05-27-2010, 12:53 PM
Stein, I feel exactly the way you do. I too will most times be a lone operator, so it seems proper to have "powers other than me" deciding what the customers needs are.
As I mentioned, a box full of waybills and empty requests based on expected customer needs seems to be the way to go.
Here is how I envision it:
I have drawers for my rollingstock under the layout at the interchange/fiddle yard. Each car has a car card with pocket associated with it. There is also a box of waybills and empty requests there too. If I want to do a small bit of switching, I pull maybe four waybills (If more switching is desired, pull more cards). From that, I grab suitable rollingstock/car cards from the drawer and place them at the interchange. When the op starts, these cars are taken to their destinations, but at the same time, I have to take care of any existing cars that need to be moved from the industries. Those cars would typically be going back to the interchange. At the end of the op session, the cars which make it back to interchange are removed from the layout - back into their place in the drawers.
That's a simplistic explanation of the process, but I think it will work well. Some things to consider would be the "situations" that have been brought up. Also, some of the customer requests for empties could be filled by cars that are being unloaded at a customer, so the car for that request wouldn't come from the interchange.
Now, instead of carrying around all the car cards and waybills, this could all be translated to a switchlist.
As I mentioned, a box full of waybills and empty requests based on expected customer needs seems to be the way to go.
Here is how I envision it:
I have drawers for my rollingstock under the layout at the interchange/fiddle yard. Each car has a car card with pocket associated with it. There is also a box of waybills and empty requests there too. If I want to do a small bit of switching, I pull maybe four waybills (If more switching is desired, pull more cards). From that, I grab suitable rollingstock/car cards from the drawer and place them at the interchange. When the op starts, these cars are taken to their destinations, but at the same time, I have to take care of any existing cars that need to be moved from the industries. Those cars would typically be going back to the interchange. At the end of the op session, the cars which make it back to interchange are removed from the layout - back into their place in the drawers.
That's a simplistic explanation of the process, but I think it will work well. Some things to consider would be the "situations" that have been brought up. Also, some of the customer requests for empties could be filled by cars that are being unloaded at a customer, so the car for that request wouldn't come from the interchange.
Now, instead of carrying around all the car cards and waybills, this could all be translated to a switchlist.
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