05-15-2010, 03:39 PM
Lots of ways to generate traffic for a layout. Some of the ways that can be used for a small switching layout is described on Adrian Wymann's web site: http://www.wymann.info/ShuntingPuzzles/s...youts.html Have a look at his description of scenario lists for industries.
A variant would be to say that if you draw a card from a card deck and get a heart, you have a car for industry A. If you draw a diamond (or whatever you call that card symbol), it is a car for industry B, if you draw a spade it is a car for industry C and so on and so forth. Or you can use the numbers 1 - 13 (ace to king) to determine industry and the suite to determine type of car or whatever you prefer.
For a bigger layout where you actually route traffic - ie where you have yards that will sort cars into different trains bound for different off layout destinations (ie staging), it may makes more sense to set up waybills for a specific car - you sit down and work out four consecutive moves a specific car will make.
Say "Boxcar X" will
1) first come from New York (left end staging) with a load for Industry J.
2) When the Industry has unloaded the car, it will be moved to Industry Z for loading.
3) It will then move loaded from Industry Z to a destination in Des Moines (right end staging)
4) Finally it will be transiting your layout from left end staging to right end staging
Now you can start over on cycle 1 again, or replace the waybills with other waybills.
What kind of traffic generation you might prefer depends on the size of your layout and how you want to run your layout.
Smile,
Stein
A variant would be to say that if you draw a card from a card deck and get a heart, you have a car for industry A. If you draw a diamond (or whatever you call that card symbol), it is a car for industry B, if you draw a spade it is a car for industry C and so on and so forth. Or you can use the numbers 1 - 13 (ace to king) to determine industry and the suite to determine type of car or whatever you prefer.
For a bigger layout where you actually route traffic - ie where you have yards that will sort cars into different trains bound for different off layout destinations (ie staging), it may makes more sense to set up waybills for a specific car - you sit down and work out four consecutive moves a specific car will make.
Say "Boxcar X" will
1) first come from New York (left end staging) with a load for Industry J.
2) When the Industry has unloaded the car, it will be moved to Industry Z for loading.
3) It will then move loaded from Industry Z to a destination in Des Moines (right end staging)
4) Finally it will be transiting your layout from left end staging to right end staging
Now you can start over on cycle 1 again, or replace the waybills with other waybills.
What kind of traffic generation you might prefer depends on the size of your layout and how you want to run your layout.
Smile,
Stein