Clerk

In 2026, I created a new administrative position of Clerk. This position is ideal for someone who does not wish to operate, but wants to attend an op session and be engaged. It requires standing and walking, but one can sit a considerable portion of the time. The Clerk primarily performs “non-railroad” tasks such as paperwork, handling Waybills, removing blue flags, re-staging and re-positioning the boat, serving as the Tower Operator, operating the turntable, and other duties as assigned (bet you corporate types recognize that phrase). You know, things that an owner usually does. This position will require at least an hour of training and I do not anticipate that it will fill at each op session.

Waybill Filing System

Since I have switched to prototypical type Waybills, the problem arises as to how to store and retrieve them easily.  A friend, Mike Porter, taught me the prototypical filing method which I have modified a for the model world. They are held in a small home-built box and the initial category is that of car type: boxcar, gondola, hopper, etc.  Within each car type, they are stacked based upon the last digit of their road number 0 thru 9.  Then the reporting marks alphabetically, followed by the actual road number in ascending order and lastly as to their destination.

Car Type ➞ Last digit of road number (0-9) ➞ Road ➞ Number ➞ BDSLE (Boat/DerbyJct/SLSF/Local/Empty)

When staging, I pull the proper Waybill from the filing cabinet and place it in the appropriate bill box location.  A cart is used to store cars awaiting staging, particularly for the boat which requires 6-12 cars at a time.  I typically pre-select these Waybills and place them with their respective cars to speed up staging during a session.

A Check Report is prepared for each arriving Boat load of cars – this, along with Waybills,  is passed to the Yardmaster when the Incline crew delivers inbound cars to Middle Yard.  The Yardmaster can quickly tell how many cars are arriving, their type and their destinations.  He may not even need to use the Waybills in classifying and sorting the cars into trains. Completed fields are Car Initial & Number, whether a load or empty, Kind, Destination and Train; the remainder can be blank.  

This is a Check Report filled out for the 3rd inbound boat of the day.  Note the shortcut for road numbers:  the layout has few enough cars that road numbers can be completed using only the last 3 digits.  The report shows there are 5 MTY covered hoppers, a loaded hopper and a loaded boxcar, all bound for Peerless Lime via the Mosher Switcher (MS).  The loaded Northern Pacific boxcar will be sent to Ste. Genevieve (SG) via the Yard Job (YJ), while the loaded CP flat car travels on № 93 to the MoPac interchange at Derby Jct (DJ-MP). 

Train Identifiers & Destinations

  • № 92 (northward) Switches Derby Jct (DJ-BT & DJ-MP) and Millers 
  • № 93 (southward) Switches Weingarten and Derby Jct (DJ-BT & DJ-MP)
  • MS (Mosher Switcher) Works Mosher only and runs 1-2 times daily
  • YJ (Yard Job) Switches SLSF interchange and Ste. Genevieve
  • BOAT (Boat cut) Cars outbound to Thomure Yard for the ferry boat

Clerk Duties

  • Retrieve Outbound Boat Waybills from Boat Bill Box at Thomure Yard & refile
  • Provide inbound Boat Waybills & Check Report to Yardmaster
    • Prepare Switchlists for departing trains & add Pulls
    • Place on appropriate clipboard w/ Orders
  • Walk Mosher industry tracks after worked
    • After arriving MTYs set out, swap Empty Car Waybill for Waybill
  • Provide notes for switching crew as necessary
    • e.g., Switch This Car [for off-spot cars]
  • Operate Tower for train crews crossing the diamond
  • Operate the turntable
  • Re-position Boat for Incline crew
  • Re-stage the Boat
  • Perform non-railroading tasks over the layout
    • e.g., pulling blue flags, opening gates, etc