2.3.32 Car Cards

Prototype Information

Car Service Rules - Empty Car Bill or Home Route Card

You have a foreign empty in your yard, you don’t need an empty to load, you want it off your rails to avoid per diem, there is only one place (assuming your yard is not an interchange with the owner of that car) that an interchange railroad would accept it: the junction where they gave it to you in the first place. Try to hand it off to any other road or any other junction and the receiving road had the right to refuse it. 

Upon reaching a junction with another railroad, the receiving railroad might choose to confiscate the car for use on that railroad, or could send it empty to its owner if there was a direct connection, or send it further along the reverse service route. Whatever the routing, it would have to be identified on a new Empty Car Bill issued by the road on which the car was now located.

Here is an example of an Empty Car Card from the Northern Pacific Railway.

The WWSL

The WWSL controls the movement of cars (and whatever cargo they're laden with) using Car Cards. I am differing from the prototype by using car cards instead of the prototype paper waybill.

Each freight car has a car card created for it when it is placed in service. At the top of the card, the car's basic information is identified: owner railroad logo, road and car number, AAR type, size (length or capacity). 

In the bottom half of the card I identify information that would be found on an Empty Car Bill  - the  Home Route Card. To make things easier, I use only the 4 junctions/interchange tracks on the WWSL : Brady for the Northern Pacific and Preacher's Slough for the Milwaukee and the Union Pacific, Camp  for the OPLC and Wickwood for the STC. 

At the bottom of the card I identify any Home Railroad specific rules regarding return.

Each card has a pocket in which a way bill can be placed. The waybill determines the car's current destination.

Making Car Cards I make my car cards are 4" high x 3" wide. I use a word processing program to print the car information on a piece of buff-colored paper 3" x 5". To save paper I print five on each sheet. I use a heavier grade of paper for the car cards.

pic

Reference: 

E.W. Coughlin of the AAR, entitled Freight Car Distribution and Car Handling in the United States (AAR, 1956).

Tommy Thompson, Modeling the SP: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/search?q=empty+car+card 

https://www.aorailroad.com/car-forwarding