Photos

The easier way is not to have photos on the car cards.  They are optional and aren't necessary for car cards to work.  Same with the "when empty return to ..." line.   It can be handy but not requires if the waybills have empty routing instructions.   I can't think of one layout in my area that uses photos on the car cards.

Old line graphics

I bought my car cars about twenty years ago before they were on a computer. I was working in the DC area and drove to Silver Springs MD. and bought the cards directly from Old Line Graphics  I read Tony Koesters article on their use and got more input from Harold Werthweim (Erie RR). At the time I had a fairly large layout 22 by 34 with several hundred cars, staging and fairly completed scenery. It took a long time to fill out the car cards and waybills. This had to all done by hand. There were no photos, but a description of the car and an abbreviation of the car type. It meant also naming every industry, town and even the staging yard destinations. The thing I remember the most about the first few op sessions was there  were way too many cars;and  you had to run all trains even if simulated to avoid clogging up any single area. I have the software from Ship it, but have not used it yet. I do not believe it includes anything about photos. Photos would seem to me to be a luxury (from a size) perspective that is an unnecessary step. I doubt the real railroads have photos of the cars so the brakemen and conductors can find them Most likely they have nothing but the RR name and car number. The old line graphic's cards give you the added description of the type of car and I think color. 

  I will say that the car cards added greatly to the fun of operation and made staging fairly easy. Some operators in this area use train orders or switch lists. It means re-staging everything or making up new lists every time you operate.  . Sometimes the switch lists are made with a reverse list. This means every other op session is exactly the reverse of the previous one. Car cards introduce a random selection into op sessions that the train order system does not have unless you make up new lists for every op session.

                                                                                             Good luck

                                                                                                          Ray Schofield 

No photos

Hm, I've done only a few op sessions so far and the only 1 where I was working the yard had car photos.  It certainly made life easier.  Plus, the photos in the database now become part of my insurance inventory too!  There was plenty of space on the car card design, so why not fancy it up a little?  Is there a reason that photos detract from the function?  I'm just asking here.

photos

James 

 I want to be sure we are talking about the same car cards . The Old Line Graphics and Micro Mark cards are 2 by 4 inches and with the waybill in them there is only little more tan a 1 by 2 inch space on the bottom of the card (see attached photos). Where is the picture and what is the size?  Whioe system is it that you are using?  ?  

Photos on car cards?

  I think they'd be useful in N scale as long as all the cars look a bit different. A string of identical cars would not be helped by photos but luckily these long cuts all run as a unit most of the time so identifying one car out of the flock is not necessary. Modern cars with graffiti would be perfect candidates for card card photos....DaveB  

I included photos...

 I included photos on the car cards for my N scale Inglenook T-Trak module, but they're a special case. I mean for them to be usable by those with no experience at all, and deliberately chose cars with a wide variety of colors to make things as simple as possible. I still included reporting marks and numbers, though, as a kind of "stepping stone" to more advanced operations.

photos

James 

 Where are the waybills? If there aren't waybills how does the system work? What are the card dimensions? This doesn't look like anything I have ever seen. Who's cards are these ? I am assuming the cars are N scale

                                                                                                           Thanks

                                                                                                                  Ray

Cards with photos...

-You Here is a sample of a car card with photo made using the app on the DallasModelWorks.com site.  

You basically create a file of car data, and link to online images - they suggest using the Walthers site as a source. Then you create the cards - the app generates them 3 across... They recommend printing on 60 lb paper. It's pretty simple to use. 

-Eric

 "Where are the waybills?" What waybills?

Well, assuming you're talking to me and not James....

1) No waybills. This is for cars on a Inglenook switching puzzle, and they don't (normally) leave the confines of the module. It CAN be used as a regular industry on a T-Trak layout, but it can also be used as a stand-alone. The cars are already at the place they're going, they just need to be spotted, so you don't need waybills.

2) The way it "works" is you draw cards randomly. Eight cards and cards total, five cars to be assembled into a train. Draw five cards, lay them out in order. That's how the cars need to be spotted.

3) I don't recall the exact dimensions of the cards, and they're packed away after a recent move at the moment, but the plastic protectors are the ones used for trading card games like Pokémon and Magic: the Gathering. The cards fit SIDEWAYS into the protectors, and then I trim the hard plastic protectors to fit. I'd estimate they're roughly two by three inches.

4) They're my cards, produced from an OpenOffice spreadsheet that I created as a full-blown train inventory. I've entered all my rolling stock, with photos, pricing, and other relevant information in it, and I can then select what information I need to print. These were printed eight to a page on heavy white cardstock.

5) Yes, they're N scale... and even at their small size, the photos on the cards are near full-size. This Inglenook is a "chemical plant", designed for the shorty beer can tank cars, and worked with any of several small switchers - a Lifelike SW9, a Bachmann 44 tonner, or a MicroAce 3 axle unit.

 This is what my more conventional car cards look like. By using the clear card protectors, I can use the full length of the car card for information and waybills. There's plenty of room for a photo, either on the bottom of the card behind where the waybills go, or on the back. For more experienced operators, I would expect the photo to be of less use, and more of an "failsafe" to help them locate a car that doesn't appear to be where it's supposed to be.  

The card protectors are cut off about half-way up, so that they are just a bit shorter than the waybills. This makes it easier to get the waybills in and out of the pocket when necessary. Since the front of the card pocket is clear, reading all the information is very simple. A bit of double-stick tape on the back of the card at the bottom holds the pocket on.

 When everything is put together, you have a more compact car card that is clearly readable and easier to hold in your hand. This finished card and waybill is the size of a normal playing card or collector card. The waybills I made were color coded and indicated travel by east or westbound locals from the yard, and east or westbound pickup from the industries - four colors altogether.

I'm not using anyone's system right now

I'm trying to develop the car cards from my inventory database.  Haven't even started with waybills yet cause I don't even have the layout set up.  (Though I did start a locations table today, since I know what some of the locations are going to be, so I put them into a table as a placeholder for now.)

Eric Bergh above has the idea of where I am going, but I am doing it with my own software.  However, I am even adding the Railroad herald to the car cards as a second image (And I have that working already.)  I have the cards designed as 2 inches wide and 4 inches tall, but need to add the flap space!   Since I am so far away from implementation, I have time to play with it.  At the clinic last weekend, I got someone's software for making waybill cars, including upside down print to mess with too.

confused

Well I have read the information from barr and I am not sure I understand how your system works

Eric's car cards looks more like the typical car card I usually see. Eric with the waybill in place can you identify the car or do you need to remove the waybill? It looks like you need great eyes if you are supposed to read the number from the photo.I do think the photo would make finding the car in a yard easier.            

  Barr / James

 Is your system adaptable to a full sized layout and is it self staging as the Old Line Graphics/ Micro Mark cards and waybills are? Sorry for being so thick. 

                                                                                                   Thank

                                                                                                          Ray

Just did a test run

After resetting the card height to allow for the 1 inch flap and adjusting for 3 columns wide printing.  The cards come out 6 to a page of paper.  And if I print on card stock paper (which I keep on hand anyway).  And I don't have to print everything every time, I can run the report to Acrobat, then only print those pages I need.  Or even pull them into photoshop to combine pieces of pages for printing just a couple of cards.

Oh, and when I am printing the cards for my engines, I also add in the DCC ID code in an extra field.

Tonight I can cut 1 or 2 cards out of the acrobat and paste it here to show what I have.

So this thread gave me some good feedback for tweaking the final design.  Now the big hurdle is still doing the photos of the other 147 cars, but the concept is working.  (And the op session I did where they had photos of the cars on the cards?  They were all stapled on.  Now nobody can get a cut on their fingers from staples, as the photos are part of the card in my setup.

Well I have read the

Perhaps that's because there were actually 2 separate systems? 

Which one are you talking about - the "Inglenook" system with the photos on the card, or the "conventional" one with the waybills?

in re: confused

Ray, on my last layout I used the Dallas photo car cards with the MicroMark version of the Old Line Graphic waybills and the combo worked fine. It wasn't a problem identifying the cars, or manipulating the waybills. I did eventually make my own version of the waybills though... making them more along the lines of Tony Thompson's articles, using a spreadsheet to create them. That lead me to making my own car cards as well... similar but different to the Dallas ones. But the Dallas one did work quite well, and their online program IS easy to use. - Eric

Easy Model Railroad Inventory

Is the Car Card - Waybill system I use.  http://easy-model-railroad-inventory.rclsoftware.com/ 

It is a shareware product of Bob Langer who is a member of the MRH forum. You can have photos or not (I do). I think there is CC-WB system in JMRI also. I have worked with computers for a long time and didn't feel a need to build a system from scratch. Using existing software is a good way to get a feel for what you want and what is required.

confused

Barr thanks for the comeback. I am not sure I even understand all the new systems. I guess the guys in the Northeast must be behind the times. I operate on a few layouts in New England including an annual event called "Railrun" a 3 day event involving about twenty layouts and they all use a form of the Old Line Graphics car cards that Tony Koester wrote about 30 years ago. This has been computerized by "Ship It" and copied in hard form by Micro Mark. I guess I must have missed all of the other systems. I guess at my age (73) I am unable to learn new methods.

                                                                                                                  Ray  

Shenandoah Software

I use Shenandoah Software. Their software MiTrains uses photos and has a clean look.

Here is a shot of one of my car cards with a waybill that also was made with Shenandoah Software's WayBills.

I print the car card on a 2"x2" label and stick it on a #1 coin envelope.

http://www.shenware.com/

I'm only a very happy customer.

Have you considered CAR ORDERS

Here is the link to the Yahoo group.   

Joe  Thanks I like that

Joe

Thanks I like that variation on the original.

Ray

Photos

"I'm looking for a grey covered hopper."

The car cards I have defined at the moment

Database I have

I started this database in the mid 90s. At the time I started it, there wasn't anything available, and I was trying to track the kadee conversion.  I had almost no money as I was on disability at the time, so I had to do a kadee conversion slowly. It has come to perform the following features over time:

1.  Inventory of all rolling stock (RR, ROAD ID, Manufacturer, type name, Type code

2.  Repository of which Kadee used for each car (and was used to track the conversion of horn hooks to Kadee once upon a time)

3.  Truck mount vs body mount for couplers

4.  DCC ID values

5.  Position in train for rolling stock (for several trains, not all)

6.  storage location (ok, not all, but many cars, enough to cut down searching).

7.  Shopping report (run off report to put in pocket when going to shows, etc to make sure I don't buy unwanted dups).

8.  Special weighting information

9.  Now images of all rolling stock and off to generating Car cards.

10 Wheel replacements as that project went along.

11. Description fields for anything else

12,  Railroad heralds

So, this has just grown over time, and since my day job is as a Database Administrator, well, it wasn't hard for me to do it.

F What?

That boxcar has the letters "FM" on the card.  The AAR car type for it appeals to be XL, while FM is a flatcar.  Is FM supposed to be something other than the AAR code?

My most recent versions

​FWIW, These are samples of my most recent, homemade versions... My car cards: 

and my Waybills:

  plus some oddball ones:

 Hope this helps give you some ideas...

-Eric