The Dispatch Sheet determines yard work at West Mill

Penn Central Car Movement #33 (P.C.C.M. #33) continues at West Mill on my layout after it was handed over by the New York Central Train Layout .   The last post about this series on the N.Y.C.T.L. Blog included reference to the Dispatch Sheet John and I use in our virtual ops. 

http://newyorkcentrallayout.blogspot.com/2017/04/pccm-33e-dispatch-of-train-nv-3.html

I reproduced the image below.  It doesn't show as well as it does on John's blog...perhaps because of my black background.

Initials	Car #	Type	P.C.C.M. #	From	To	Lading
PC	77047	40'  Box	29	GERN	Neal’s Lumber	GERN Cement Flux
BAR	5226	40'  Box	29	Cavendish	Pilgrim State	Packaged meals
NYC  Early	90718	40’  Box	15	Terminal Yard
EL	73510	40'  Box	29	Booms Ready Mix	Neal’s Lumber	Bagged Cement
P&LE	35892	40'  Box	28	AM. Hardware	Peerless Appliance	Bulk Hardware
NYC Pace	174508	40'  Box	18	West Mill	Terminal Yard
PC	104478	40'  Box	27	Drywell Ink	Canton Box	Drums of ink
IC	30130	40'  Box	29	Blue Ribbon	Pilgrim State	Packaged cake mix
GM&O	21129	40’ Box	33	American Hardware	ACME Auto Parts	Bulk Hardware
TP&W	627	40’ Box	33	Walsh Steel Wool	Boom’s Ready Mix	Steel wool scrap
P&E	3638	40’ Box	29	Reynolds Bev.	Pilgrim State	Woodstock Hills soda
PC	229046	50' Box	33	Berk	Blue Ribbon Flour	Packaging Supplies
NYC	80755	50' Box	27	Empire Grain	RF Cunningham	Bagged grain
NYC  (1)	47063	50' Box	29	Peerless Appliance	All-City Storage	ONE car: appliances
PC	160502	50' Box	28	Universal Mill.	Battaglia Bros.	Cabinets
RI	35062	50' Box	26	Berk Enterprises	Cavendish	Printed meal containers
TPFX	5510	50' Box	28	Universal Mill.	BattagliaBros.	Cabinets
B&M	110	50 ‘ RBL	33	Superior Furniture	Corning Glass	Empty
B&M	109	50 ‘ RBL	28	Berk Enterprises	Cavendish Foods	Food containers
B&M	105	50 ‘ RBL	28	Berk Enterprises	Freihoefers Baker	Food containers
A.P.R.R.	60358	50 ‘ RBL	26	West Mill
NYC	173861	40' Hi Cu.	26	West Mill
NYC	53051	60' auto	33	Ford	ACME Auto Parts	Empty
KP&W	50335	60' auto	33	Ford	ACME Auto Parts	Empty
TOC/PC	350562	60' auto	33	Ford	ACME Auto Parts	Empty
PC	288673	Gon	28	Gervais Pipe	H.V.A.C.	Steel pipe
MCRR	350623	Gon	33	NYCTL  Shops	Sal’s Salvage	Scrap Wheels
KP&W	2140	Gon	33	NYCTL Shops	Sal’s Salvage	Scrap Wheels
NYC	892010	Cov. Hop.	33	Red Wing Flour	Blue Ribbon Flour	Soy Flour
TDLX	7241	Cov. Hop.	26	Cargill	Empire Grain	Grain
PC  (2)	473972	Hopper	33	Hudson Coal	Corning Glass	Coal
NYC		38’ Hop	28	NYS DOT 10	Hedberg Ag.	Aggregate
PRR		38  Hop	28	NYS DOT 10	Hedberg Ag.	Aggregate
2 TOFC		Flat s	26	Terminal Yard	Williams Yard	loaded
Coil Cars	(2)		28	Ford	KP Steel	Empty
NYC	67086	86' Box	28	Ford	ACME Auto Parts	Empty

What you're looking at is a list of all of the cars we own that are identical, or similar enough, to each others rosters for use in the virtual ops between our layouts.   The first three columns of the sheet describe the cars.  The fourth refers to which P.C.C.M series the car was most recently used.  We're up to the 33rd series of car exchanges now, but you can see that not all of our cars are involved in this current one.  Some cars on the sheet above are listed as having been used in earlier P.C.C.M.s,  with the New York Central "Early Bird" Boxcar being the longest idle.  It hasn't been used since series #15 as noted above.

The last three columns relate information about where each car came from, where it is going and what is being shipped.  We complete a new Dispatch Sheet for each new P.C.C.M. series.  It usually isn't very time consuming since many of the cars aren't involved and their previous info is still valid.

The Dispatch Sheets add realism to the ops and also,very importantly, keep track of each car's location and what we've last done with them.  Unlike some classic stories about the prototype Penn Central, we don't want to lose track of multiple boxcars!  We also want to avoid causing any rifts in the Space/ Time Continuum by accidentally posting photos of the same car being in two separate locations at the same time!! Ka-BOOOOM!!!!!

 The Dispatch Sheet John posted and sent to me tells me where the cars on the latest train will eventually be delivered and for what purpose.  He thoughtfully highlighted the current #33 series of cars in yellow.  The occasional grey row on the chart above is left over from my way of noting which cars were in a previous P.C.C.M. series that I sent out.  Some of them are coming back fairly quickly as part of P.C.C.M. #33.

As an example, note that the first bit of yellow highlighting on the Dispatch Sheet is related to a Gulf Mobile & Ohio boxcar that came from American Hardware on John's layout and is destined for ACME Auto Parts.  You can see the distinctive red GM&O boxcar in the line of cars that just arrived at West Mill, pictured below

Knowing that the car is for ACME tells me that I need to include this car as part of a transfer to the Kings Port & Western R.R. which operates the connection to Mayfield Yard.  After the car reaches the KP&W's Mayfield Yard, a crew will stick the car in a KP&W local to ACME Auto Parts (an off layout industry) for final set out.

I'll follow the "From and To" shipment orders on the current Dispatch Sheet to block other cars for the KP&W transfer, and also for a Kings Port Turn run by the Penn Central, and a local short job serving industries very close to West Mill Yard.

Let's get to work! First order of business is the removal of the caboose from the recently arrived VWM-4.  Our yard switcher crew on SD9 #6925 pulls the caboose and sets it out on the West Mill caboose track which is currently empty save for one transfer caboose.

The switcher crew turns its attention to the freight cars on the recently arrived train.   Thoughtful blocking at Terminal Yard makes our job easy!   The aforementioned GM&O car is in the midst of several others that need to be included in the transfer to the KP&W!   Nice work John!   All of the transfer block can be seen in the photo below with just a little of a B&M 50' RBL car visible in the far left side of the pic...

 ...to the three 60 foot auto parts cars at the other end.

The KP&W block is cut from the rest of the train

 ..and backed into track #2.

The two gons of scrap wheels are going to nearby Sal's Salvage that is literally just outside the Yard.   The cars beyond them in this pic will be set out at industries between West Mill and Kings Port by the Penn Central as The Kings Port Turn.

 Cars for the "Turn" are pulled away from the two gons...

...and coupled onto three 50' boxcars that were already waiting at West Mill, to be included as part of that train toward Kings Port.

This NYC covered hopper for Blue Ribbon Flour in Kings Port will be the first car behind the power for the soon to be dispatched Kings Port Turn.

The yard switcher crew parks their SD9 and has another chat with Yardmaster Cappy Foster before taking a lunch break.

Next Up:  The Kings Port Turn leaves West Mill.