Railworks America

Hello all,
Where could one find real-life examples of RR operations for helping design realistic and interesting (hopefully these are not mutually exclusive) scenarios?
I'm aiming at local-industry road switching.

Hmm, it might not be exactly what you search for, but I made a scenario for the Wilamette Pass some time ago.

It's called "Trouble on the Main" and I tried to recreate railroad radio chatter how it could be in reality: http://railworksamerica.com/FileLibrary/2011/Scenarios-2011.html

Local-industry road switching is one of my favorite types of operations and can be puzzling/confusing at times. As strange as it sounds, you might want to see how Model Railroaders create operations, since; well Railworks is basically the same thing only virtually. There are many books (some free in pdf form) that covers setting up operations for switching.

Here is some things to the best of my knowledge and from observing the prototype...

There are two types of locals. The "local" which will work areas within, or close to, the town the yard is located and work branchlines and spur's, and a "turn." These sometimes look like normal mainline trains since they leave a yard, go a certain distance and turn around and make their way back to the yard it left. And can be over 80 cars long.

As an example let's say there is a "turn."

A- A mainline freight will enter the yard and drop a certain number of cars off. This can and usually is repeated by other trains. Until the number and type of cars is enough so the turn can go out and work.

B- The crew will put the train together. The crew will assemble the train in such a way to make the job easier (IE if a siding requires many cars they will group them together). And head out of the yard.

C- Since the turn will be making their way back to the yard, they work industries with "trailing" switches on the way out.

D- Once the turn makes it's way to the point where it turns around, the locomotives will run around the train and couple up to the end. If possible the whole train will be turned (IE goes around a wye).

E- The turn will then makes it's way back to the yard, working the industries it didn't work on the way out (remember facing and trailing switches). Once back in the yard it will set it's train on a yard track or processed to switch out the cars onto other tracks to be added to outbound trains or to be picked up by trains.

F- Remember since the turn will be working the main, it's the lowest priority and will and have to get out of the way of other mainline trains (not a problem on a double track line).

Now let's look at a "local."

Basically it's the same procedure as shown above. Except locals don't venture to far down the mainline. And work the branchlines and industrial spur's. While a turn works industries on the mainline. These are even lower in priority then turn's and will get out of the way of basically everything on the mainline. Exception being MoW (Maintenance of Way) things like a Hi-rail truck.

If a local or turn cannot be turned or the locomotives ran around the train, then it will have a locomotive on each end (heck if things are really tight, then a locomotive can be spliced into the train itself). If long back-up moves are required and a locomotive isn't on both ends a caboose is used as a shoving platform (on the return trip it doesn't matter where the caboose ends up in the train).

I'll put up some videos in a little while, many are shot from a distance, since most would require to trespass on RR and private property to get a close up view of the action.

EDIT: (Rare Baldwin diesel doing the honors) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szqLdcMOIPs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSEcdKX-jus

There are enough scenarios out there to keep you busy until 2012. Easily. Check out Toripony's route: http://alleghany.weebly.com/ Couple of scenarios there. Now, get serious.
http://www.smittyslocomotiveshed.com/
Footeforward.com
Don't forget Soldier Summit, and all the free stuff here in the library.
Lonewolfdon's route and scenarios will keep you busy as well:
http://www.rryard.com/

Don't forget Rich Garber's routes: http://www.allaboardrails.com/ you want shunting, you got it.

Its also worth researching into Model Railroad operation I believe (feel free to shoot me if its not). They're after the same end result as us just in a different format.

This is one of the books we have in our library at work: http://www.kalmbachstore.com/12231.html

Regards

Fascinating. I would never have thought of looking into model railroading.
Thanks all, very good clues, and also thanks for the links.

The local shortline here, uses their time however they can. The line is only 5 miles long & has five employees. A general manager & secretary both of which work the office. & the other three other guys do whatever else is needed. The normal workday consists of doing whatever switching needs done & making an interchange run to the UP, then they fill up the rest of the eight hours with track maintenance, loco maintenance or whatever needs done that day. Normal work hours are 7-3:30 mon-fri unless it's a holiday then it's "three day weekend"

I can tell you that a great resource for prototype operations is a base scanner tuned to Railroad frequencies. Of course, this on works if you live near a railroad! Where I live I can pick up the local switching service as well as run-throughs and dispatch-to-train transmissions over the repeaters.

I agree with SMMDigital post. I listen to the BNSF Lampassas division down here in Killeen/Fort Hood Texas. Now there is very little switching but there is alot of east/west bound trains and it is all track warrant control. So east and west moving trains are "leap frogging" their way through sidings. There are a few times I hear the dispatcher calling high ball or run 8 on the locals.
Glenn

Real life scenarios are the only way to go. We use actual information in recreating each and everyone of our prototype sessions. Next one features 22 trains including 4 locals and 3 road freights working along the route. It takes time to do the research but it is worth it as we can recreate train for train an exact day on any main line in North America.

Nick

To design a real scenario, you need to do a lot of research. Just knowing what the different types of trains do is not enough. You have to know tonnage ratings for various engines on different sub-divisions, where did trains drop off cars to meet tonnage requirements of certain sections. For instance, going from Williamson to Bluefield on the N&W, they would leave Williamson with 7000 tons, and drop to 2000 tons at certain places to stay within the engine tonnage ratings. These cars would be picked up on later trains.

Which track on Cajon is restricted - no mineral or unit grain trains are allowed on it.

Where do trains swap blocks. Where do trains pick up blocks to fill tonnage.

It helps to have employee timetables, train line ups, magazines, and books. Snapshots of the subsivision with trains - engine #(s), empties and loads, and total tonnage. It takes time to do them right.

For the PRR route coming - I have train lines ups, track charts and engine tonnage rating from 1945. Plus a few other things.

Excellent points Kevin!!! That is exactly what we do in each and every prototype session we run. We have detail down to the engines used, number of cars (loads/MTs), tonnage and length. We have employee timetables across lines and eras all throughout the US so we know restrictions be it for speed, weight, TOB, haz mat or anything else. When we run a session we recreate an actual day on the railroad. it is the only way to go. We have trains blocked according to RR practice in the era. Set outs and pickups for trains that work along the route as well.

Hope we get a chance to join forces and create a live RW session at some point. We supply the trained Dispatchers, Yardmasters, MOW personnel, Train Masters plus track and signal charts for all crews in every session. Only thing we do not have is the pay check. (Sorry about that.)

Nick