Operations
Overview
The goal of operations is not to mimic prototype operations directly but to provide for directed movement of cars to logical locations and mix that with other mainline traffic through the layout. The layout can be operated by one person or by many. For multi-operator sessions, traffic on the mainline is controlled via a dispatcher providing a combination of signal indications to the mainline trains and track warrants for locals. Single operator sessions run the trains in order.
The current operations methodology is a car card/waybill approach with 4-cycle waybills. Through trains do not utilize the car cards. Each town that is switched has 4 car card slots: Setout, Hold, Pickup, and Off-spot. When each location is switched, the setouts are made and placed into the setout slot and the cars in the pickup slot are picked up. When there is not a spot for a car to be setout, the train must find a place to store the car "off-spot" and its card is placed into the off-spot slot. When setting out cars, the off-spots have priority over the new cars to be setout.
Between operating sessions, the car cards and waybills are changed as follows:
All cards in the hold
slot are moved to the pickup slot and their waybill is turned to the
next cycle
An operating session consists of running 14 trains.
|
Number/Name |
Origin |
Destination |
Description |
|
510 |
Faber |
West Staging |
General Freight |
|
520 |
East Staging |
Faber |
General Freight |
|
210 (Winter River Turn) |
Hill Valley |
Faber |
Return of the Winter River Turn after it has serviced Winter River and the ADM Grain facility in Hill Valley |
|
310 |
Faber |
East Staging |
General Freight |
|
320 |
West Staging |
Faber |
General Freight |
|
220 (Mill Turn) |
Faber |
Hill Valley |
Switches Superior Paper |
|
900 |
West Staging |
East Staging |
Containers |
|
210 (Winter River Turn) |
Faber |
Winter River / Hill Valley |
Switches Medusa Cement, Bud's Trucking, Magic Pan Bakery, and Peterson Tools in Winter River and switches ADM Grain on its rerun route through Hill Valley |
|
100 (Yard Local) |
Faber |
Faber |
Switches the Faber Refinery |
|
530 |
Faber |
West Staging |
General Freight |
|
540 |
East Staging |
Faber |
General Freight |
|
230 (Rock Ridge Turn) |
West Staging |
Rock Ridge |
Switches Rock Ridge Auto Distribution Facility |
|
330 |
Faber |
East Staging |
General Freight |
|
340 |
West Staging |
Faber |
General Freight |
|
990 |
East Staging |
West Staging |
Containers |
Operation roles
The layout can support as many as 8 distinct roles. The following are the various roles that can be filled in an operating session. They are ordered from top to bottom as they would be filled depending on the number of operators present in a given session
|
Role |
Description |
Possible Shared roles |
|
Yardmaster |
Handles all traffic in Faber yard including the classification of arriving trains, staging of departing trains. |
|
|
Dispatcher |
Directs and authorizes all traffic on the mainline. |
|
|
Mainline Engineer #1 |
Operates mainline trains between east/west staging and/or Faber yard. Handles the routing of engines to/from engine servicing in Faber yard for his/her trains. |
|
|
Local Engineer |
Operates the Winter River Turn and the yard local. |
|
|
Mainline Engineer #2 |
Operates mainline trains between east/west staging and/or Faber yard. Handles the routing of engines to/from engine servicing in Faber yard for his/her trains. |
|
|
Mill Turn Engineer |
Operates the Mill Turn. Handles the routing of engines to/from engine servicing in Faber yard for his/her trains. |
|
|
Auto Turn Engineer |
Operates the Auto Turn. Handles the routing of engines to/from engine servicing in Faber yard for his/her trains. |
|
|
Staging Mole |
Operates the staging yard. Brings trains into staging from west Winter River and East Rock Ridge. Also queues outbound staging trains and turns trains in staging. |
|