Our railroad, the Castle Rock and Pacific, is 2500 sq.ft. on two levels.? It is freelance, point to point - Galveston, TX to Castle Rock, CO.? There is a classification yard in each of the end point cities.? Beyond Galveston and Castle Rock there are two double ended staging yards that are the true endpoints.? The staging yards are not active during an op session, that is, there is no switching in staging - what ever car order goes in is that same as what comes out the next time that train runs.? We are currently running? a 5:1 fast clock so four hour sessions only represent 20 hours of a full day.??
Now for CAR ORDER on the Castle Rock and Pacific...
We have 4 through freights that run staging to staging and return during a 24 hour day - so 8 through freights.? These trains pick-up and set out cars only at the two major class yards as they run across the railroad.? Before each session, I check and block any of these trains that are in staging.? If a train is coming out of Galveston staging, Galveston cars are in block #1 and Castle Rock cars in block #2 followed by the remainder of the train.? I use Operations Pro and love it.? I do not run in real time but rather build, update, print and terminate all manifests in sequence ;for all trains that are expected to run in that 20 hour fast clock session.? When a through freight comes out of staging for the first time during the session it is blocked because I blocked it before the session.? When it enters the second and last classification yard before entering staging on the opposite end of the railroad, the yardmaster a that yard has orders to reblock the train so that when it reappears on its next run out of staging it is already blocked.? Since I have generated all of the manifests in advance, I know how the train should be blocked when it reappears.? To keep things kind of "railroady" I print the blocking instructions on a pseudo "31 Order" and place it in the "restaurant rail" on the fascia above the yard and staple a copy on to the associated manifest. (a "restaurant rail" is one of those linear rails that are used to hold food order tickets in a restaurant)? I also stamp the Operations Pro generated manifests and switch lists with a green inked stamp that says "Blocking Required see 31 Orders".? In a pinch, the YM can delay the blocking until the train returns because no one else will see the train until it has passed through his/her yard the second time but we encourage them to get it done at the first opportunity.? This works for us and keeps things in order.
Not really on topic but it goes with staging on our railroad - we swap open loads.? A train may go into staging with an empty flatcar but when the train is built again by Operations Pro it may have any number of different open loads for the next trip to a different industry.? When an operator gets a train out of staging they check the manifest for cars that have open loads and change them if necessary.? We keep a file cabinet full of different open loads.? All the operator has to do is remove any improper load and replace it with the load listed on the manifest.? In this way a flat with a steel plate load going into staging may come out with a load of? pipe or tractors or...whatever.? The downside of this is that you don't have all of the neat detail of chains and such to fasten down the loads but it does allow you to have sensible loads going to each industry.? Food for thought.
Dave...
Castle Rock & Pacific
Franktown, CO
David Cochrun