Building on my previous post, there are two interesting aspects of grain handling I've been thinking about:
(1) For the empties, they weren't sent to a specific elevator, just "up the branch" (see previous post). The conductor would just take a string up there and spot the right number of cars. Which car number didn't matter at all. So having a specific destination on a waybill for an empty doesn't make sense to do on the model railroad, either. I guess I could just put "Mansfield Branch" on my waybills and accomplish the same thing, since I don't have enough room to model branchlines east of Stevens Pass.
(2) For the loads, Bob Stafford and Ray Wheeler have told me that each car's load had a specific moisture content and protein content, as measured at the originating elevator, and so they would spot the loaded cars at Cargill (Seattle's 4 million bushel Export Grain Terminal at Pier 86) in very specific order on specific tracks, by car number. Switching Cargill was a huge switching project. I was just thinking "shove them all in there and forget it!" How wrong! They would store the cars both next to the export grain terminal and in Balmer, and (sometimes) call for them to be unloaded by specific car number. I could simulate this by making up a switch list for the grain terminal switcher, but I'm also thinking that I could put moisture and protein attributes on the waybill itself, and then give the switcher instructions on which attributes go to which track, possibly in which order, and let them figure out how to switch it. In addition, the unit trains of covered hoppers were also switched out this way, after they terminated in Balmer yard (Interbay). The 40' boxcars from the light branchlines came in to Balmer yard (Interbay) too, but on regular manifest trains, not in the unit trains.
The bottom line is that, when I get the paperwork straightened out, someone is going to have a lot of fun taking several hours to work Pier 86. I was mistaken, thinking it was a trivial job!
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