Page 9 - July August 2008

Train Description
Train #
Typical Motive Power
Transfer freight from Eckingham Yard arrives Port Trenton Yard
EMD SD7
Transfer freight from Car Ferry and PRR interchange arrives Port Trenton Yard
EMD Switcher
Local freight East to West arrives Port Trenton
USRA Light Mikado
Local freight East to West departs Port Trenton
USRA Light Mikado/Q4b Mikado
Local freight West to East arrives Port Trenton
S6a 2-10-2
Local freight West to East departs Port Trenton
Q4d Mikado
Transfer freight departs Port Trenton to Car Ferry and PRR interchange
EMD Switcher
Transfer freight departs Port Trenton to Eckingham Yard
EMD SD7
TYPICAL OPERATING SEQUENCE
Number of cars
Train Description
Motive Power
West
Harmond
East
Car Ferry
PRR
Eckingham Yard
Total Cars + Caboose
Transfer freight from Eckingham Yard arrives Port Trenton Yard
Q4d Mikado
5
1
4
5
2
17+C
Transfer freight from Car Ferry and PRR/B&O interchange arrives Port Trenton Yard
EMD Switcher
2
8
10
Local freight East to West arrives Port Trenton
USRA Light Mikado
5
2
9
16+C
Local freight East to West departs Port Trenton
USRA Light Mikado/Q4b Mikado
12
3
15+C
Local freight West to East arrives Port Trenton
S6a
2-10-2
8
4
6
1
18+C
Local freight West to East departs Port Trenton
Q4d Mikado
12
12+C
Transfer freight departs Port Trenton to Car Ferry and PRR/B&O interchange
EMD Switcher
9
8
17 (see text)
Transfer freight departs Port Trenton to Eckingham Yard
EMD SD7
18
18+C
Figure 1
interchange track are picked up by a west–east PRR local. The final movement is a transfer freight from Port Trenton to Eckingham Yard.
The number of cars and typical motive power for the train movements during a typical sequence are shown in the table. It should be noted that for this particular session, the Port Trenton yardmaster (me), upon inspecting the waybills for the west–east local after its arrival at Port Trenton, noticed a surprisingly high number of cars routed to the PRR and car ferry, ten in all. He realised that these ten cars, plus the seven already on the PRR/ car ferry track in the yard, would exceed its capacity by five cars. Accordingly, the yardmaster requested permission from the dispatcher (yours truly again) to make an extra transfer run to the PRR/car ferry. Permission was granted and the transfer made before classifying the west–east local cars. This relatively large number of cars destined for the PRR and car ferry can be accommodated as the number of spots at these locations were deliberately underestimated when drawing up the waybills.
Once the operating sequence is complete the layout has to be restaged. All of the waybills are turned. For the east–west B&O local I move the waybills (not the cars) so traffic going west is at the rear of the train. This is also done for the west to east local. Similarly, interchange traffic on the PRR needs to be shifted to the front of the train. Locos need to be backed to from east to
west and vice versa. I usually use these movements to clean the track.
I have now run through about 20 cycles. At first the relatively short eastbound classification track became overcrowded, but this was rectified by sending more cars to the PRR and car ferry where there was known spare capacity. Even though the pattern of car movement should repeat every four cycles, operation never seems to be repetitive. I doubt whether anyone can predict where a particular car will be routed – I certainly cannot. Moreover my ‘mistakes’ when drawing up the waybills have led to interesting variations in train lengths and speculation as to whether classification tracks at Port Trenton are long enough to take, say, all the cars waiting to go east, and whether or not additional motive power will be needed for westbounds.
Even though drawing up the waybills was a bit of a chore, it has been very worthwhile. I often nip out to the garage, where the layout is housed, to run the next train in the sequence. The next step is to make life more complicated by specifying the types of cars going to particular destinations and adding specific industries. I also plan to draw up a timetable and run operating sessions against a fast clock. A dispatcher, a yardmaster and say two crews are needed to keep freight and passengers flowing over the railroad and revenue earned!
august 2008 9