Operations Run Complete

Over the weekend, I ran a complete operating session based on the waybills. At the beginning of the session, there were only a few cars in the East and West yards but the WCC Mine tracks were near capacity, the P&LE interchange was at capacity and most of the sidings were full.The trains runs were very smooth with only a single car derailing and being sent to the RIP track. During the session, most of the 9 scheduled trains were of the expected lengths of about 5 to 9 cars. One or two ended up being 3 or 4 cars - REAL short even for my layout! But, by the end of the session, some of my fears were realized.

Irwin Yard at the end of the operating session

First, the Irwin Yard was nearly empty. Of course, there were about 5 cabin (caboose) cars on the cabin track - I have way too many on the layout. There were 3 or 4 cars waiting for the next session to be sent to the coal mine for loading but the real problem is the complete trains worth of cars waiting for a westbound train. Keep in mind, all the scheduled trains have run so these 6 cars would have to wait for PGH-81 Pittsburgh Transfer which does not happen until the middle of the session, meaning there would be even MORE cars stacked up here. Not sure if I should run an Extra between the sessions to help clear out this backlog or just let it go.
Second, the WCC Mine is woefully understaffed/ The mine tracks have capacity for 14 cars but by the end of the session, there were only 7 on the tracks. All the other hoppers are either outbound (east or west, there were no hoppers on the P&LE headed north) or spotted for unloading (at Dailey's Coal & Fuel). While I did not expect 14 empty hoppers parked here waiting for loads, I was disappointed at how few ended up here. Does this mean I need more hoppers or have to balance the waybills better?

WCC Mine and P&LE tracks have few cars

Finally, as you can see in the photo above, the P&LE interchange should have a few more cars. When the session started, there were 6-40' boxcars waiting for pickup and they were replaced with only 3 ore cars which are 1/2 as long - iron ore being much, much heavier than other commodities on the rails. So the net effect is a rather empty interchange.
I posted some thoughts and solicited help from the Yahoo Car Cards Operations Group (
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/CarCards/info) and they all suggested patience and run the complete 4-cycles before making adjustments. Brice will be over this weekend, so we'll work on the issues together and see what we come up with.
Did I mention the trains ran really well? Yeah, sort of proud of that!