Managing Layout Operations Part 1

Greetings All,

My own car card and waybill operations have now collided head on with the virtual operations that I participate in with PC Ralph's Kings Port Division and Sir Neal's Atlantic Pacific RR.

With a nod to Neil Simon, "can actual ops and virtual ops share a layout without driving the layout owner crazy?" Well....Let's see.

Since the beginning of the virtual ops, A.K.A. the Penn Central Car Movements the virtual ops off layout box has been a great tool for storing and later finding many of the cars that are off layout.

Moving whole trains of cars that are "on layout" in the virtual ops and storing them on layout is pictured below. These two trains are virtually in Empire City at the Empire Belt RRs North Side Yard as of the end of P.C.C.M. 73 but are actually sitting in the Pier 16 Yard. 

One train consists of cars that need to be delivered to local Empire City industries for their next P.C.C.M. loads. The other is ready to be transferred to Terminal Yard further movements. The two trains can be stored and easily placed in the exact same order by following the car card sequence.

Over at North Side Yard the train in the center consists mainly of virtual ops cars that were moved away from an industry during an actual ops session. Right now it's not in the way. If it becomes a hassle then I'll dispatch it to Terminal Yard and box them up until they are needed.

Virtual ops cars not hindering actual operations can remain at their respective industries until they need to be moved.

To assist in the tracking of both virtual and actual ops cars a new car card and waybill box has been constructed and placed in the Terminal Yard / Pier 16 room. Cars off layout to virtual op destinations are on the left. Cars off layout to actual op destinations are to the right.

That'sit for today. In Part 2 we'll take a look at balancing the actual ops freight traffic using the above car card and waybill box and focusing on Putnam Junction Trains.

Thanks for reading!!

See ya soon!!