Les and I exchanged a puzzlement as we discussed how to handle an empty returning to my layout from his. Les wondered if empty cars have waybills, and I'm almost certain they do, because a waybill is needed to move any car. But this raises the fact that modelers' discussions of operations are light on how empties are handled. I read an account by a guy who worked summers in the Erie's Hammond, IN yard office, and empties were a big part of his job. I think where they went depended on the season of the year, but empty boxcars were typically routed to the UP in Omaha. (Nor were these necessarily just UP.) And I assume some sort of waybill was needed to do this. Does anyone know more?
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I use a simple system.
When I pull the waybill all my car cards say "When empty return to road name initials by reverse route"..I use to see that stenciled on boxcars..
Larry
Engineman
Summerset Ry
Make Safety your first thought, Not your last! Safety First!
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Empty cars do indeed require waybills. Some roads use a full size waybill (8 1/2 x 11) while others may use a half size form (4 1/4 x 11). In simplest terms empty cars are to be sent home via reverse route or returned to the nearest junction point of the home railroad, or may be loaded closer to, back to, or via the home road. Like everything else in the industry, there are of course exceptions to the basic rules.
The information to be shown on the empty car waybill is minimal: Car Initials and Number, Kind, From Station and State, To Station and State, Shipper (Railroad Agent), Consignee (Railroad Agent), Route, Last Contents and any other special instructions that may pertain. Example:
FREIGHT WAYBILL
Car Initials: LN Number: 200090 Kind: C113
From: Frankfort, KY Shipper: Agent FCIN
To: Louisville, KY Consignee: Agent LN
Route: FCIN FRNKF LN
Contents: Empty - Last Contained Corn
As Larry pointed out, if you're using car cards, you can simply show on the car card EMPTY and the route the car must take to get back to its home rails or make empty waybills to use with the card showing the required information.
I did a Google search for "Railroad Waybills" and was a bit surprised that I couldn't find any good examples of prototype waybills. Plenty of examples where model railroaders have made their own or how they handle car cards should you care to spend a little time looking.
Ed
"Friends don't let friends build Timesavers"
As I said above, there was an interesting exception where the Erie (an eastern road that was always going to have more westbound empties than eastbound loads) sent as many empties as it could to destinations like the UP in Omaha, which was always going to have a need for empties to ship lumber, grain, etc back east. This apparently wasn't completely in accordance with car service rules as usually applied -- think for a moment about an Erie boxcar that turns up empty in Hammond, at the west end of the line. What's the Erie going to do, just hold on to it in Hammond until it gets a load to go back to Akron, or send it to the UP, where it'll earn per diem?
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jwb Wrote:As I said above, there was an interesting exception where the Erie (an eastern road that was always going to have more westbound empties than eastbound loads) sent as many empties as it could to destinations like the UP in Omaha, which was always going to have a need for empties to ship lumber, grain, etc back east. This apparently wasn't completely in accordance with car service rules as usually applied -- think for a moment about an Erie boxcar that turns up empty in Hammond, at the west end of the line. What's the Erie going to do, just hold on to it in Hammond until it gets a load to go back to Akron, or send it to the UP, where it'll earn per diem?
They won't send it to the UP, because to get from the ERIE to the UP they would have to go over other railroads and those railroads aren't going to send an empty boxcar across their lines for free. The ERIE will move the car empty back east to be loaded on the ERIE. The exception would be if the ERIE and UP had some sort of pooling arrngement, but that would require an equipped car (cushion underframe, load restraining devices, insulation, plug doors, etc.)
Running off your own cars to be loaded on another road isn't a good idea because per diem doesn't make you that much money, especially when you consider that if you have to use a foreign boxcar to load a load on your lines, the the per diem you earn is offset by the per diem you pay. The only time per diem made significant money was in the 1970's and 1980's when the AAR ok'd incentive per diem to relieve a boxcar shortage.
