B&O CAR CARD AND WAY BILL OPERATIONS

INTRODUCTION To date, the B&O model railroad has directly written switch-lists for movement of cars. By moving to a Car Card & Way Bill system, we are able to more realistically model the flow of traffic from point of origination to destination. We combine the order for movement (waybill) with the designation of the car to be moved (car card).

CAR MOVEMENT (Example) The manager of the Bartgis Brothers Box Company in Ilchester decides he needs an empty boxcar to ship a load of boxes to the McMahan Transfer Co. in St. Louis, MO. He contacts the local station agent at the Ilchester B&O station across the tracks and advises the station agent of his need. He tells the agent when the car is needed and when it must reach St. Louis. The station agent completes a Bill of Lading contract with the Bartgis Brothers Box Company. A Bill of Lading is a contract between the shipper and the railroad. The agent contacts a clerk at the Baltimore Division office of car control by phone or teletype and requests an empty boxcar and advises them of the purpose of the car.

WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN An empty Box Car meeting the needs of Bartgis Brothers Box Co. needs to be found. The empty car needs to be delivered to Bartgis brothers. Some time is needed to load the car at Bartgis Brothers. After loading, the car is picked up by the next westbound wayfreight and sent toward its destination. Some time is needed to unload the car The car is released for another loading

IN BALTIMORE The car control folks search their inventory of available cars and find a suitable car at the Locust Point Yard in Baltimore that has just been unloaded with merchandise that was shipped overseas. They first look for a suitable foreign road car that might belong to a mid- west railroad to send it back in their direction to get rid of the daily per diem charges. The car is clean (not previously loaded with chicken manure, etc.) and suitable for clean new boxes. They inform the Ilchester station agent of the car. The car control clerk informs the Locust Point Yardmaster clerk of the choice and requests the Locust Point yardmaster to prepare a switchlist for the car to be delivered to the Mt. Clare "B" Yard along with other cars. The Mt. Clare "B" Yard clerk prepares a waybill for the car to be delivered to the Bartgis Brothers Box Company in Ilchester and gives it to the wayfreight conductor on the next train (Monday, Wednesday or Friday local).

PROTOTYPE EXAMPLE

OUR MODEL WAY BILLS Waybills are printed on cardstock. Waybills are the size of baseball trading cards. Waybills are inserted into a plastic sleeve (car card) with the car’s reporting marks on it. B&O Boxcar Car “Card” (Plastic Sleeve with car designation at bottom) Way Bill (Cardstock)

EMPTY WAY BILL This side of the waybill moves the empty car to Bartgis Box Company. Note the “Via” OML W. The Old Main Line Local Westward delivers the car. The “XM” car type designates a Box Car. Card MUST stay with Car.

LOADED WAY BILL This side of the waybill moves the loaded car to St Louis. Note the “Via” STL. This car will move in the STL (St. Louis) block from Brunswick Westward Yard. Car card MUST stay with car... always!

EMPTY CAR MOVE The Mt. Clare “B” Yard includes a boxcar for Bartgis Bros. on the next OML Westward Local. Since Mt. Clare is not currently modeled, Don finds an appropriate car to add to the staged OML Westward Local leaving Halethorpe. In our example, the car is B&O boxcar When the OML Westward wayfreight departs Halethorpe, it picks up a stack of waybills, one of which represents this car movement.

EMPTY CAR MOVE Box car is put on the next OML W (Old Main Line Local Westward) made up in East Staging. B&O Boxcar

EMPTY CAR DELIVERY The OML Westward Local delivers the car to Bartgis Bros. The Empty Car Bill is placed in the “Setout” Box by the OML W train crew. B&O Boxcar

WAY BILL BOXES HOLD SET OUTSPICK UPS ILCHESTER, MD Empty Car has been delivered to Bartgis Bros.

LOADING THE CAR Between sessions, the car card will move to either the “Hold” box or the “Pickup” box and the card flipped in the car card sleeve such that the loaded side shows. B&O Boxcar

WAY BILL BOXES HOLD SET OUTSPICK UPS ILCHESTER, MD Car is being loaded at Bartgis Brothers.

LOADING THE CAR After the car has been loaded, the card will be moved to the “Pickup” box between sessions. B&O Boxcar

WAY BILL BOXES HOLD SET OUTSPICK UPS ILCHESTER, MD Car ready to be picked up by the next OML West Local.

PICKING UP THE LOAD When the OML West arrives in town, it checks the “Pickup” box and sees this car card and waybill in the box. OML W picks up the boxcar and continues its run to Brunswick Yard. B&O Boxcar

BRUNSWICK The OML West Local terminates in Brunswick Westward Yard. The yard switcher crew notes the car goes to the “STL” (St. Louis) track. The car will depart on the next Westward train that takes St Louis cars. B&O Boxcar

ST LOUIS 97 St Louis 97 departs with B&O Box in the train. Model train terminates in West Staging. Car is assumed to be delivered to Saint Louis to the McMahon Transfer Co. B&O Boxcar

REVIEW B&O Boxcar FROM TO

YARD CREWS B&O Boxcar Consult the “VIA” or “ROUTE BLOCK” for classification.

THROUGH BLOCKS Baltimore: Locust Point, Bay View. Curtis Bay, Mt Clare Washington: Potomac Yard

THROUGH CAR CARDS If a car is moving from staging to staging, a simplified car card is used to let Brunswick Yard crews know what to do with the car. This card would be used on a train arriving Brunswick from West Staging to let the East Yard crew know it goes to POT Yard track. Card is single-sided, with a pink stripe.

LOCAL BLOCKS Old Main Line East:OMLE Old Main Line West:OMLW Frederick:FRED Brunswick Industries:BRUNS Valley Local:VALLEY Cumberland Local West:CBLW Cumberland Local East:CBLE N&W (Shenandoah Jct.):N&W Martinsburg:MART PRR (Martinsburg):M/PRR CUMBO Yard (Martinsburg):CUMBO

BRUNSWICK EAST YARD Abbreviation BLOCKTRACK POT Potomac Yard 1 NY New York 2 PHIL Philadelphia 3 BAYV Bay View 4 LOCPT Locust Point 5 CURTS Curtis Bay 6 OMLE OML Local East 7 FRED Frederick 8 MCL Mt Clare 8 OML E OML Local East (via MCL) 8

BRUNSWICK WEST YARD Abbreviation BLOCKTRACK CHIC Chicago 1 CLEVE Cleveland 2 PITTS Pittsburgh 3 CINC Cincinatti 4 STL St Louis 5 INDI Indianapolis Div 6 NCSTL New Castle 7 WILLRD Willard 8 CBLYD Cumberland Yard 9 CBLE Cumberland-Brunswick Local East (via CBLYD) 10 N&W N&W Interchange (via CBLYD, CBLE) 10 CBLW Brunswick-Cumberland Local West 11 MART Martinsburg (via CBLW) 11 M/PRR PRR Interchange (via CBLW) 11 VALLEY Valley Local 12

CBLW BLOCKS The Brunswick to Cumberland Local West (CBLW) handles its own industries, plus: – Martinsburg cars, dropped off for the Martinsburg switcher (MART). – Pennsylvania RR interchange west of Martinsburg (M/PRR). Using the MART and M/PRR blocks allows the local to know where these cars are delivered.

CBLE BLOCKS The Brunswick to Cumberland Local West (CBLW) handles its own industries, plus: – Martinsburg cars, dropped off for the Martinsburg switcher (MART) – N&W Interchange in Shenandoah Jct. WV Using the MART and N&W blocks allows the local to know where these cars are delivered.

CBLE & CBLW EXAMPLES

SPECIAL CARDS The following are a series of car cards, printed on normal weight paper, that go in front of the normal cardstock car card to send the car to an intermediate destination. Stock Pens, Car Shops, Icing Station, Coal Dock, Powerhouse, LCL track, etc. “Constructively Placed” – Siding to which that car was to be delivered is full. Car was set out at the nearest available siding. – Alerts later train crew that car needs to be shifted.

STOCK, ICING, CAR SHOPS Once task is complete, the paper slip will be removed, exposing the normal movement for the car.

CONSTRUCTIVELY PLACED If a car cannot be delivered to its proper location, set out the car nearby and place this slip in front of the way bill and place way bill in “Pickup” box. The next train crew will see this in the Pickup box, and (if there is room) deliver the car and pull the slip of paper and put the waybill in the “Set Out” box.