Waybills

Ah, yes, waybills.  When I first started out with operations on my layout I tried the card card and waybill system.  It was a very easy system to implement and to use.  I believe if I would have had a much larger layout I probably would have continued using this system.  I then started using a switchlist system.  This was even an easier system to implement and use.  

After a while I got bored with this system and decided to use a waybill only system.  I found many references to this system from Tony Thompson; he has written a great many good articles on waybills on his blog.

Below is a typical freight waybill that I use on my layout.

So, what does it all mean?  Well first off, the waybill is used to deliver 40 boxes of steel to my online industry of Lincoln Fuses located in the town of Millcreek.  The car is a foreign car owned by the Grand Trunk Western shown here in the CAR INITIALS box as GTW with a car number of 516771.  You can also see that it is 40' boxcar.  The waybill was originated on the B&M who decided to send the empty car back to its home road with a load for Lincoln Fuses.  And here is the GTW boxcar at Lincoln Fuses.

Why doesn't the waybill show the industry and town of where shipment was originated?  Back in the day when waybills were commonplace the conductor would fold the waybill in half because he only needed to know where the car need to go; since he had the car in his train and the waybill in hand he didn't need to know where the car came from, even though that information would be on the other side of the waybill.  And one last note of interest is the routing instructions; this car originated on the B&M was then interchanged with the NYC and then interchanged with the CP.  Routing will become important in my later posts about waybill.

In my next posting I will discuss in greater detail how this waybill is used on my railroad.