Car spotting question

[Gozer the Gozerian]

Most of my time is just running trains around and around, not much switching.  But, now that I've had time and energy to work on my shelf layout I have been thinking about how to adopt prototype practices.  I've been working on a few projects, one being a functioning gate with a lock.  I've got a surface mounted lock that when you put the key in and turn it there is a delay and then the gate to the siding opens...and then the same when you close it.  Not a new idea but I like the idea of having to take care of tactile tasks during ops.  i have a long siding that's basically a concrete pad team track with track embedded that can spot 5 cars.  I've searched photos and all the articles I can find but I've not come up with a prototype way of locating spots for the cars to be sorted to.  I was wonder if in practice numbers were stenciled on the pavement to note where things needed to be...marker poles or lights?  I'm going the way of adopting the layout philosophy of Lance Mindheim...more with less...and I like it, but it has it's challenges.  When I work out switch lists I would need to call out a spot and am trying to make it as realistic as possible.   Thoughts?

Thanks

Joe
 

[Maletrain]

I am certainly no expert, since I only remember one team track from my youth - the one at the Silver Spring B&O passenger station on the mainline between DC and Point of Rocks.

That started as a gravel area with 2 tracks behind the station, sort of blended with the parking area.  Occassionally somebody seemed to build a wooden ramp.  There were no markings to spot cars, and the tracks seemed to be lightly used.  Later, the whole area was covered in concrete without changing the pattern or making any markings.  I think trucking took over much of the shipping in this particular area quite early.

Anyway, that is certainly a prototype for "do it simple and use it however you want."

Of course, unless you are modeling a particular area of a particular prototype, you can make up your own rules.  The railroads did things as effciently and inexpensively as practical, so thinking that way should give you something that a railroad not only might have done, but probably actually somewhere, sometime.

[C855B]

Team tracks are typically "where is, as is" sort of places. The shipping receiver is told a car number, and it's up to their unloading crew to find the car on the team track. If cars were shuffled around because an empty was pulled, it's still up to the receiver to find their car.

I have seen an instance of stenciling on an unloading pad, but in this case it was for tank cars to be spotted within safe hose's reach from the unloading hydrants.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Sure. So, first, have you gotten Lance's ops book?
https://www.amazon.com/How-Operate-Modern-Switching-Layout/dp/1467956996/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1492700732&sr=8-4-fkmr0&keywords=lance+mindheim+operated

That's got a lot of good stuff in there.

Now, aside from that, here are the thoughts.

Consider a "spot" the place where a car will be placed for loading or unloading. In most cases, it's a loading dock, spout, etc... in some, amusing cases, spots can sometimes just be an agreed on place in the middle of the street. Conrail had these things called "ZTS" maps that showed all spots. ZTS stands for "Zone, Track, Spot", and was the way Conrail organized and designated tracks and spots.

Here are a bunch of them: http://www.multimodalways.org/archives/rrs/CR/CR%20ZTS/CR%20ZTS.html

I was writing a big post here, and then decided that it'd be better just to blog about it. So, @Shipsure , this one is for you!
http://conrail1285.com/conrails-zts-maps/

[peteski]

I could ask why isn't this question asked in the Prototype Railroads: News, Photos, Research section, but I wont.   

Oh come on, you all expected me to do this. 

[Gozer the Gozerian]

Thanks a bunch Ed...very helpful

Joe

Sure. So, first, have you gotten Lance's ops book?
https://www.amazon.com/How-Operate-Modern-Switching-Layout/dp/1467956996/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1492700732&sr=8-4-fkmr0&keywords=lance+mindheim+operated

That's got a lot of good stuff in there.

Now, aside from that, here are the thoughts.

Consider a "spot" the place where a car will be placed for loading or unloading. In most cases, it's a loading dock, spout, etc... in some, amusing cases, spots can sometimes just be an agreed on place in the middle of the street. Conrail had these things called "ZTS" maps that showed all spots. ZTS stands for "Zone, Track, Spot", and was the way Conrail organized and designated tracks and spots.

Here are a bunch of them: http://www.multimodalways.org/archives/rrs/CR/CR%20ZTS/CR%20ZTS.html

I was writing a big post here, and then decided that it'd be better just to blog about it. So, @Shipsure , this one is for you!
http://conrail1285.com/conrails-zts-maps/

[ncbqguy]

The problem with Model Railroad Operations is that we have to distill what was a pretty complex process where many people had sharply defined routine roles into a few people mimicking it all with car cards.
A station agent might tell the conductor if a car needed to be spotted in a particular place on a team track.   If you have an unloading platform you could add "spot on platform" on the waybill portion of the car card.   Some cars had to be unloaded from a particular side so that would be on the waybill and might cause the car to be wyed or sent to a turntable before spotting.
Special instructions might be handled with separate note cards in the car card or paperclipped/sticky noted to it.
Charlie Vlk