I started out with the Mirco-Mark (McFall) car card and waybill system and have pretty much stuck with it for many years. I now generate all my waybills using a computer program called “Waybills” by Shenandoah Software, which only runs on Windows, so I have to put my Mac into PC emulator mode ("Parallels" software) to use it. If I was starting out I might try to see if "JMRI ops” is up to the job of printing waybills, but if it isn’t I recommend the Shenandoah software. The advantage of it is that you can keep adding shippers and locations as your layout expands, and since each waybill has an ID number you can swap old ones out for new ones without disturbing the overall traffic flow. You can also use it to print car cards and locomotive cards, which I haven’t tried yet. I also use it to print “DCC settings” cards to go in my loco card pockets which describe the use of each DCC Function button for that particular locomotive and decoder type. This is not as much of an issue if you use only one type of decoder. I haven’t tried the other brands of software available for this, or tried to do it myself with a spreadsheet program, so can’t speak to them.
Another thing I like about car cards is that I keep all the acquisition date, prototype life span, model weight, manufacturer, date I acquired it, type of wheels and couplers, and dates when I make any modifications or maintenance on the car, handwritten on the back of the car card. So if I have to bad order it for any reason I can quickly see its medical history. You could keep all of this on a spreadsheet too, but I like being able to pick up a car and its car card at the workbench and be up to speed right away.
I have operated at probably 20 other layouts by now, and have been forced to use various types of switchlists and computer printouts in addition to the regular car cards and waybills. The challenge can be somewhat fun, but I find it much easier to keep track of which car cards are in which car card box corresponding to which track, rather than trying to understand a switchlist. Also, I really enjoy being able to understand (fantasize) the ultimate origin and destination of the car, not just what to do with it right now, as part of the whole “modeling” experience.
Another thing I like about car cards is, if I want to just go downstairs and do some switching, I can clip a paper clip to a few car cards around the layout, and then run an engine around and spot and pull just those cars, without disturbing the entire operating scheme. Much easier than getting a computer to “allow” that. (I use colored paper clips for this, which correspond to the color codes on my waybill destinations, so I can see at a glance what I’m dealing with.) And if you decide that a certain car should only have 3, or 6 or whatever destinations instead of the regular 4-cycles, it’s no problem - you can easily put more than one waybill in a car card. Another thing that some people do is to “confiscate” cars for a certain move, but inserting a special waybill in front of the normal waybill to redirect that car for a specific move. All of this is easy to do without any challenging computer programming. For example, say I wanted to run a special run of the “Ferndale Turn” of 50’ wide door boxcars up to the aluminum plant in Ferndale. I could print (or write out by hand) say 6 empty car orders and walk around the layout looking for empty boxcars, inserting the orders in each car card as I go. Suddenly the special “Fern Turn” is on its way. Micro-Mark sells blank “Empty Car Order” cards (in a blue color) as well as regular waybills, and they are easy to use for a purpose like this. Some people like this so much that they make all of their waybills only two-cycle (empty move and loaded move) and then remove them when the load is moved, allowing a completely different waybill to be inserted after each pair of moves for that car. I may move in that direction for some of my cars that aren’t in dedicated services like wood chips or aircraft parts. Some people are into more prototype-looking waybill designs, too, but I have the information I need on the existing waybills so am not motivated to make the process more challenging for operators who are used to the existing “convention”, so far at least. I’ve tried a couple of them, but they’re harder to understand at a glance. Tony Thompson’s blog is a great resource for information about this.
Another advantage of the 4-cycle set-up is that if you want to call for cleaning and weighing a car after its load has been delivered, you have the option of specifying that as a separate cycle or as a note at the bottom of a cycle. There have been some interesting articles written about reefers in this regard too, since they sometimes need to be pre-iced, or pre-cooled, or topped off after loading, etc, and this can be noted as one or more extra cycles on the waybill(s) for that car. It’s important to think about this now, because you may need to add some “clean-out tracks” and space for scale tracks if you want to include these operations in the fun of your layout.
If you are modeling the transition era, I don’t suppose there was anything like SPINS invented yet, so the numbering of tracks and spots can be whatever you want (or whatever the prototype did at the time). I tried to copy the BN SPINS document on my layout, although I modified them as needed, so every car spot has a unique six digit SPINS number, which is included on the waybill as well as trackside. Wherever possible I try to have the odd numbers trailing point and the even numbers facing point, and sequenced in order, so in theory blocking the trains is easy, for either the yardmasters or the switch crew, just by following the numbers. In practice, though, I haven’t had enough op sessions or enough regular operators for this to be much appreciated or even used. But it’s there. I also have every town color coded on the waybills so that you can tell at a glance which cars need to go in which train and/or direction. Most people do this and it is highly valued by crews.
It’s worth mentioning that Office Depot (etc.) sells 1/4” round “removable” sticky dots that many N scalers are using instead of car cards and waybills. You can have a different color for each town, and write a letter and/or number code for each industry/spot in that town inside the dot, stick it on top of the car, and you don’t have to bother reading the reporting marks on the car sides. You might consider trying this too, but I don’t have enough experience with it to be much help. One thing I do know is how important it is to make a clean layout diagram that clearly indicates which color refers to which town in which direction, for people who are new to the layout. I went to one (HO) layout using color tabs for car routing, and it took me most of the op session just to figure out and then remember which color referred to which town and/or direction. I’m about to try this on my own N scale layout, but am stuck at the stage of deciding what to call my towns and which colors to make them. All in good time.
Honestly, when I started building my railroad in 1985 I was just thinking about copying the trains moving in and out of Interbay and North Portal, which were my main rail fanning spots. Over time I realized that meant I could have two or three trains running at once, and a switcher in Interbay. Then DCC happened, which meant lots of operators could gum up even one yard. Then I tacked on Everett, which has two yards with different functions and Delta Wye to Skykomish and Bellingham, and suddenly I was looking at 8 operators or more. And then the expansion continued, both north and south, and now we have 7 yards and need 15 operators. And this is before adding the new West Seattle yard, which is now under construction and will take at least one additional operator. It wasn’t planned from the beginning, it just grew. The car cards and waybills always worked and are still working. I’m examining the many features of “JMRI ops”, but the thought of spending all my hobby time behind a computer screen is just making me wonder if we really need it.
Finally, if you are interested in ops, I highly recommend joining the NMRA opsSIG, which puts out an excellent quarterly magazine full of this type of information and sells a book called "A Compendium of Model Railroad Operations” which is worth reading.
