Delivering the Freight - A Transportation System

After three operations sessions we know we can run the passenger and freight schedules of the Pennsylvania - Reading Seashore Lines but I think we may have lost sight of the purpose of running those trains.. Sure the trains all ran but:

*   Do we know if the power company got enough coal to keep the generators running so that the people in the towns could keep the lights on?

*   Did the local Acme get enough cans to restock the store shelves after the weekend?

*   Did Campbell Soup get enough tomatoes to can soup?

*   Does Barry Brothers have a hopper car on its trestle so that the people of Westville can have enough coal slid into their basement windows to keep the furnaces fed and the houses heated?

By the shape of the waybills collections (and their locations) following an Op Session I doubt if we could answer those questions. So it is time to review the purpose of running the railroad, and why we run those trains.

To do that we will review the philosophy of why the railroad is there, its customers, and what they need.

1) The railroad exists to serve its customers (and make money doing so).

2) We will review how we imitate that and

3) Go town by town reviewing the industries and their needs.

We already answered question #1 so let's look at Q#2.

Since I model the towns I grew up in, I pretty much know the companies and industries that existed there. I did cheat somewhat and substitute some later actual industries for what were duplicate town industries in 1950s. (In the 50s it seems every town had multiple coal companies and lumber yards so I removed some duplicates with an industry that occupied that location a decade or two later.)

The Reading modelers site has a 1954 Reading RR freight database listing the main commodities delivered to each location. Here was a gold mine of the companies and shipments destined to the team tracks located in each town. So now we have all the industries and shipment types.

I began by making a spreadsheet of each company (within each town) and estimated the types of supplies they would get in and the products they would ship out, by car type. After estimating the number of cars the layout could handle I developed the following schedule:

Now to use this information we use Micro Mark 4 cycle waybills. Most of the time we use 2-3 cycles. The third cycle usually points to destinations far outside of NJ so the cars end up on the Philadelphia transfer runs and return when needed on a Camden transfer.

I have a big stack of pre-made waybills so that I can meet the industry car (and shipment) requests, multiples of each request type for variety.

They are the items that make the layout a transportation system. Now let's look more closely at the industries on (and off the layout). Let's begin with Camden.

Camden has 2 hidden tracks behind its industries that we have yet to fine a use for (read the yard crew and Camden local are already busy enough).

Camden Pavonia yard receives an early morning transfer from Philadelphia (staging) which brings in shipments destined for South Jersey and any additional empties needed to service car requests (after we have used all available empties already in the yard).

Later it receives an oil tank car sweeper form staging (representing the other PRSL Camden yard, Bulson street, originally Reading RR property). In addition it makes up locals and forwards a coal drag to the Atlantic City Electric power plant in Deepwater. Whenever it finds time it services the Camden Industries. RCA & Campbell Soup were big time clients of the PRSL in the early 1950s. Van Sciber was a big name furniture factory in Camden with a distinctive building and prominent name. In real life it only used a local team track but on my layout it earns its own spur.

From the spreadsheet you can see what comes and goes (and when) on each of the 3 industries.

Keep in mind that Campbell Soup receives a big portion of its input produce from the multitude of southern New Jersey farms in the area. Each of these received refrigerator cars that first had to be iced in Woodbury before going to the farms (mechanical reefers were just beginning to show up on the scene in the early 1950s). A complication that multiplies operations on the layout.

At this point we should clearly see that our focus should not be on running trains but on servicing our customers. 

I really struggle with realistic model railroads that have systems that merely move a car from one location to the next artificial destination on the card. They run trains for the sake of running trains. If that is what floats your boat - enjoy! It is your railroad and you have every right to do whatever pleases you. But you will have to excuse me now, I have customers that need servicing. 

(Next blog we will move onto Westville and Woodbury. Stay tuned.)

Update: I've added an overall view of Camden to help visualize the city layout (which is being modified as we speak :-)  ):

Overall view of Camden industrial area