. The Bill of Lading Card is initially placed in the Car Card Holding Box at the industry location. This is used by the train crew to accurately place the empty car for loading.
Exceptions to the rule
Some car movements may require two 'cycles' on the Bill of Lading. Tony Thompson in his Modeling the SP blog indicated that the SP Circular Circular 39-1, Instructions to Station Agents, indicated in rule 1028 that tank cars cannot be moved on Empty Car Slips or equivalent, but must move on regular carload waybills. Most tank cars were private owner, with leasee relationships and as such, would not be in general service where liquid residue could contaminate a subsequent load of something different.
This adds a little reality to the WWSL's car movement program. Bills of Lading for tank cars are two sided, one side indicating the liquid (or gas) cargo and the reverse side indicating the residue and the reverse routing of the car (with the original shipper now the consignee). To ensure that this Bill of Lading Card be properly flipped, the Bill of Lading card has a unique block that is numbered '1' or '2' to visually remind the agent of the cars special status.
In the case of a railroad car that has a placard identifying the car be returned to a specific location, a bill of lading may be required for a reverse movement at no charge.
MOW and Company Supply
I have used some of the ideas about company freight in waybills on
my layout. Track materials such as ballast and rail, as well as tools
and supplies, can be waybilled to the track foreman at a particular
location. Parts and materials can be shipped to the roundhouse machine
shop in Shumala on my layout, and parts for repair, or scrap material,
can be shipped out. I have also written waybills to move outfit cars.
OPLC Car Movement Instructions
STC Car Movement Instructions
References:
Handbook of Operations Research Applications at Railroads
AAR Car Service Rules, Circular N. OT-10
Coughlin, E.W. , Freight Car Distribution and Car Handling in the United States (AAR, 1956)
Klimoski, Thomas, Switch Lists, https://www.thomasklimoski.com/switch-list
Sperandeo, Andy, Tab on car operation, Model Railroader, December 1981
Swanson, John, Go with the (Traffic) Flow, Prototype Modeler, November-December 1987
Thompson, Tony, Modeling the SP blog
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