It is a computer program designed to manage your car, engine, train, and track location files as well as create the paperwork needed to easily move freight and trains of all types over your railroad. The fremo style car card and waybill can be downloaded from my site. Car cards and waybills rs tower progress of an exhibition. Return freight waybills require a last contained notation on the waybill specifying the type of lading during last use record rights, reverse route. Once your waybill data has been entered, you can print any of the car card and waybill formats pictured above. What do you use to generate car cards and waybills model. For 4 cycle waybills it takes 4 passes to get the information printed on them. Basics of car cards and waybills for model railroad operation part 1. Mitrains prints car cards with or without pictures while the waybills program only prints the 4 cycle waybills. Each freight car on a model railroad is assigned its own car card which travels everywhere on the layout that the associated freight car does.
In general, car cards and waybills should stay with our cars. To provide challenging operations, a few carcards temporarily carry 2 waybills in the pocket. Some modelers use a bankers clip to hold the cards together and hang it near the siding. The waybill pocket is formed by folding the bottom of the preprinted card upward and sealing the sides with packing tape. One morning as you were filling your cereal bowl with rice. The car card and way bills page program will allow the model railway. Unless you really enjoy writing software or futzing with word excel, this is incredibly inexpensive and a real time saver. Mitrains prints the car cards, waybills prints the four cycle waybills in any size, in a variety of formats. Prototypic operations or sessions with carcards and waybills for. About halfway down, you will find a link entitled how to set up a car card and waybill system.
Carcards matching the cars numbers are selected, then the waybill is turned over unless it is a blur card to determine the cars local destination. I use a program by dave husman that can be downloaded off of the car cards yahoo. This is the same as a manilla folder, you can even use a folder cut to a4. Cards have to be physically carried around which can be cumbersome when juggling a throttle, uncoupling tool, train instruction cards, pen or whatever in addition. Car card resources model railroad operation gateway nmra. See tony koesters article in march 1993 issue and david barrows writeup in december 1996 of model railroader. Railroad line forums a car card and waybill system how. This excellent program uses access for a platform which you will need to have on your computer. This is a full featured application that allows 4 move waybills and many inventories.
You can also use ms access to create car cards and waybills. I recommend this program as a good way to start operations on your. The waybill program was setup to run the sheet through the printer 5 times to get the four sided waybill. Car cards can help you in producing car cards, waybills, form 19s, form 31s, and switchlists for your model railroad. Therefore, many, if not most, model railroads operations use a car cardwaybill system to generate freight revenue traffic. The sizes are orientated at commercial products, which can be bought in usa. But a spreadsheet program is much easier and available free from open office. The car cards and waybills are preprinted forms, and normally the information is written. Railop operate your model railroad railop is the foremost model railroad operating program. When the software was developed, printers were unable to print upside down as required for the 4 sided waybills. Details for car cards, waybills and the color coding you can find in the american standard. Reviewing shipit model railroad operations software. Waybill card a card used with the carcard above to indicate the destination, routing and other information about the specific shipment the car is currently being used for. These carcard and waybills are then placed into the set out box.
Nov 06, 2012 software for operation is going to entail some initial setup. I have an older computer running windows 7 that is just stored away that i have thought of putting under the layout, mounting the monitor on the wall and using it to run a car card, or waybill. A card with a foldedup pocket is assigned to every car, and a printed waybill slips into the pocket to determine the car s movements. Relatively simple operations software model railroader. The local agent might identify a car available locally, or the car distribution department may need to find an appropriate car.
You must have the ms access software to open and use this application. To instill a form of reality to these operations i use car cards and waybills. This figure is an example of a manually created waybill. The layout owner turns the waybills between operating sessions so the car moves in. Others build small boxes or trays attached to the layout fascia, although they can be complex troublesome to build. The basic system consists of car cards and waybills. Basics of car cards and waybills for model railroad operation. Ive operated many times with the car card waybill concept and for me there are several things that are what i consider to be nuisances. We will go over this topic briefly just to give you an overview of how to use these cards during a session on the. Model railroad software let our software help improve your.
And its so widely used, many of your visiting operators will be already familiar with it. I dont have a lot of time so something where i enter the towns, car data, industries and trains and then it comes up with switch lists. That takes care of the rolling stock portion of operations. Union pacific geneva subdivision recommended for you. Shipit has a car cards operations version that allows you to download and print car card information and waybills based on your own setup. Model railroad software let our software help improve. This will enable the the operator to take advantage of sts randomized car ordering system which adds variety and realism to car movements. That hides the bottom of the waybill card so the operator only sees the current waybill. The waybill is then returned to the waybill draw box for sorting to the proper slot. Its the reporting aspects that work against doing car cards in word. Excel car cards and waybills model railroad hobbyist. Model railroaders do not have actual customers requesting empty cars to be filled or for full cars to be moved.
Apr 12, 2009 the waybill cards slot into the front of the car cards as per the corn syrup tank cclx1150 the waybill is held securely to its car card and the upper half is visible to the operators showing where its going and what its loaded with. Empty tank car waybill tank cars are private cars in owned or leased service that are returned to the shipper on a freight waybill as opposed to an empty car bill. Car card and waybill generator freeware for ms access 2k. During the regulated era the shippers typically had many choices of route from origin to destination. Here is my modified version of the car card system. It has a pocket in which a waybill figure 2 is inserted. This method requires a little more paperwork and a better understanding of the railroad by yard operators. Usually the waybill card is a separate item smaller than the carcard such that it can be clipped to or more commonly slipped into the pocket of the carcard leaving. Occasionally, operators will discover a car already sitting in the location called out on its waybill. There is one car card for every car, and one waybill for every car card. As always the application is not compiled so it can be modified by the users to meet their specific needs. Shenandoah software offers software for printing them, or you can make your own with common programs such as microsoft excel. This card remains face up until the car has been spotted at which time the waybill is removed from the car card. This could be by another train depending on where the car is going at this time in this trains schedule.
The layout owner turns the waybills between operating sessions so the car moves in numerical sequence from one destination to the next. Therefore, many, if not most, model railroads operations use a car card waybill system to generate freight revenue traffic. As has been discussed in various threads, these systems do vary from layout to layout, so i dont mean to imply this is the only way to operate a layout or even a car card and waybill system. Using the previous examples, the same waybill card is used, with open routing printed at the top. Prototypical waybills for car card operation, railroad model craftsman, tony thompson, december 2009, pp 7177. A complete freight car forwarding method following the mcfall system old line graphics. The car cards are the easiest part and they are also setup on the car card generator. The layout is relatively simple with 2 yards, a couple of towns and a stagingfiddle yard. Each waybill has four destinations written on it, but only one destination is visible when itis placed in the car card pocket. Apr 27, 2018 episode 3 this episode we will cover the micromark waybills and car cards. How to set up car cards operations on a model railroad. Waybills may be manually created for any lading and class use.
The typical waybill form in current usage has four numbered steps, like the micromark example, and its sized so that only one step at a time shows above the car card pocket. Excel car cards and waybills model railroad hobbyist magazine. Sts can add to to the interest of any existing car cardwaybill system because it can generate small format waybills that will fit into most car card pockets. Computerized car card or waybill system o gauge railroading. On an impulse i bought the starter set and some extra cards. The 3 x 5 car cards have either a two position waybill or a four position waybill. There are a number of schemes designed to move cars around a model railroad, but i prefer the timetested 4 cycle waybill popularized by doug smith in the 1960s. However, at the barrie train show february, 2009, i found that hobbyworx had all the micromark car cards operations boxes and paperwork.
Each waybill has four areas to specify the origin and destination, and the lading of the car for one operating session. Bill of lading information is transferred to a waybill, the contract document for the requested shipment specifying pricing, standards, routing, and special instructions. When the next train comes by to drop off some cars it can pick up the cars ready to go and then take them back to a yard or drop them at the required industry as moves around the layout. All versions of the software provide car card formats and access to a large database of prototypical shipper locations. A car card figure 1 accompanies each car on your railroad, whether it is parked or is travelling in a train. They follow the same dimensions and general form factor, although i have tweaked the design a little to customize it for my own purposes especially of the shipment waybill insert slips. Even the manual car card waybill system that does not use a computer still has a lot of setup. To offer our switch crew more of a challenge, pick a car that must be pulled so other cars may be switched and then the original car replaced. The local switcher then decides the order in which the cars should be placed so they can be dropped off in the right order. Essence of model train operations model railroad car cards. Each waybill has four positions which are rotated through as the car delivers or picks up loads of freight thus enabling realistic car. Model train layout built for operations and realism. Im looking for the best, straight forward operations software to use. A waybill is, in essence, a work order and it describes the freight carried by the car as well as its origin and destination.
Here i will discuss how i created my own car cards and waybills using microsoft excels spreadsheet software. I have an older computer running windows 7 that is just stored away that i have thought of putting under the layout, mounting the monitor on the wall and using it to run a car card, or waybill system for operations. A card with a foldedup pocket is assigned to every car, and a printed waybill slips into the pocket to determine the cars movements. As cars are left on these tracks, your car card waybill combination should be dropped in the appropriate pocket. The car card is folded and secured to form a pocket which carries a waybill. Small point this waybill includes a spotdoor number if you want to make life slightly more real and have your brakeman report to the manager for spotdoor number write that on below the destination so that it is hidden behind the car card, and isnt seen until the waybill is pulled up slightly, and have a small up pointing arrow on. Having the car info at the top would make it a bit more visible, and if youre using these documents to actually do your switching and car handling, matching the cards to the car is the. As you set out each car move its waybill to the next window the waybill is numbered with 4 windows, 1. Car cards from the local train that are set out are placed in the appropriate industry box as the set outs are made. The next local crew working that town will come across that bill and car and spot it if the spot has since been cleared.
The front waybill is a secondary waybill with specific instructions on two or three. Car cards and waybills, which are used to tell you where cars should be picked up and dropped off on your layout. The car card and way bills page program will allow the model railway owner to maintain a database for his rolling stock as well as generating paper work for operating his layout, with the car card and way bill system. Car cards and waybills are used at usamerican railroads since decades. Car cards operations for model railroads using micromark waybills. The specific design of the car cards and waybills is inspired by the ones we use at the club created and printed using the shipit model railroad software. These are sold in quantities of 500 at staples and other stationary stores. Basics of car cards and waybills for model railroad. Nov 28, 2004 figure shows the opsig car card with a waybill card in place. The waybill fits into a pocket on the car card or is attached to it with a. I also use excel or another spreadsheet to create timetables, train order forms, clearance forms, switch list forms, dispatcher train sheets, train registers, etc. Understanding model railroad waybills and operations. More realistic waybills at less cost, potomac flyer, mike white, summer.
Car id the single piece of rolling stock that this waybill refers to. Nov 26, 2004 a problem with any car card and waybill system is where the bills are placed once the cars are spotted. No easy way to get any statistics, or a printed roster list out of formatted car cards on a word document. Plastic pockets improve waybill operation, model railroader, bill neale, february 2009. Car cards prints out three main types of model railroad paperwork. Excel car cards and waybills algoma central in ho scale. Apr 02, 20 download car cards and way bills page for free. A problem with any car card and waybill system is where the bills are placed once the cars are spotted. Back then, in the dark ages before computers, the routing information was applied with a typewriter onto a preprinted purchased waybillrouting card. Car cards and their sisters, waybills are part of a simple system designed to enable prototypelike operations on a model railroad.
There is one farther column to the right showing final destination. Go to yahoo groups car cards and download from the files option a complete program from dave husman for creating car cards and waybills. After the cars reporting marks and numbers is a column for pickups followed by setouts and car lading. The car card is then placed in the holds slot for that industry for pickup by a following crew determined by the road master. Railroad line forums a car card and waybill system how to. The 2 x 4 car cards have a waybill with four positions. Some commercial card systems operate on a similar principle, using a card with a pocket for the car, and foursided waybills for routing. Simulating customer demand on a model railroad algoma. Ive seen a number of modelers and even software programs like shipit. The car cards have a simple fold up pocket that is taped on the sides.