Operations - NY/YN (Cedar Hill - Holyoke) Freight Schedules

Here are a few of the schedules from the Arranged Freight Train Service (Symbol Freight) books for the Holyoke freights. While Chris and I have scanned a lot of these,  many were scanned by others. My interest is just in the information, not capturing the original document for the purpose of reprinting, so they aren't always the best quality.

The books have been titled different things over the years, with most of the ones here titled:

Arranged Freight Train Service

Symbol Book No. xx

However, starting in 1952 they dropped the word "train" from the title. Many just call these Symbol Books. I cover the books themselves in more detail here, and the sister publications titled Freight Train & Package Car Schedules here.

We're looking at the Arranged Freight Train Service books here, since they are employee publications that include blocking information and other instructions beyond just the schedules.

Symbol Freights are basically what modelers would call a "through freight." They are technically an "Extra" as is every non-passenger train on the New Haven, but the local freights are specifically called "Extras" on the New Haven in the documentation. The Symbol indicates their origination and termination points. In this case Cedar Hill, with a symbol of "N," and Holyoke, with a symbol of "Y." Eastbound trains have even numbers, and westbound odd numbers, just like passenger trains. So the eastbound NY trains are NY-2 and NY-4.

In most cases, the westbound train is the same symbol in reverse (NY-2/YN-1), but there are exceptions. For example, until 1948 EA-2 is an eastbound Bridgeport to Hartford train, but it's westbound counterpart was the more important ANE-1, the Hartford section of the Speed Witch that primarily (only?) handled L.C.L traffic. Looking at the 1953 schedules there are three Bay Ridge to Boston trains, starting with FGB-2, then GB-4 and GB-6, but only BNE-1 (Boston-New England - also a section of the Speed Witch) back to Bay Ridge. Everything else would be folded into NG-1, NG-3, and NNE-1 at Cedar Hill.

On a railroad the size of New Haven, there weren't too many symbols to remember:

You'll note that railroad timetables are in standard time (by law). They had to issue a new timetable in April and September to account for Daylight Savings. Since the railroads operate under standard time, the schedules differ by an hour between the two. While there are occasional extra passenger and employee timetables in some years, and in other years Supplements (updates) between the main timetables, I haven't seen any such supplements for freight schedules.

I have a couple of pages of what is supposed to be Freight Train & Package Car Schedule No. 75 with a date of July 1, 1946, but the Arranged Freight Train Service Symbol Book No. 75 was April 28 of that year. I haven't seen the actual Package Car Schedule that was copied, so I suspect that's incorrect information.

These are just a piece of the puzzle in our research. As noted below, these schedules have information regarding locomotive classes for each job, but that doesn't always match the Engine Assignment books, nor the photographic evidence. Of course, exceptions always existed, such as when a locomotive was being serviced, so a photo only documents a specific day. I tend to work from the Engine Assignment books backed up with photographs where possible to choose what locomotives I'll model for a specific job. The information in these pages is a decent substitute when those aren't available. Practical considerations (like how many locomotives I'll actually buy or modify) are also a factor in that regard.

NY-2

Of interest is that it handles perishables for Meriden and New Britain, along with merchandise (L.C.L) for New Britain.

In 1946 the route is rated for a J-1 and DEY-5 (Alco S-2) with the same tonnage ratings.

By 1948 only the DEY-5 is listed, and in the April 20, 1948 Engine Utilization Report, it is DEY-5 it is 0605. By the September, 1948 Engine Assignments, DERS-2b (RS-2) is listed, with J-1 3011 noted as D.S.F (Dumped Save Fuel) in East Hartford also listed for NY-2 (for reserve).

By the 1949 schedules, the DERS-2b locomotives are assigned with increased tonnage ratings, through at least the April, 1953 issue (which I haven't scanned yet). Interestingly, the September 1952 Engine Assignments list DERS-2c (RS-3) locomotives 532 and 533 as assigned to the job, but the ratings haven't been updated in the freight schedules yet (as they were for other jobs handled by RS-3s).

I don't have the Arranged Freight Train Service books for September 1953, or 1954, but in NY-2 is still listed in the Freight Train & Package Car Schedule books.

April 28, 1946

September 29, 1946

April 25, 1948

September 29, 1949

After accounting for Daylight Savings, this is now running an hour earlier.

September 30, 1951

This is now scheduled two hours later, or an hour later than prior to 9/29/49.

April 27, 1952

NY-4

The locomotive ratings are the same for all of these trains throughout this era. However, in the April 20, 1948 Engine Utilization Report, we find that DERS-2b 0502 is already handling this train, at least on that day.

NY-4 (and YN-3) were eliminated by the September, 1953 freight schedules. 

You'll note that this train serves as the local for most of the Canal Line north of Plainville (Avon to Southwick).

April 28, 1946

September 29, 1946

April 25, 1946

April 24, 1949

Note that NY-4 also serves as the New Hartford Local on this schedule.

September 30, 1951

After accounting for Daylight Savings, this is now running about an hour later.

YN-1

As the return of NY-2, it protects a the closing of the Holyoke and New Britain Freight Houses, along with the paper companies in Holyoke and Acme Fast Freight in Meriden. The Freight Train & Package Car schedules published the time it took for advertised L.C.L service from points on the NH to certain specific destinations. The blocking instructions here highlight some of those, such as Philadelphia Transfer as described in this post.

September 29, 1946

April 25, 1948

April 24, 1949

September 30, 1951

April 27, 1952

YN-3

The September, 1946 schedule doesn't mention it, but the other schedules note that YN-3 also switches Berlin and Cremo Brewery in New Britain (on the Springfield line just north of Berlin station). Along with NY-4 it was eliminated by the September 1953 schedule. 

September 29, 1946

April 25, 1948

After accounting for Daylight Savings, this is running an hour earlier.

April 24, 1949

September 30, 1951

Freight Schedules - Employee

So the employee freight schedules on the New Haven, Arranged Freight Service Symbol Book, were published at the same time as the Freight Train and Package Car Schedules. New Haven fans often refer to these as Symbol Books.

They also carried the same numbering scheme, until the McGinnis era. Like the employee timetables, the Arranged Freight Service was restarted at #1 during that era. Probably to coincide with the current employee timetable. However, the Freight Train and Package Car Schedules retained the original numbering scheme.

Employee Freight Schedules

The early editions appear much like the later Freight Train and Package Car Schedules. The presentation of information is almost identical. The latest edition I have with this format is a NHRHTA reprint of the October 30, 1929 issue. If this format was combined with the 1935 Package Car Schedule I mentioned in the last post, it would comprise probably 90% of what became the public freight schedules. The cover of the June 12, 1927 issue does indicate "For Employes Only."

An interesting sidebar - in pretty much all of the New Haven official publications employee is spelled with only one 'e' ("employe"). The story that I've heard is that the second 'e' is optional, and the railroad chose to save on printing costs and eliminated it. A similar reason has been attributed to GE as well, which is listed on this site, as is an interesting alternate origination: since the 'e' and 'r' keys are next to each other on the keyboard, eliminating the extra 'e' reduced the risk of accidentally typing 'employer' instead of 'employee' in legal documents.

The earliest issue I have in the format I'll address today is April 27, 1941 (No. 71), the scans are from No. 87 (April 27, 1952), while I've provided some written examples from No. 89 as well.

Section 1

After the index and general instructions regarding train symbols, is an extensive section on classification. This is quite interesting because it includes some information on routing (with regards to destinations in common with other carriers), but most importantly the classifications used within the major yards to move traffic, including to some foreign destinations. The classifications include a listing of all stations within that classification. So in my case there are a few that are relevant (these are from No. 89):

Cedar Hill
New Britain (From Oak Pt. or Bay Ridge)*

*Cars consigned to Cremo Brewery, New Britain, classified as Cedar Hill from all points except Springfield and Cedar Hill. From Cedar Hill classified as Berlin block.

This note is necessary because while Cremo Brewery is in the city of New Britain, its siding is off of the Springfield mainline. It's serviced by whatever train is assigned to work Berlin, not New Britain.

Hartford
New Britain (from Springfield only).

So this clearly tells us that (as would be expected) cars bound for New Britain from Springfield don't go all the way to Cedar Hill before heading to New Britain. They'll be put on a train from Hartford instead. Which makes sense. But this classification changed from time to time. For example, by April 25, 1965, there were no trains scheduled from Hartford that would go through New Britain. So all cars destined for New Britain were classified Cedar Hill.

No. 89 has simplified classifications for the P.R.R. compared to earlier issues. For example, No. 86 from September 30, 1951 has extensive classifications for Enola and Greenville. No. 71 from April 27, 1941 has six different Pennsy classifications.

At the end of this section is an alphabetical list of stations that indicates their classification.

Section 2

The main part of the book are the actual freight schedules. This is full of useful information for modeling operations. It includes the symbol and name (if any), along with the major locations of service. For example (from No. 89 again):

Bay Ridge-Cedar Hill-Providence-Boston
Boston Speedwitch (NH documents can't seem to make up their mind whether this is one or two words...)
BNE-1 Except Sunday Boston to Cedar Hill
Daily Cedar Hill-Bay Ridge

Then it lists all the stations (towns) it serves, including times. Next to each station is indicates any connections they make (by symbol, including connecting roads), or 'extra' for a local freights in later issues. It also includes the usual power and tonnage rating.

After that it lists the blocks from each town, and any classifications within those blocks. It also notes the connections for those specific blocks.

Special notes follow, such as closing times at freight houses, and then the service objective is listed.

This gives you all of the information needed to block inbound and outbound freights, assigned power (if not specific road numbers), and timing. Note that in this section, these are all through freights, with a few exceptions.

Section 3

Since No. 87 doesn't have a New Hartford Local, here's the Valley Local instead.

This section details the local freights. The local freight symbols changed over the years as divisions were combined. For example, through at least No. 87 (April 27, 1952), the actual locals were noted in the connections with the symbol freights. New Haven locals were NHDX-x, Providence PDX-x, Hartford HDX-x, etc. but by No. 89 in 1953 they are noted as 'extras' in section 2, and in the local freights identified with a two-digit symbol, NX-x, PX-x, BX-x. In 1941 there were four divisions, New Haven, Hartford, Providence and Boston. In 1953 the Hartford Division has been eliminated, and in later years there was only two, New Haven and Boston Divisions.

The local freights include the towns they serve, the days they serve them, and times. Some trains have specific notes as well.

Times are an interesting topic. For through freights, the times were pretty standard, and from articles and discussions with New Haven railroaders, they seem to have kept pretty close to their schedule. Locals, on the other hand, simply did their work. There are a few specific times that are noted for local freights that seem to have been closely adhered to:

NX-8: Connects at Beacon from NYC-TV-1, due 6:30am with autos from Tarrytown and NYC-VB-2, due 10:45am with cement from Hudson. It's scheduled to be in Beacon from 10:25 to 11:30 to receive these cars.

NX-9: Switches yard until 2:00pm. Places Poughkeepsie meat by 6:45am. After placing the meat, it's scheduled to leave Poughkeepsie at 7:00am, work Highland from 9:15 to 10:15 , then be back in Poughkeepsie (abbreviated 'Poke' later in the book), at 10:30 to work the yard until 2:00pm. So if you're modeling Poke, you know NX-9 is delivering the meat reefers first thing, then going to work Highland, and returning to work the yard until 2:00pm. Fantastic information.

Section 4

Float Schedules. Pretty self explanatory, although interesting nonetheless.

Miscellaneous

They have the Diversion of Perishables information listed here. Some also include truck service and the towns they serve. The 1953 through 1964 ones also include L.C.L service,  which incorporates the truck schedules. This appears to be the same as the public schedules, with a little more information, such as zones. I haven't quite figured out the zone system, but the key info here remains the same as the public schedules - what cars need to be spotted at the freight house?

My Copy of No. 89 revised to April 26, 1953.

This is a very interesting issue, that I grabbed on eBay not realizing that it was any different from any others I had located. Whoever owned this one taped all of the bulletins that modified service into his copy. So it is loaded with these modifications, additions, and cancellations of specific trains. In addition to those notes, there are a lot of updates and notes made in pencil as well. He's taped in the map/schedule for the New Canaan Branch. I don't know if he wanted the map or the train schedules. It also has the map page from a B&M public timetable, so I'm guessing the maps.

Aside from showing how complex operating the railroad was in this era, with regular changes and updates, I'm surprised that he appears to have included all of them, rather than just the ones that applied to a specific line as one might expect, since conductors often worked regular jobs. If the maps weren't taped into the back, I might think that it was an office copy, with the changes taped in place for the purpose of typing up the revisions for No. 90.

Whatever it's origin/purpose, it's the only one I have that mentions a "Stone Extra" for servicing Lane's Quarry in Westfield. I hadn't looked at it in a while and had forgotten that it's not for Cooke's Quarry, although it does go through New Britain and Plainville.e. I suspect that "Stone Extras" created to local quarries when the New Haven was (re) ballasting a line.

So those two documents, the public and the employee freight schedules, are where to find the key information for freight schedules and more. They are both pretty useful, although the Arranged Freight Train Service Symbol Books have more information that might be helpful to modeling operations. The Freight Train and Package Car Schedules are easier to find, though.

Operations - Yards

Update: Some great info in the comments and elsewhere, plus a new book so I posted an update to correct a lot of errors I made in this post...

A recent question on Facebook asked where they should put the control for the crossover leading to their yard, on their tower control panel, or their yard control panel. There were many answers, with many suggesting it should go on the yard board since it's related to the yard. It also seemed like this opinion was popular because it is "up to the yard master to allow a train into the yard."

I disagree, and it's not prototypical, although asking permission to enter the yard is common on a lot of model railroads.

Any switch that affects the main line is controlled by the Dispatcher, and if there is an interlocking, it's part of the interlocking. The number one priority is to keep the main line clear and lined for main line traffic. Traffic flow within the yard is under the purview of the yard master, but the train must clear the main line first. So the yard master is not in control of when trains enter the yard.

To illustrate how this works on the prototype, here's a quote from the article I posted last week:

"We came to Cedar Hill Yard. Both the conductor and the flagman went to the front platform of the caboose. At precisely the right moment they uncoupled the car from the rest of the train. The train proceeded to the westbound classification yard, while Conductor Fielding dropped off of his rolling office and took his sheaf of waybills to the yard master's office. Flagman Patchelder braked his buggy to stop on the caboose track and hung out the yellow lantern which indicated he would sleep on the car that night."

Presumably somebody else threw the iron for the caboose track...

Note that the train doesn't stop, and doesn't ask permission. They have cut off their caboose before the conductor even visits the yard master's office.

Over the years there has been a lot of (very good) guidance in designing a yard. But what I find is a bit lacking is a discussion on how to operate a yard or, more specifically. the workflow. Which means the yard gets backed up, and then you have to start asking for permission because there is no place for your train to go.

It Starts with the Arrival Track

I think this is the most important track in the yard. Many designs combine the arrival and departure track, which you can do, but you need to manage your yard very well to make it work.

Why is it the most important?

Because it gets inbound trains off of the main line. 

If that's the case, what's the most important job of the yard master/crew?

Keep the arrival track clear for the next train.

Keeping that clear requires a lot of coordination. As we see in the article, the crew is on the move as they enter the yard. At the same time, the yard crews are already getting prepared for their jobs.

The hostler (who may be the same engineer as the road crew on the model), will move the road power off the train and to engine servicing.

While that is happening, a switching crew is already breaking down the train. If you can't do a flying switch to drop off your caboose, they will need to move that to the caboose track. The next move is to start pulling cars off to start classifying them.

On the model this usually means one or two at a time. This is a problem, because it's too slow. The train should be broken down in chunks.

It Really Starts with Blocking

So we have to go back a step. It actually starts earlier than the arrival track.

As we can see in the Arranged Freight Service Symbol Books (the employee freight time tables), that road freights are to be blocked.  When YN-1 picks up cars in New Britain in 1951, it as the following blocks:

• Speed Witch (NE-1)
• Philadelphia Transfer (NE-1)
• Enola (NE-1)
• New London & CV (NM-4)
• Cedar Hill (which is bound for ANH-3, BO-1, BG-3, M-7, NM-4, NH-1)

By spending a few extra minutes placing the cars in these blocks, there will be less work for the yard crews at Maybrook. Note that three of the blocks will go to NE-1, but they are already in separate blocks to be added to the correct blocks within NE-1. The Cedar Hill block is one large block, to be further classified at Cedar Hill.

What about local freights?

According to New Haven rules, a Home Route Card must accompany the waybill for any indirect route car. Based on earlier rule books, it appears these were originally cards that would be stapled to the outside of the car itself. Cars destined for direct connections don't require the Home Route Card. In addition, each waybill has the route that will be used for that car. So the conductor will know the general routing of the car, and probably the connections it will use to get there.

So consider HDX-5, the New Hartford local. They will know which cars they picked up are bound for Springfield and which are bound for Cedar Hill. It's easy to block for this as you pick up cars. But I don't think they would have any more specific blocking other than a Springfield block and a Cedar Hill block. Even though there aren't any blocking instructions for the local freights, I suspect that they may have done this anyway.

Also bear in mind that these examples concern Cedar Hill which is a hump yard, so the classification process is much faster than in a flat yard. It wouldn't be unreasonable to have a couple more blocks for trains destined to a flat classification yard. They are still broad categories that will need further classification.

With the trains blocked when entering the yard, then the yard crew can pull off cuts of cars instead of ones and twos, which makes things much faster. But where to put them?

Designated Tracks

I have a Boston Freight Terminal Car Marker's Book for 1946.

It's an alphabetical listing of consignees and it tells you where they are, and what track to put cars destined for that consignee. Cars for Berger Manufacturing, Bethlehem Steel, Boston Elevated Railway, Boston Molasses Co, Boston Ordnance Depot, Boston Transit Commission, Brown-Wales Co, Joseph Burnett, and many others all go on Track No. 7. Every. Single. Day.

In this case, the Car Markers will identify each car, probably using chalk marks, for each track. Those marks will be used by the crews to classify the cars as they work.

Trains are the same way. A given track in a yard will be used to build the same train(s) every day. In general there are road freights and way (local) freights to be built. Ideally, there is a track for each, and later trains are later versions of the same train. For example, there were two Maybrook to Hartford freights daily, so the track is always for cars destined for Hartford.

You may have to share tracks. Regardless, you want to still use the same tracks for the same purpose each session. Try to design your operations like the prototype. If there are two freights bound to the same destination, say Maybrook to Hartford, you won't start building the second one until the first one is completed. In which case they can share the same track, and which train depends on what time it is during the session.

When you pull a block from the arrival track, you can ideally shove it onto the track where it belongs, as a block. If your yard lead is long enough, you can pull several blocks at a time.

This is how you get your inbound trains off of the arrival track as quickly as possible, so the next inbound train doesn't have to wait or ask permission. They simply come into the yard, at yard speed, and then hand over their paperwork to the yard master/foreman.

Blocking Outbound Trains

A track with an outbound train won't necessarily be properly blocked, since you were just shoving blocks of cars into it as you worked. Where possible, you can do some additional blocking as you break down the trains.

In addition to a switching crew breaking down inbound trains, ideally you have another crew working the other end of the yard building outbound trains. This can be efficiently done with a Departure Track and a runaround track. If you have more open track space to work with, even better. The runaround isn't really needed for running around the cars, just to have an extra track to shove things while you sort them into the proper blocks.

If the inbound switching crew doesn't have a train to break down, then they can also help block the outbound trains. 

Blocking doesn't mean that you are putting the train in the exact order of all of the industries, although that can be done. In some cases, the road crew will do their own blocking to prepare for their moves. But generally, a block corresponds to a station (town). 

The work in the yard is very well choreographed. While the real crews do the same job every day, we need to help our operators understand the work flow as much as they need to understand the schedule. 

Manage the Flow

Of course, another major reason yards get backed up is not because there is too much work, but because there is too much work at one time. The railroad puts a lot of effort into designing a schedule to keep things moving smoothly, and this includes the traffic flow in/out of a yard.

As a general rule of thumb, I like to maintain traffic to below 50% capacity. That is, if your yard can hold 100 cars, I prefer no more than 50 cars at a time.  If you start with excess capacity, then if things get behind, you'll still be able to keep the Arrival Track clear for inbound trains. It's not great if outbound trains are behind schedule, but that's a better situation than the mainline being blocked by trains that can't enter the yard. Starting the session with even less, perhaps 1/3, will also help ensure that as things get busy it won't overload the yard too much.

In addition, if you only have one Arrival Track, and one Departure Track, then you need to account for that in your scheduling. 

If you must have a shared Arrival/Departure Track, then try to block as much of the outbound train prior to moving it to the Departure Track, and move it shortly before its scheduled departure time. Then you'll only need to add a caboose and power and get clearance to leave, tying up the Arrival Track for as short a period as possible.

The Dispatcher, if you have one, needs to manage the flow as well. In eras where passenger trains were First Class, freights could find themselves parked on a siding for a long time. On the model this approach is often necessary to manage inbound yard traffic.

Your train crews have an important job in this regard as well. They need to stay on schedule as best they can. That includes not running too fast in addition to not running late. Having them block their trains as they pick up cars can help slow them down a bit. It's not uncommon for freight operators to try to get ahead of various other trains and rush to get their job done. 

It's not uncommon on a larger layout for things to start to get bunched up, and once they do it's hard to resolve since each late train starts to impact other trains scheduled later. This can occur just as easily because too many trains are arriving early as late.

It's also important to give the crews, especially the yard crews, space to work. I have workspaces in several places around the layout so crews won't need to be putting paperwork on top of the layout. While I understand the appeal of leaning waybills on their cars, it generally means adjacent tracks are unusable until the cards are moved.

Splitting crews between inbound and outbound switching can help as well, since they are focused on narrower portions of the job. The inbound crew should be focused on classifying the cars into the correct tracks, and the outbound crew can focus on properly blocking one outbound train at a time. Even if it's the same crew doing both jobs, breaking the work flow down in this manner can help operators keep things organized.

Simply adding blocked inbound trains and a rule that the Arrival Track must be cleared as soon as possible would greatly improve the efficiency of most model railroad yards. And it would largely eliminate the non-prototypical approach of asking the yard master for permission to enter the yard.