Car Cards

Currently, my layout only uses car cards. My First Layout is basically an Inglenook train game, and I need a way to randomly generate the order for my 5 car train. So I take my 8 cards, shuffle them up, and randomly pick out 5. I assumed that I could eventually use these cards in some car cards & waybills setup, but I really did not a plan from the start.

My next layout will be a 'door layout' with (at least) 3 industries, so I had been thinking about how I could use these same cards as part of a waybills operation. Then I ran across this web forum post online. Thanks to my kids no longer owning any Pokémon cards, I had a lot of trading card sheets not being used, and realized I had (likely) found my solution.

Surprise Finding

I was excited enough about the web forum post idea I had found, that I needed to do a 'proof of concept' even though my tiny layout did not need any waybills. I was going to only do 6 cards (one trading card sheet worth) just to see if it would work with the cards I already printed, with the materials I had, etc. But I found that having the cards inside these sleeves was very pleasing. It added some strength/thickness to the cards while also adding a layer of protection. So now all my cards have their own sleeve, even though I don't use any waybills with them (at this time at least :-D )

Construction of the Car Cards

My working/planning version for Car Cards & Waybills (CC&WB) uses my "Play Cards" version of Car Cards, and then draws inspiration from a setup I found on a web forum.

• I use my "Play Card" style car cards. My template makes it so I get nine to a standard 8.5x11 sheet of paper. The card ends up being about 2.5 wide, and 3.25 high. (roughly the same as a standard "baseball card" size. )

• I cut up a number of "Trading Card Sheets" (like for keeping baseball cards in a 3-ring binder) I had laying around. For the ones I had, each sheet gave me 6 pockets. The sheet has 9 pockets, but the center row got sacrificed when cutting. If you happen to find sheets that have a wider/more solid weld then the ones I was using, you might be able to cut down the middle of the weld and use all 9 pockets.

• then the waybill is a 3x5 index card cut to 2.5x3 . This allows the waybill to stick out beyond the car card. I will likely come up with a printed version later, but this is still at ' proof of concept' stage.

• Now I can slide the car card into the pocket, with the waybill behind. The car card sits down inside the edge of the pocket, nicly protected, and does not accidently get pulled out when you grab the waybill.

• Might need to figure out a "when empty return to" option (IDK yet-- I don't plan on having that big of a layout so maybe that just becomes "Waybill 4"

• All other CC&WB setup/rules/features should be easy enough to employ (bad orders, leave in place orders, etc).

• Without the waybills in the back, I can still use these same car cards when ever I need some Random Number Generator

Construction of the Waybills

info to go here.....