Interest In Tour Car or Car Exchange?

[Mike Kieran]

How did you attach it in word? I have blank waybills that fit on one page.

[Mike Kieran]

I attached two files for blank waybills. Let's seeeeee........

[teejay]

I don't have Win Office and wouldn't buy it just for the exchange ...I would have to do it manually .

T

[jwb]

I was able to download the doc file and save it as rtf, so that I could open it in MS Word Pad. However, the software here doesn't allow upload of rtf, which is just the generic version of MS Word and is Word compatible. Can a moderator weigh in on whether anything could be done to allow the Big Blue software to upload rtf files?

I'm wondering too, though, if the waybill pattern Mike uploaded in Word might be simplified -- the weigh data, for instance, wouldn't be needed for a model.

[jwb]

Someone has also raised the question of how much shipping would cost. If it's a few bucks, that's OK, but in other cases, it could be over $10, which would be out of line. I agree with those price ranges.

This wasn't discussed when we did the first try on this last year. I find the USPS site very confusing and hard to understand (typical, I guess). However, I was playing around with the idea of mailing a 10-ounce parcel from LA to New Jersey and got a low price of $5,80 for a priority mail 2-day flat rate box. The site suggests First Class Mail Parcel would be available at 3.26 (it qualifies for packages under 13 ounces. An HO freight car is in the 4-5 ounce range.)

I don't know what would be involved in sending packages to Canada or any other country. Any observations, suggestions, or experience would be most helpful.

[Mike Kieran]

We can download OpenOffice.org for free and use that for waybills.

[teejay]

I can only speak for the mailing I did from Canada several years back on the RRL forum exchange and it was pretty reasonable for light weight stuff . For the ones coming to me from the U.S it was also reasonable ....I should go to the post office and check on the latest costs .

T

[Ralph]

...Ralph, are you in?...

I'm in!

[Mike Kieran]

According to the US Postal Service, First Class costs US$8.55 for a small 8 ounce package.

[Mike Kieran]

Open Office can be downloaded for free at http://www.openoffice.org/download/.

[Ralph]

Not to be a Luddite Mike but can you describe how we'd use that with the waybills? I guess I imagined sending a paper form. Get me up to date. Is OpenOffice something we'd all have access to like sharing files?

[Charlie B]

Ralph, Open office is an open source office program much like MS Office, but it is free, and will work with many office programs and spreadsheets.
Charlie

[Mike Kieran]

Once downloaded, it could be shared like Office Word documents.

[Puddlejumper]

I would be willing to join in this round if you guys don't mind me posting photos of your equipment on a completely unscenicked and otherwise very incomplete layout. I love the idea of seeing one of my cars on your layouts, and your cars on mine.

Dave

[Mike Kieran]

Dave, have you seen pictures of my layout? It's dioramas for now.