Hi All,

I'll get right to the point of my quesiton, does anyone model actual DB operations, or know anyone that does?

Background: Ultimately, the purpose of the prototypes that we all model is moving stuff (or people) from point A, to some other place that they want to be. It's logistics basically. Most of the guys that I hang around in my neck of the woods, generally model some sort of prototype operations in the American domain. Take an empty car and deliver it to an industry that needs it, or take a load and haul it off to another industry sometimes on the layout, or deliver the load to a yard where it joins a cross country train and gets delivered to some place off layout (usually modeled with staging yards).

I've seen and operated on a few layouts now, and everyone does it differently some closely follow prototype practice and some not so much. Some use car cards and a schedule of trains, some use predetermined switch lists - and those two seem to be the majority of what I see. The goal is to try and mirror what the acutal railroad does as close as possible.

Does anything like this exist in the DB (or even Euro) model realm? I've seen tons of beautiful layouts oriented towards running and displaying trains, but I have yet to see anything that's designed from an operations standpoint of getting cargo (or people) from point A to B. There are a couple of interesting educational videos on youtube about DB Güterbahnhof operations from the 50s or very early 60s. Based on that, it seems like switch lists are what was used in yards back then, but I have never heard of it being done in model form.

Please let me know your thoughts and experiences and if you know or have operated on such a layout!
-jordon

Only in German - a nice synopsis of a layout concept replicating a prototypical situation in the former German Democratic Republic in 1960, which considers virtually all operational details - see also PDF. Translation of the introduction:

Georgenthal (Thuringia) on 3.9 x 3.9 m (H0)
(Planning stage)

The Georgenthal project was developed in the H0 forum during an intensive discussion process.
The result of this discussion process can safely be considered an exemplary reference for prototypical model railroad planning. Anyone who wants to boast about designing a “prototypical model railroad” in the future will have to measure up to this standard.
In addition to the forum thread, there is also excellent PDF documentation (see below).

Excerpt from the table of contents of the 51-page documentation:
1. Georgenthal and surroundings / network plan
2. The timetable
3. Rolling stock / locomotives / passenger cars / model overview for H0
4. Service items / pictorial timetable / station regulations / shunting work plan / track occupancy plan / locomotive runs / freight train formation regulations
5. Implementation in the model / Track plans
6. Literature, links to the project / Sources for the locomotive directory
7. List of abbreviations / Station abbreviations (pictorial timetable) / Train types (pictorial timetable) / Traffic times (pictorial timetable)
8. Appendices

Georgenthal_1960_Zusammenfassung.pdf (7,060kb) downloaded 10 time(s).

Source: https://www.moba-trickki.../modellbahn-betrieb.html

Glad that I could help. Since you read German, I allow myself to provide more links below which you might appreciate.

Basic information on German freight car operations:
https://www.moba-trickki...-betrieb-grundlagen.html
https://moba-trickkiste....anen/planen4-gueter.html

German freight car cards & way bills by FREMO:
https://www.fremo-net.eu...ft/godsdriften/vagnskort
https://www.fremo-net.eu...eterverkehr/frachtzettel
https://www.fremo-net.eu...etrieb/wagen-bleibt-hier

Report on a Märklin C track layout operating session using way bills etc.:
https://www.mapud-forum....rsbronn-am.html#msg31559

And as a bonus, a bi-lingual (English/German) blog by a N scaler on FREMO operations:
https://german160.blog/2...-i-came-i-saw-i-learned/

For anyone interested in doing prototypical style scheduling and waybills, have a look at the Operations Pro part of JMRI. It has been developed on American practice, but i'm sure European practice won't be that different. When used with a home layout it would be very like the Fremo waybills mentioned above.

As to why European modellers don't seem to do a lot of this style operation, I suspect this is due to the difference in "modelled distances" of a layout. An American layout will typically model a single track (or on a busy line a double track) with long distances represented, and lots of freight, but little passenger traffic on an end to end layout, while a European layout will typically model a short branch line or a main station with roughly equal mixes of freight and passenger traffic on a layout that doesn't have 'the other end of travel' unless there is a schattenbahnhof hidden under the table.
.

Alterstreek I owe you a beer (or whatever you like) for all of this!

I knew all this stuff must exist somewhere, but the devil is always finding it.