switchlist and "situational modeling"

[steinjr]

Stein: I tried 3 times sending those articles to Joe Fugates MRH website. No response was ever given to me from those people.

Sorry - I hadn't read through MRH's submissions guidelines when I suggested sending them over that way. Seems like your articles just are too long for the MRH article submission guidelines. Each of your articles (at least in the form you posted them here) have about ten pages of pure text.

The MRH article submission guidelines calls for shorter articles - maximum 6 pages for the whole article, and that includes 2/3rd of that space being used for pictures. So basically maximum about two pages of text. They are also very focused on getting digital images or videos ("rich media" is a gimmick they are very fond of).

So it would take a pretty ruthless rewrite of your articles to make em submission ready for MRH. Guess Joe should have gotten back to you with a "suggest you rewrite, condense and illustrate this" rejection email. At least if you submitted the same articles there as you posted here.

To be honest, I've had a great reception from the readers of this forum. I am very greatful that those of you out there reading this have shown a great deal of interest in my material.

I'm not trying to turn the model railroad world upside down with my ideas. I'm just trying to put a "real world twist" on a great hobby - that's all! When I posted these ideas at MRH, the reception to them was, well, let's not go there. To say the least, there were more "nitpickers" than just people who wanted to listen. I am always open to others' ideas and I am willing to hear critics....but when I'm told "Im wasting my time" thats when I draw the line. I don't feel I've wasted my time at all. I am just trying to share some information with new people.

Thanks again for the warm welcome!

I enjoy hearing/reading what other model railroaders are up to. And I will shamelessly steal (but of course attribute) any good ideas applicable to my layout I may stumble upon while reading or listening to what others are doing.

Btw - I got curious about your experiences with MRH and went over to their forum to have a look at the responses your posts there had found (I figured you most likely had used a similar nickname over there).

I suspect that where you may feel that people is nitpicking and being overly critical is when they point out the weaknesses of switch lists in general model railroad operations.

You seem to feel a need to keep pointing out that you are a real railroader, and that car cards and waybills are not prototypical paperwork on real railroads.

No, they are not. But then, nobody is claiming that they are, either. CC/WBs is a pretty flexible and robust mechanism used in model railroading to make cars move in reasonably realistic ways across layouts. Works both for routing, switching, for keeping track of how long cars have been unloading and quite a few other things.

Switch lists are not as good for keeping track of routing information, loads, loading/unloading times and such things. They are also less fault tolerant if a car for some reason doesn't go out on the train it was supposed to go on, and has more overhead - takes more prep work and more paperwork during the operating session.

Still, even though I am well aware of the weaknesses of switch lists (and the strengths of car cards/waybills), I still like switch lists for industry switching. Not because switch lists work inherently better than CC/WBs. But because of the nice railroady flavor they impart.

Smile,
Stein

[NJ Devils Fan]

That's what I like about this forum...open minded individuals that are willing to experiment with a "fresh idea" on a old topic. I had to "stress" the railroad aspect of the topic in order to drive my point home and show the people where I was coming from. I don't think they understood the topic as well as people here. It's not rocket science, you either like it or not. Some may say (in the other forum) that i have taken this issue way to seriously. Perhaps, but in order to "model a railroad", especially operations, there are certain ways to do it. I just "tried to explain" how it was done on the prototype so that those ways can be transfered to the model world.

In the end...it's just a hobby - open to individual ideas. No more...no less. If your happy doing what your doing then I guess it aint all that bad after all.

I am a railroader through and through. I just "took the siding" for a few years, to work for FedEx, so I can be home to watch the kids grow up. No complaints though...it's a great company to work for with good pay and benefits. I enjoy model railroading - mostly switching operations, when I can find the time. (That's the conductor in me, I guess) Now that my son is "coming of age" (he is 6 now) He is starting to become more interested in trains. In the mean time, I still collect railroad timetables as my hobby. I enjoy reading the timeatables. One can learn so much about railroad history just skimming through the pages.


That's it for now.

[Ralph]

Hi Steve,

I enjoyed reading both of your articles. Do you use a switch list form like this? <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://pc.smellycat.com/docs/ops/switchlist.jpg">http://pc.smellycat.com/docs/ops/switchlist.jpg</a><!-- m --> If you posted one I might have missed it. I devised a simplified version of the Pen Central form I linked to and use it to run my operations. I skip the blocking of the train prior to leaving the yard by using the old 0-5-0 switching method to set up the train. Then I back it into a hidden track so it "leaves the yard" and comes on the scene. Once it is visibly on the layout I use the switch list to guide the various pulls and set outs. I've thought about adding "situations" to make things interesting but haven't done that yet. I generate the "customer orders" by shuffling a deck of file cards I made, two for each industry with one card indicating the need for set outs and the other for pulls. I determine the length of trains by whim and decide how many cards to put in the deck to shuffle. I enjoy hearing about other people's clever operation schemes. Thanks for sharing yours!

Ralph

[Gary S]

Has anyone seen the article in MR about using the "stick-it flags" for car routing? I love the simplicity of that. Instead of shuffling papers and waybills while trying to run a train, you are free to just enjoy the operations. The only drawback (and a HUGE drawback in my mind) is the stick-it flags on the railcars.

[Ralph]

I haven't seen the article about the stick it flags on cars but it sounds like an update on the colored thumbtack method without needing to drill holes in your rolling stock. Seems like it would offer the same ease of operation but also the the same drawback of having something alien on your cars.

Ralph

[Gary S]

Ralph, check out the article if you get a chance. It's a great idea, and as you mention, a take-off on the thumbtack system. Depending on routing, an individual car may have several sticky flags, with the current move stuck on top of the foloowing move, etc. After each move, the flag is peeled off leaving a new flag with the new destination.

[steinjr]

Ralph, check out the article if you get a chance. It's a great idea, and as you mention, a take-off on the thumbtack system. Depending on routing, an individual car may have several sticky flags, with the current move stuck on top of the foloowing move, etc. After each move, the flag is peeled off leaving a new flag with the new destination.

Well, you obviously will save a car card, and you can see it directly on the car where it goes. But even if you don't mind your cars having their waybills stuck on the car, and the stickers are big enough to be read from a normal operating distance, wouldn't stickers tend to either stick too well, or not well enough during normal operation and handling?

Well, who knows - it might work just fine. But I think I will (if you pardon the pun) stick with either switchlists or car cards and waybills for now :-)

Smile,
Stein

[Gary S]

In the MR article, the author uses those "plasticized" sticky flags that are used for marking documents, for example, "sign here." They use a glue which sticks but stays on the flag when you pull it off. The advantage, as you mention, is that you don't have to carry and sort through waybills.

[foulrift]

As far as switch lists,waybills etc are concerned I found a free program at Dallas Model works.It not only allows you to create a web page about your railroad,but once you enter all the required data concerning industries,rolling stock and motive power the program will generate a switch list based on that data.You just follow all directions and it's done. There are provisions for car requests 7 days a week,min and max. number of cars and also based on the 4 seasons.There is also an advanced area for generating waybills and an area that will make up a consist.
Given the fact that my layout is small,this program serves my needs.It might be3 worth checking out.
Bob

[railroader9731]

Thanks Bob i looked into it and seems interesting