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Monday, June 19, 2017

CONTINUOUS OPERATIONS

As operations on my railroad mature, I have found a need to both mix up each session a little bit while also simplifying the re-staging requirement.  The key to both of these goals was to switch from the initial train line-up used since full mainline operations began to a twenty-four hour line-up from which I could select a suitable segment of the day for any given operating session. 

The initial line-up provided a good representation of traffic on the SP Cascade Line, but it had all locals running in every session.  This put great pressure on the Eugene Yard to assemble the locals.  It also left a lot of work for me after each session to do the yard work of the “next shift” to classify the trains brought back in by the local freights and organize the yard for the next operating session.  The combination of extensive “Second Shift” yard work and re-organization of trains in the two staging yards (Eugene Arrival-Departure and Crescent Lake) often took three days for me to accomplish.  The original line-up, developed by myself and SP Dispatcher veteran Rick K. served its purpose well, but it was time to move on. 

For reference, the original line-up is shown below:

SP Cascade Line Basic Line-Up

EUGENE YARD OUTBOUND LINEUP         
Symbol                                      Called for
01-EURVY                                 630 AM
12-EUOGY                                 930 AM
01-EUKFY                                1100 AM
02-EURVY                                 130 PM
11-EUNPY                                 300 PM
NO 11                                       on time
KLAMATH FALLS EAST LINEUP                
Symbol                                 ETA CJ (Cres.Lake)
01-WCEUE                                 600 AM
01-LABRT                                  700 AM
NO 14                                       on time
01-RVEUE                                 1000 AM
01-KFEUY                                  Noon
01-OABRT                                  230 PM
01-OGEUY                                  400 PM
01-RVEUY                                   600 PM
01-LABRF                                   830 PM


Missing from this line-up is the local service plan.  Ops sessions would begin with the Oakridge Turn at Oakridge and the First Springfield Job (serving the depot side of the mainline at Springfield) at Springfield, with both ready to begin their work.  The Eugene City Switcher would be called to duty at session start (6:00 am on the Fast Clock).  The Marcola Turn and the Second Springfield job (serves the aisle side of the mainline at Springfield) would be substantially ready in the classification yard, though cuts of cars in both the classification yard and the arrival/departure yard might contribute cars to both trains before they were prepared for departure.  This latter pair of local freights would be dispatched after the First Springfield job returned to Eugene, typically around 1:00 or 2:00 pm on the Fast Clock. 

Those five local freights led to considerable yard work on my part during re-staging.  It usually took a day to work the classification yard and another day or more to work the Eugene Arrival/Departure Yard.  Add to this reworking Crescent Lake and resetting the open load cars (flats and wood chip gondolas) and waybills out at the on-line industries.  I needed to reduce the required work!

A brief note about SP train symbols of the “modern” era (after 1965 or so):  SP train symbols included a pair of leading digits that represented either that train's position in the sequence of that train symbol in that day (most use a "01,” but Roseville trains might number four to six in a day) or a sequence number for that symbol within the month.  This was followed by two two-letter codes for the originating yard and the destination yard.  EU was Eugene, BR was the SP Brooklyn Yard in Portland, OR.  The major westbound destinations used were RV for Roseville, LA for Los Angeles, WC for West Colton, OA for Oakland, and OG for Ogden.  KF for Klamath Falls and NP for run-throughs on the UP to North Platte, NE, also appear.  Ogden, North Platte and Klamath Falls trains took traffic routed over the Modoc Line to Ogden. 

The final part of the train symbol for my purposes was a single letter code for the type of train.  Most trains were code “Y” for general mixed freight.  “T” and “F” codes were for Trailer or Forwarder trains—both with higher priority.  The “E” code was for full trains of empties—the former “XMUG” (empties to Eugene in an earlier symbol formulation) trains sent north from Roseville or the Los Angeles area (LA—Taylor Yard or WC--West Colton). These were solid trains of lumber empties sent back to Eugene for reload.  Retired LA Division Conductor Pat Bray notes a nightly train out of Taylor Yard composed of just flat cars as one of these “XMUGs.” 

SP train symbol history and development is more extensively documented on John Carr’s website:

Armed with John Carr’s SP train symbol compilation and significant input from my SP Dispatcher expert Rick K, I developed a twenty-four hour line-up.  This allows me to stop an operating session at an arbitrary time point and pick up from that point at the next session.  This immediately cast the Eugene Classification Yard re-staging work into a different light, as I could leave most of the yard alone, perhaps only reviewing waybills “in play” in that yard as I moved on to the Arrival/Departure Yard.  The twenty-four hour line-up also provided target call times for each of the local freights.  This spaced them out over the full day such that a given session might be working with only two or three of them.  The work during an ops session could look a lot more like a real railroad operating around the clock.

I applied my own editing to the information I got from my experts.  Part of this was a matter of ensuring an appropriate mix of train symbols over the course of a typical operating session duration of eight to ten fast clock hours.  I still make adjustments for a given session based on experience with ops sessions so far.  I also make adjustments for the expected crew size.

My current twenty-four hour line-up looks like:

RR-West from Eugene

Time at EUG
Symbol
BR  Time
Notes
1201 a
01-BRLAT
600 p
Former TOFC Special
OAKRG Turn
On duty 1230 am at Oakridge for return to Eugene
100 a
01-BROAT
100 a
Carr lists Portland call as 1 am
200 a
01-CZLAT
1159 p
Carr notes TOFC plus other traffic
230 a
01-EUMFY
Via RSV and WC some TOFC
300a
EUG City SW
City Switcher goes on duty
330 a
01-EULAY
Former EUHOY
400 a
SPRG-A
First Springfield Turn
530 a
01-EUOAY
645 a
01-EUWCY
730 a
01-EURVY
Carr lists an EURVW at 400 am
930 a
01-EUKFY
Could be anytime plus or minus
AMTK No. 14
1028 am Departure for Portland
1130 a
02-EURVY
Carr has one at 1 pm  --delete????
200 p
OAKRG Turn
Eastbound to Oakridge
300 p
03-EURVY
400 p
01-EUNPY
Ogden to UP
430 p
MARC Turn
Marcola Turn
500 p
02-EULAY
530 p
SPRG-B
Second Springfield Turn
615 p
AMTK No. 11
642 pm departure at Eugene Depot
730 p
02-EUOAY
900 p
01-EUCIY
City of Industry  (EULAY)
1005 p
01-EUESF
Via Roseville and Ogden
1100 p
01-EUWCY
1130 p
01-BRRVY
600 p
Another Roseville train-


RR-East from Crescent Lake

Time at CJ
SYMBOL
Notes
1215 a
01-WCEUE
1230 a
OAKRG Turn
On Duty at Oakridge for return to EUG
100 a
04-RVEUY
200 a
01-OAEUY
300 a
01-LABRT
500 a
01-OGBRY
630 a
05-RVEUY
815 a
AMTK No 14
1028 am at Eugene
900 a
02-LAEUY
1100 a
02-OAEUY
100 p
01-RVEUY
230 p
01-KFEUY
410 p
01-WCEUY
600 p
01-LABRF
700 p
02-RVEUY
800 p
01-OABRT
930 p
01-RVEUE
1030 p
03-LAEUY
1130 p
01-OGEUY

We have used this line-up for three regular operating sessions. It has been a great success for work in the Eugene Yard.  Spreading the local freight departures throughout the day allows the yardmaster to better manage the work—balancing it better for the size of the classification yard.  Critically, my re-staging effort has become far more manageable. 

I re-staged the entire railroad in one day for the June 3, session.  That effort began at Crescent Lake where the required “XMUGs”  (“Empty” symbol) trains were built first, followed by working with each of the other general manifest and priority trains as needed.  I then shifted to surveying the Eugene Classification Yard for the inbound (to the RR) traffic and identified additional traffic (waybills) that were needed for the locals.  Most of these needed cars were empties for loading on my RR, so their waybills could be assigned to a recently-arrived train of empties in the A-D Yard.  The yard crew would need to pull that car block into the classification yard for work there.  Finally, most of the outbound (RR-West) trains were prepared. In some cases, this might include leaving sufficient space in a forming train to handle RR-West cars currently in the Classification Yard.  


Moving to an around-the-clock operations model for my railroad has accomplished my goals for that shift.  My re-staging effort is acceptable.  The yard crew is a lot happier.  They now can accomplish their work without feeling they are always under a tight time limit.  The road crews still have plenty of work.  The reduced number of local freights worked during a session seems to match well with the number of operators who really want to do that work.  I now have a good tool—a master plan—with which to construct line-ups for any given operating session.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Bill. Looks like a promising program. The paragraphs between your 'before' and 'after' tables are blowing off the right side of my screen -- probably a simple fix.

    ReplyDelete