Thoughts On Interesting Proto Paperwork

You want me to fill out what?!? Where?!?

Amongst my friends, I am known as a paperwork "junkie" who gets the biggest kick out of tracking down and buying the most mundane piece of railroad-issued forms and whatnot. Of course, if you ask my girlfriend, she just shakes her head and asks me why I feel the need to buy more dusty old train papers to fill up the basement with. And then of course, there are the model railroaders who find realistic paperwork (and the operations that go along with them) as needlessly boring and "anti-fun"....The common cry of "I work all day, and all I want to do is come home and run my trains, not push paper" is the often heard (and IMO, weak) reply.

Sometimes, in my search for LV or CNJ paperwork, or even other RR's forms for inspiration to design my own for my layouts' ops, I come across paperwork that never, in a million years, could be used to even REMOTELY represent or assist a job or activity on my layout. Not everything can be "scaled down" or even justified for use in realistic operation, since we just don't have to recreate certain activities that the real railroads did (I'm not about to do seat and baggage checks on my passenger trains, are you?!?). After all, there is a limit to what can be simulated on even the most prototypically-operated layouts, and I've operated on some pretty paperwork-centric layouts, let me tell you.

One of my favorite "prototypically useless" forms is the "Nothing to Report" form -

I have nothing, absolutely NOTHING to report! Now let me go back to sleep!

Yes, it's a real form, and I've seen many variations of them, but the point is, there is no need to model this kind of paperwork, no matter HOW realisticaly you like to operate your layout, unless you LIKE to keep your operator friends away, that is...........

But I digress........The reason I wrote this entry today was that I recently came across two LVRR pieces of paper recently that while they certainly fall into the "can't be modeled" category, can still be brought out once in a blue moon just to have fun with. Whats that you say? Paperwork is FUN?!? Why bother going to the trouble? Well hold on to your trainorders there, Negative Nelly, and let me show you.........

Sir, please pull your locomotive over to the siding and show me your FRA Blue Card

OK, I know this is for issuing a citation to trespassers and autos parked where they shouldn't be parked and whatnot, but c'mon, there's no denying you can't have fun with this one with your buddies. It's definitely one of those every once in a blue moon kind of jokes you can pull on one of your crew, or a visitor, just to have fun with. Not convinced? OK, fine, here's another one I found on eBay that can actually be a bit more useful during a session.

Did I just hear the sound of breaking glass?

This is 4x4 card is something akin to "situational cards" that some people like to use on their layout to add "excitement" (not for nuthin', but I find a regular op session has enough excitement with bad DCC decoders, broken turnouts and other such insanity to keep things "exciting"). But if you ARE into that kind of thing, this is perfect. You can go around randomly slapping these on cars to make sure your crews are paying attention while switching. If nothing else, it's another "gag" card to pull out when things are going well (ie: boring) to spice things up little bit. Right now, the LVHTRy operations crew doesn't need any more distractions!

So, I guess my point is, extra paperwork can literally be fun. You can either copy and paste an image (like I did with these) and make multiple paste-ups to copy, or recreate them in Word or Excel (I've done that to for samples that were already filled out, or damaged in some way). Personally, I think I'm gonna bust out the traffic violation card at a session very soon, just to get some good laughs at the expense of someone other than me (for once!)!

"Write" On,

Ralph

Op Op Till You Drop - The Paperwork

Well, with T-minus 4 days and counting till my big shakedown (this is the one that will tells us weather or not I can go "prime time" with regular op sessions starting in February/March 2012), I am hurredly prepping the layout and the room, but more importantly, making sure the paperwork is all in order.

To me, not only is having the proper paperwork available to your crews VERY important to almost any layout, but having the proper paperwork (in my case, of a prototypical nature) helps not only guide the operations but also set the theme. Paperwork, at it's very least, should be car cards and other diagrams to help spot cars in sidings, etc, etc., but I'm one of those kind of guys who like to go all out. Like my very good friend Dave Ramos and his New York Harbor Railroad (www.nyhrr.com) and other hobby notables like Tony Koester and RMC author Tony Thompson (http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/), we believe more is more! This goes beyond car cards and waybills (we've "invented" our own to be just like the real thing), to car tags, interchange logs and the like.

I've presented NMRA clinics on the subject over the last 6 years, and I have refined my forms to something that is both modelable and usable without being overly complex. Which brings me to the point that most people look at paperwork as an over-complication of things. Some people think of paperwork (past the old CC&WB system) as "taking work home with them", and are of the mindset that "I want to run trains, not push paper". It's perfectly understandable - Not everyone is a prototype modeler, nor wants to run their  layout in a prototypical manner, and just wants to watch their trains run round and round - If that's what makes the hobby fun for them, so be it. However, in the circle of friends I operate with, there is always at LEAST three non-train operating jobs available  In fact, I think I've run maybe five train jobs on my friend Dave's layout over the space of four years and at least thirty op sessions! Why? Well, I enjoy it (obviously!), and I enjoy the mental gymnastics of replicating the realistic movements of cars, without having to do all the billing that the real clerks once had to do! It's no different to me than a Civil War reenactor making sure to have all his period-correct (and especially in relation to what we're doing, specific) accoutrements on and with him and no modern gizmos anywhere in sight, with the goal of setting the theme. OK, maybe most of us model railroaders aren't as obsessed with the details (I know I use mechanical pencils, highlighters and sticky notes to help me), but I think you get my drift, or at least I hope you do!

So, back to the point of my post.......I've been printing out tons of waybills, empty car orders, swtichlists and other such items for Friday. I know, I know I don't need to have EVERYTHING in place (it's only a shakedown, after all) but I still want to make sure it's available to the guys and if there IS a question on how to indentify or do something, I want to be able to provide that answer or job aid. So, below are a couple of forms I have created (all designed from prototype forms, though not always LV or CNJ-specific) for your consideration, and in a followup post, I'll get into talking more about the rather esoteric or layout-specific ones.

This first card is an LCL car "tag", designed after an actual PRR tag. These are the kind of tags that would have been found on door tack boards. Tony Thompson recently posted in his blog about the SP's use of such tags. While I have found no actual LV tag, I feel that I  am still being prototypical by using an actual piece of paperwork that could have for all I know, been used by the LVRR, too.

This second form is patterned after an actual LV train manifest form, T-156 if I recall correctly. Here, I have re-purposed it to serve as a tool for my active staging crews, to help them make up trains and carfloats correctly by car type, no by destination.

 
Here's an Empty Car Order, patterned after an NKP form. Pretty self-explanatory.

Here's a terminal spotting card, patterned after LIRR, NH and PRR forms. Since I don't use CC&W's on the layout, this takes the place of, and serves as, a way to keep track of on-layout deliveries.

And the last one for now, this is a a modified version of a form that friend Dave Ramos designed for his layout to provide crews with a "train brief", telling them their train make up and what they are expected to do.

As you can see, there's a lot of paper planned for this layout of mine! But it all supports the operation and will hopefully not only support the theme, but more importantly support the operation and make it enjoyable for all. I realize that in the process of posting these, that some of these might not be very legible when clicked on, so if anyone is interested, post a comment and I can send you the file direct if you're interested in learning more.

Until next time,

Ralph