07-17-2010, 06:38 PM
I didn't even look at the article you mention for the above reasons. However I seem to remember the old system with thumbtacks went something like this...
Each car you build and place on the layout got a small hole drilled in the roofwalk or roof near one end. This is where you place the thumbtack. Each thumbtack represented a destination... example: Blue=Baltimore, Md; red=Philadelphia, Pa; yellow=NYC, NY; Orange=Washington, D.C; white=Wilmington, DE, Purple=Alexandria, Va. RF&PRR)
A train would enters South Philadelphia yard with a mix of cars with different color tacks. All cars going south (Blue, White, Orange, Purple) get blocked, as do all cars going north (Yellow). Red cars stay here. When the train gets to Wilmington it drops off the Whites, picks up any blocked blue/orange/purples. When the train reaches Baltimore it drops off blues and picks up Oranges and Purples. Etc. etc. To make the setouts and pickups easier the cars would be blocked by color at each terminal to avoid switching out individual cars. I really don't think the thumbtack system worked for individual industries and customers as that would require too many colors of tacks and too many colors to remember by memory. Most model railroads only have a few major yards/towns so it works well in that respect.
Each car you build and place on the layout got a small hole drilled in the roofwalk or roof near one end. This is where you place the thumbtack. Each thumbtack represented a destination... example: Blue=Baltimore, Md; red=Philadelphia, Pa; yellow=NYC, NY; Orange=Washington, D.C; white=Wilmington, DE, Purple=Alexandria, Va. RF&PRR)
A train would enters South Philadelphia yard with a mix of cars with different color tacks. All cars going south (Blue, White, Orange, Purple) get blocked, as do all cars going north (Yellow). Red cars stay here. When the train gets to Wilmington it drops off the Whites, picks up any blocked blue/orange/purples. When the train reaches Baltimore it drops off blues and picks up Oranges and Purples. Etc. etc. To make the setouts and pickups easier the cars would be blocked by color at each terminal to avoid switching out individual cars. I really don't think the thumbtack system worked for individual industries and customers as that would require too many colors of tacks and too many colors to remember by memory. Most model railroads only have a few major yards/towns so it works well in that respect.
-Dave