Re:(erielack) "Short-term" operations

["Janet & Randy Brown" <jananran_@_mymailstation.com>]

One way to look at it was my experience at Seward, Alaska, when I was in the Army.  In 1954-55, during my tour there, Seward was a very busy port.  Anchorage had not yet gone year'round, and the military terminal at Whittier was in limited use because of a fire. Seward's two docks were running full speed 24/7 (before that was a popular phrase) with each one often unloading two ships at a time.  Each had capacity for 10 or 12 boxcars, and they filled them rapidly.  There was a meal break every six hours, during which the ARR SW1 would work the track, pulling loads, placing empties, and replacing cars not yet finished, doing their best to put them back where they had been but not always succeding.  Before the meal break, the longshorement would tie everything down in each car and close the doors.  Then they'd go eat while the SW1 would go whippety swish, back and forth, sorting out cars.  Those SW1s had some acceleration on them!  Meal times were staggered 
between the two docks.

All traffic went to one place -- Anchorage -- so all the switch crew had to do was put'em together and let the four F7s take them north.

You wanted to keep your eyes and ears open.

Randy Brown
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Hi folks,

In preparation for coming up with future operating plans for the model layout, here's a question I've wondered about for a while...

How were "same day switchouts' handled? If a car was dropped at a consignee, it usually stayed there until a future day's drill picked it up (by which point, the car would have been loaded or unloaded).

But if it was a large customer with many loads/unloads happening during the course of a drill's operation (think: the steel mills in Youngstown, or in my case, Drew Chemical in Boonton that required frequent swaps of tank cars), how was this handled with the crews?

Thanks,

    - Paul



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