Page 20 - NMRA Roundhouse November-December 2018

Car forwarding for
Modular Model Railroading
Paul Burton
Several years ago I offered to have a go at organising the car forwarding at the monthly Western Union HO modular
meetings. We typically run a single track point to point system with staging yards at each end and various con- figurations of modules between often including a junction and branch line. The focus is on realistic operations.
In the past we had used traditional car cards and waybills and also tried JMRI car routing. We found that with a modular set up the layout config- uration often changes and not all
of the same industries and cars are present at each meeting, meaning
a lot of tweaking is required to get things working properly.
Previously Mike Ruby developed a ‘destination card’ system. This system dispenses with car cards: the desti- nation card is in effect the waybill and space is provided to write on the car number and railroad. This means that any suitable car can be assigned to that destination, it does not rely on specific rolling stock being present.
The destination cards were colour coded with each colour representing a module, if a particular module was not present those cards are removed at the start of the session. Each mod- ule was provided with three pockets for cards being delivered, held or picked up.
This system worked well but there were some limitations. There was only one destination per card and no instructions as to where it went after it was delivered. We later modified
this to include ‘Return East’ or ‘Return West’ on the back of the cards. This worked but we needed to make things as simple and clear as possible.
Mike and I worked on re-designing the destination cards so that all
of the information was visible at a glance. We introduced up to three destinations per card and included a tick box marked ‘Done’ next to each destination. When a car is delivered the crew tick off the ‘Done’ box and the next destination then becomes active. We also decided to provide each industry or spot with its own pocket to hold the cards. The colour coding was kept as before. The cards are designed so a car will always end up back in staging, when it reaches its final destination the card can be erased and re used.
Paul Burton
20 ROUNDHOUSE - December 2018
The card pockets on the industry track on Mike Ruby’s 23rd Street module with cards for cars awaiting pickup. Photo by Brian Moore
The authour checks which cars he has to pick up in the yard at 23rd Street while Pete Saunders works a train on his Rocklin module in the background.