Full Version: Interest In Tour Car or Car Exchange?
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jwb

A year or so ago, we had an abortive effort at a car exchange, which seemed to peter out because only a few guys were involved. I sort of treasure the photos I have of cars from other layouts that I ran on mine due to that exchange. I also note that another forum is currently having a very successful tour at <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.thewhistlepost.com/forums/whistle-post-traveling-car/14584-introducing-2013-twp-locomotive.html">http://www.thewhistlepost.com/forums/wh ... otive.html</a><!-- m --> in which Lester Perry and I have both participated.

It seems to me that the fairly minor trouble and expense of putting a car in the mail and taking pictures of it is outweighed by the fun and satisfaction of the program and the fellowship you build through it.

Does anyone have thoughts on how a program like this might be revived here?
I was involved in one on RRL several years ago . I enjoyed it the first year ....about 5 or 6 mailings as I recall ...but my interest waned after that year and the exchange program petered out on that forum after a second year . If we have a lot of interest here , I'll consider it again .

T

jwb

I think the question would be how many would be willing to ante-up and commit from the start. It wouldn't take too many, I would think -- the loco tour on The Whistle Post got going with only two or three, but interest began to build after it got going. For whatever reason, things didn't take off here.
We recently sent tour cars out, 1- HO, and one- N, that completed the continent wide tour, and returned. The HO scale car was then auctioned off. The N scale car is awaiting the next auction. Once that cycle is completed, we will, most probably start the process over again.
Car exchanges, or permanent swaps would be another thing all together, and would depend on the individuals willingness to participate. In this case, I would expect the "exchange" as something that could be arranged by individual members, and could be done by an initial post, to announce, and the arrangements made via Private message.
I will bring this to staff attention.

jwb

Yeah, I'm not so much interested in "official" status as in gauging whether there's interest -- I'd certainly be willing to coordinate an independent effort if a few others were interested in doing it.
Oh yeah, you and Les posted some pics of cars you sent back and forth to each other last year, right? I came close to joining in but dragged my feet. Icon_lol Looked like fun though.

jwb

So now's your chance!
There ya go. So the intent is to send each other cars from our layouts and have them photographed doing "work", right? I could send a Penn Central or KP&W boxcar and see it sitting on one of your industry spurs...

jwb

That's exactly right. One thing I found a little hard to deal with in last year's try was making up a lot of fussy waybill paperwork. On the other hand, I did think it was fun and productive to print a switchlist (however made up, with computer or scenario cards or whatever) that made it a little clearer that "work" was being done. Your threads on scenario cards with a freight would be exactly the kind of thing that might be even more fun with "foreign" cars.
Cool! Back when you guys were doing this before I found this car movement card on a PC fan site that I was thinking I might send along with a car.
[Image: CarMovementCard_zpsa77f59cf.jpg]

jwb

This is the kind of thing I keep running into as well -- the waybill is by no means the only paperwork involved in moving a car, although the self-designated operations experts seem to focus on it. I've found, for instance, that the Santa Fe used the small tackboards on car sides (not the large ones, which are for DO NOT HUMP signs and so forth) for a numbered code that indicated the zone of a car's destination, the zone being something the railroad worked out for itself. The PRR, according to a book I have, divided its Chicago switching area into numbered zones, too. On top of that, the Santa Fe then numbered its switch jobs with reference to the numbers of the zones. It looks like the PC movement card is similar to that -- if you have additional info, maybe there should be a separate thread on this, Ralph.

Did the PC card go on the car's destination board?
I have an idea. Let's make a downloadable waybill that can be filled out online so that we can send everything electronically.

BTW, I'm in on this round.

jwb

I agree, I like the idea of a standard destination card or waybill that can be filled out electronically.

Ralph, are you in?

I've PMed Lester Perry about this, but he hasn't gotten back to me. I've also traded e-mails with Sumpter250 on how much (or not) this would be an "official" Big Blue sort of activity. My inclination is to say that if the moderators here simply tolerate posts and photos about a car exchange, it doesn't necessarily have to be Big Blue-only. As I said above, The Whistle Post is currently having a successful "tour" of a loco, and I think a few people there might also have an interest in a car exchange along this line.

I would be happy to be an informal coordinator of the program, but I would hope it could be mostly cheerful anarchy!

Per Sumpter250's advice, an official announcement, if it occurs, will go into "Tours, Events, and Shows".
I have blank waybills saved in word or PDF. If anyone knows how to save them on Big Blue, I'll send them to you.

jwb

It looks like you can upload a Word document, which could be translated to rtf to make it easier for non-Word users to work with. However, it would be good to get input from all potential participants in what they might want to see:
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