Reacting to more suggestions from the first operating session. I’ve decided to keep my current waybills as they are, especially since my wife and I put so much work into them. I’ve decided to do something a little different with them however, which I’ll discuss in a second.
I tried two other types of waybills, but didn’t have any success with either getting them to print, or work, or both.
The first suggestion I worked on was a simple map of the layout showing the offline stations or points, then showing all the actual stations on the layout. I decided to include this into a fold-out brochure with operating instructions also included and printed to look like a PC manual or rule book/ timetable. The results are shown below:
In the operating instructions, I’ve added that the actual stations are now color coded, with the current waybills color coded to match. In the photos below, any cars to a location are coded in the left hand corner of the waybill, any cars from a station on the layout are coded in the upper right corner:
This hopefully will show operators more clearly just where each car is routed to or from.
The last suggestion I’ve worked on and included in these operating instructions is to run the trains in a sequence clearly indicated with the trains already staged in Dickinson yard ready to go, except for adding on the caboose and power. Hopefully this all will simplify operations! Stay tuned….!
