Model Railroading > Questions regarding waybills

This kind of crosses the boundary between prototype and the model world, but since the context is ultimately for modelers, I'll ask here.

1) What governs the movement of an empty car, either routed to an industry to be loaded, or to return it home after unloading? As I see it, a true waybill is an order governing the shipment of a commodity from point A to point B, with financial interests attached. An empty car accumulates no charges, so does a waybill actually apply? I'm thinking that IRL, a 'movement order' for lack of a better term, applies for mtys.

2) Where do lease or private marked cars go when empty? Is there a marking on the side, "Return to XYZ Corporation, Umptysquat TX" ? I've seen orders on regular traffic cars, "When empty, return to Agent, ABC Railroad, West Hellhole, IN" in the past.

Questions driven by a project to add waybill generation to my homegrown switch list generator, FWIW.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/15 07:13 by VunderBob.

By default empty cars return to the location that they were loaded. Private X-cars are the ones that most often do this. Shippers can direct that a car move to a different location when empty, if so desired, but more often they move by default.  The empty move following a loaded move is free to the shipper with no payment terms attached, so some railroads don't consider empty dispotion a waybill per se, others just call it an empty/non-revenue waybill and are assigned waybill numbers that won't go to revenue accounting.  All of this stuff is done via computer now so there's no longer a need to stencil a car's "home" on its side.

I don't know about other railroads but the one I work for will bring a new shipper their first empty car with no charge -- common courtesy I suppose, and it just makes sense. Can't get a load without an empty! (Well technically you can, but...)

Railroad-owned empties can of course be dispo'ed anywhere while on home rails at the railroad's discretion.



 

Car distributors control the pattern of empties based on car orders. Cars belonging to a particular pool go back to agent's pool for distribution to industry

Perhaps there is some confusion between a bill of lading and a waybill.

On the UP in the early 1970s, all empty cars got a waybill, generated by the agent for the point where car was made empty. 100% of the cars in every UP road train had waybills.

Empty cars did not have a bill of lading. A bill of lading was filled out and tenderded by the shipper for every loaded car. From the bill of lading, a waybill was generated by the agent for the point of origin. Often, the bill of lading was just one of the carbon copies from the bill of lading form, with information added by the agent.

Best regards,

Rob L.
UP Oregon Division Rule 2 Relief Agent in 1972

rob_l Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Perhaps there is some confusion between a bill of
> lading and a waybill.
>
> On the UP in the early 1970s, all empty cars got
> a waybill, generated by the agent for the point
> where car was made empty. 100% of the cars in
> every UP road train had waybills.
>
> Empty cars did not have a bill of lading. A bill
> of lading was filled out and tenderded by the
> shipper for every loaded car. From the bill of
> lading, a waybill was generated by the agent for
> the point of origin. Often, the bill of lading
> was just one of the carbon copies from the bill
> of lading form, with information added by the
> agent.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Rob L.
> UP Oregon Division Rule 2 Relief Agent in 1972

My question, probably asked badly, is what kind of paperwork do I generate for movement of an mty, either realistic or at least plausibly simplified? I am envisioning 1 cycle and disposable documents. Other commercial and homebrew systems are typically 4-cycle and multiple use.

My ultimate aim is to generate movement documents with an optical code to manage the car movements. My switchlist generator works OK to a point, but cannot handle variances in the traffic pattern it generates, such as off-spots or special movements.

VunderBob Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> rob_l Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> My question, probably asked badly, is what kind of
> paperwork do I generate for movement of an mty,
> either realistic or at least plausibly simplified?
> I am envisioning 1 cycle and disposable documents.
> Other commercial and homebrew systems are
> typically 4-cycle and multiple use.
>
> My ultimate aim is to generate movement documents
> with an optical code to manage the car movements.
> My switchlist generator works OK to a point, but
> cannot handle variances in the traffic pattern it
> generates, such as off-spots or special movements.

If you modeling early 1970s era railroading:

Generate a switch list for your local to retrieve the empty car (as well as other cars it should handle). While your local is retrieving the car, generate a waybill for the empty movement of the car from where the local picked it up to where it is going. Where it is going: If a home-road car, it will be billed to the designated terminal for distributing such empties or to a station the car distributor designates considering near-term car orders. If a foreign-road car, it will be billed to the nearest junction or to a terminal designated by the car distributor (if it can be reloaded by your road with a load heading towards the home road). If an assigned service car, it will be a billed empty moving reverse route to the loading point. The waybill will accompany the car on the first road train handling the car and with all movements thereafter.

I can't help you for how it was done after the early 1970s, I was out of the industry by then.

Best regards,

Rob L.

 

Into the 1980s Conductors got a bundle of papers for their train. First was a computer generated list of the train in multiple attached pages with multiple copies wrapped around the waybills. Each waybill for every loaded car was a single copy of one or two pages, sometimes more, folded in half lengthwise. Every empty car had a piece of paper about the size of a waybill folded lengthwise. These were organized in train order as in the first car on top, last car at the bottom.

The waybills were rubber banded together then wrapped inside the train list or wheel report which was then folded and rubber banded together.

Coal trains and unit grain trains moved under a single waybill which listed every car in the movement. Loads like poles or bridge beams which spanned two or more cars or required a buffer or two had all the connected cars one one waybill though the train list showed all cars individually.

Conductors would match a waybill or empty car slip to every car on the wheel report before leaving the terminal if it was a make up train. The wheel report and bills were left on the caboose with a connecting conductor or given to a yard clerk where the train terminated.

Where cars were picked up enroute by a crew they would get some form of shipping documents from an employee of the customer or a lineside mail box before leaving.

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