Check with MicroMark...
They have just about a whole system.

 

I am wondering if there is a template out there from which I can make our own car cards and way bills on Microsoft Excel.

I found this. The post includes links to download the Excel files.

Excel Car Cards and Waybills

Here I will discuss how I created my own car cards and waybills using Microsoft Excel's spreadsheet software. Note: this will not be intended to be a detailed tutorial on Excel, or the specific fea...

vanderheide.ca

 

The Micro Mark car card system is good to get you started. It comes with blank cards,
and wood boxes to file them in.

I have used it for several years. It really can be fun to use, especially with family
or friends to 'play' with. It gives 'purpose' to your layout.

If you have one or more yards, and several industrial spurs you will really
enjoy using the system.

You create a card for every loco and car you have, as shown in the posted photo. It shows type (Steam loco, box, flat, tanker, etc)
You also show Road Name, Road Number, and other identifying factors...color...distinctive graphics...load. You file
these by TYPE OF CAR. Get a pack of Post it Notes from Office Depot. Then when you want to prepare a switching session you attach a cut Post It note to
each loco or car card you put into play. On the Post it you show present car location, and what to do with it...build
a train, drop at specified industry..assign to a specific yard track, etc. The Post It notes provide the
changeable info and leave the main car card clean and resdy for the next session after the notes are pulled
My brother and I made up switching orders for each other...naturally...
we tried to make the train order or car drop operations as complicated as possible. You can
see the fun opportunities.

By the way, you can easily make your own car cards from any 'card stock' Just put on each
the necessary identification ihfo per above and leave a blank space for the removable
post it notes.

Don

 

I have a non-commercial card system I created years ago, and it works fine for my small-mid sized layout. It is based on articles I read in MR about 30 years ago.

The first image shows a card slot for the cards for cars in those industries nearby on the layout.

Here is a card for a car at the #6 industry, a cold storage facility. The card has a plastic slot on the lower right. The slot is empty, meaning the car is empty, and could be picked
up by a local.

Here the car slot has a card in it that is upside down. That means the car is empty, but needs to go to a shipper at location "I" on the layout.

When the car reaches "I" the card in the slot is turned over, and now says the shipper at "I" has loaded the car and it is going to go to the cold storage facility at "6".

I have about 14 industries, and 2 interchange locations to provide both shipper and destinations. I have about 150 cards filled out and I shuffle them to provide somewhat random shipping orders. If things are slow, I draw more cards, too active, I draw fewer. If it appears an industry has too little activity, I add some cards to the "deck" for it.

Here is a consist ready to leave the yard for an interchange:

Here are the cards for the locomotives and cars in the consist clipped together. Once the train reaches the interchange, card slots are emptied or filled as needed and eventually the train is ready to "return" with cars to be delivered to various industries.

Cheers, Ted

 

One more image for my card system. Here are two cards from my "deck" sitting on the layout in the industrial area of shipper 7. They tell me that that shipper needs two boxcars, one should be 40'. I then look around my layout to find appropriate boxcars with empty slots. When I find one, I put the card in the slot upside down, and though it is an empty car, it now has two locations to go to, the shipper and the consignee at the JC interchange.. Cheers, Ted

 

I appreciate the replies. isoc: that is a neat system...I appreciate the photos and the explanation. Don: I am going to incorporate some aspects of your system as well. Stumpy: I like the Excel files in the hyperlink, thanks. Late: that looks like quite the complete system from MicroMark.

Thanks again

 

I use the Operations part of JMRI PanelPro. It takes a little bit to get it setup, but it is a hugely powerful tool once you start using it. Big benefit is you don't have to do anything by hand and you can build some randomization into it so your not always doing the same thing.

 

I know I am late to the game, it I use Car Cards and ShipIt from Albion Software. I mention these guys because when I started, I know nothing and it didn’t take long using their system to know everything. It’s a bit spendy for a small layout, but it’s very robust and ShipIt would create the “Operations” of the Car Cards for you.

Car Cards Product Information for Model Railroaders

Car Cards model railroad software

www.albionsoftware.com

 

It's pretty simple to create a random consist generator using Excel.

You have 3 lists:

A list of locos and their starting location.
A list of freight cars and their starting location.
A list of all locations (destinations).

To keep it simple, assume each consist has one locomotive, and a specific number of freight cars.

Use a random number generator to assign a value to each item within each list. The F9 button will refresh a list by assigning newly created random numbers. Use the @Rank formula to turn the random number into an integer, ranked from 1 to 10 (if there are 10 cars).

 

The problem is that railroad shipments aren't really random. Certain industries only take certain cars, certain industries are more likely to get certain cars. Even when it comes to train make up, there are certain trains that tend to carry more of certain cars.