What is a Team Track. I see that name on layouts plans all the time. What is it used for. Looks to me just like a spur. Thanks
Team track is a spur designated for use by customers with less than car load shipping and receiving.
There is usally a dock of some sort, and/or at least a road, and parking area, right next to the track for esay access by customers.
More heavily used team tracks might even have a ramp, and/or an overhead crane.
Today's modern version of a team track is the transloading tracks, where everyhting from tank cars, hoppers, flat cars, etc., are loaded/unloaded on to, or from, trucks.
Mike.
My You Tube
It is usually a stub ended spur track where a freight car can be unloaded onto a truck for local delivery.
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Model railroaders love them, because almost any type of freight car can go there. This is sometimes called a "universal industry" because it can accept any load.
The term "Team Track" supposedly originated in a day when these freight cars were unloaded into wagons pulled by "teams" of horses. I have also heard the term had something to do with the "Teamsters" union which had contract rights over the labor of unloading at some of the tracks.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
This is interesting. I like the idea of a team track and I can see the value of one on the layout. Cool to have a "catch-all" track to park a car. Thanks all!
kasskaboose This is interesting. I like the idea of a team track and I can see the value of one on the layout. Cool to have a "catch-all" track to park a car. Thanks all!
Yes, team tracks are especially useful. They are a universal industry that requires nothing more than a gravel lot in terms of scenery. They provide a great opertunity to run that oddball freight car that doesn’t match any of your railroad’s industries. And there exist in pretty much every era, albeit less and less in the modern day, but they’re still around!
You can be 99% certain that every layout I build will have a team track, it just provides so many option. It’s no surprise they are immensely popular amoung us modelers!
Regards, Isaac
I model my railroad and you model yours! I model my way and you model yours!
When I worked for the Federal Government in logistics I was asked to attend the movement of a rather large item for NASA from an aerospace contractor to a teamtrack just outside of Vancouver. The move was in the middle of the night as traffic would be slightly disrupted and they wanted to keep a low profile as it was a NASA move. I was there strictly as a trouble shooter so I just mostly watched.
There were a couple of modified flatcars involved and a couple of boxcars for the smaller bits. I always thought if I ever modeled more modern day stuff it would make for an interesting scene.
A teamtrack scene allows for endless possibilities.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
More discussion here:
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/t/182657.aspx
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/157844.aspx
Good Luck, Ed
A team track is a "public track". It is owned by the railroad, not an industry and can be used by any customer (shipper or reciever), particularly those that do not have direct rail service. It was called a "team" track because the customers do not have any storage facilities on the track so the cars had to be unloaded onto wagons (teams) and carried away.
Any industry can use it. Its not uncommon to have a hundred or more industries use a team track in a major city. Most of them are customers that ship or recieve only a few cars a month or year. Theoretically it can have a wide variety of cars spotted there.
A team track may have access to both sides of the track and might have a loading dock or ramp. Some might have a small hand operated crane or an overhead crane.
Transload facilities are similar, but not quite the same, some involve leasing track and some are commodity restricted (lumber, pellets, etc).
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
another example of a spur without a specific industry is a trans-load facility
greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading
This might be an urban legend...
I have heard of people ordering in a small load of appliances to a small town by boxcar, then sell them directly from the boxcar on the team track at a deep discount.
That might make an interesting scene if it is true.
In larger or busier locations, there were entire yards of these public delivery tracks. They would usually be stub ended with the tracks arranged in pairs flanked by paved drive ways for vehicles. Many larger cities had such yards devoted to produce that was often sold directly from the cars. Another seasonal commodity handled in the same way would be Christmas trees.
NHTX In larger or busier locations, there were entire yards of these public delivery tracks.
https://www.shorpy.com/node/7941
https://www.shorpy.com/node/16007
Pittsburgh, lower right in this view:
https://www.shorpy.com/node/11412
and a team track pressed into service as a temporary lodging space for a Masonic Convention! Note the "panel track" laid right on the pavers. (track 11½ for instance)
https://www.shorpy.com/node/17482
Be sure to click photo(s) for a larger view.
gmpullmana team track pressed into service as a temporary lodging space for a Masonic Convention!
Great picture, and thank you for the link.
But... those sure look a lot more like Shriners than Masons!
SeeYou190 But... those sure look a lot more like Shriners than Masons!
According to a former next door neighbour," All Shriners are Masons, but not all Masons choose to become Shriners."
He was active in the Shriners.
Dave
SeeYou190But... those sure look a lot more like Shriners than Masons!
From one of the replies at Shorpy:
Just some clarification from one who has traveled east, and also travelled over the hot sands.
Masons belong to Lodges. Shriners belong to Temples. All Shriners are Masons, but all Masons are not Shriners. These cars and locomotives hauled Shriners to a convention of some sort.
No, we do not and never have secretly or openly ruled the world.
PS: Imagine trying to find decals for this B&O EL-1? (note the cylinder faces)
https://www.shorpy.com/node/17486?size=_original#caption
Cheers, Ed
A team track is used to serve nonrail customers. In short Beattle Home & Lumber Supply can now recieve lumber,kitchen cabinets,roofing,siding etc by rail.
Today these former team tracks is known as "Transload" track just like the bigger Transload tracks in Cities.
The small city transload track may be a former team track or perhaps a former house track that may still have evidence of steam era cinders.
Around three years ago I was out and about railfaning Northern Ohio area when I spotted three tank cars and one tank car was being unloaded into a tank truck... This siding had been weed covered for years and I notice the weeds was cut and had a improved gravel lot on both side of the track..
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Several things in this picture. Note the mix of car types. There are two cranes for unloading open cars.
Also of note is the car being unloaded into the wagon at the center of the picture. It shows a common arrangement for a good teamster and team. The teamster has backed the wagon against the door of the car and then moved the team to right angles with the wagon in order to not block the thoroughfare for other wagons. I saw this manuever at the Omaha River City Rodeo and a good teamster could also shift his team to the other side of the wagon, without moving the wagon.
Interesting stuff everyone!
Another piece of equipment that could be seen at a team track is a portable conveyor for moving gravel, coal or whatever that is being dumped from a hopper car up into a dump truck.
Here are a couple of examples (unfortunately out of stock):
https://www.walthers.com/coal-conveyor-unpainted
https://www.walthers.com/two-wheel-belt-conveyor
Here is a discontinued Walthers coal conveyor on eBay, but who says it can only handle coal?:
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/HO-Scale-Walthers-Cornerstone-933-3520-Old-Time-Coal-Conveyor-Kit/152868038624?hash=item2397a527e0:g:9U4AAOSwItJaXZCC
There are more on eBay.
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
dehusman https://www.shorpy.com/node/11412 Several things in this picture. Note the mix of car types. There are two cranes for unloading open cars. Also of note is the car being unloaded into the wagon at the center of the picture. It shows a common arrangement for a good teamster and team. The teamster has backed the wagon against the door of the car and then moved the team to right angles with the wagon in order to not block the thoroughfare for other wagons. I saw this manuever at the Omaha River City Rodeo and a good teamster could also shift his team to the other side of the wagon, without moving the wagon.
Just a note of little importance; The side stepping of the team has little to do with the teamster. Just bout anyone could do it, Useing the correct comands and a well broke team. ''come gee'' ''come haw''
Over by Oshkosh, they have a spot where they load cover hoppers from trucks. A convayer that moves along the cars.
One more use for team tracks in many cities was to provide a place for the circus train when it came to town. There was easy access getting feed and water to the cars for the livestock and not too many neighbors to complain about the noise and "stuff".
you shall surely see more team tracks in smaller towns. Might be the only siding in town.
We used to have sidings for grain elevators, but these were the small old fashioned ones, and they could not compete with the big concrete elevators down the road.
Pricing was a problem too, a shipper would have to pa 3 or 4 times the cost for two or three cars, the bbig towers are priced by the 'half-train' or 50 cars. The ones hout here always run a full 100 car train.
So the little elevators closed, the station house was sold and moved off site to become an art gallery in another town, and we were left with the team track.
One day I saw a train stopped on the main line and a flat car at the team track. I climbed up onto the flat car to get pictures of the locomotive. It should have dawned on me that this locomotive was long hood forward, but no, I was just snapping pictures. As soon as I stepped off of the car onto the platform, the whisle sounded, and the locomotive pulled the flat car away. You think I would have noticed a big green locomotive standing rith next to me but I was looking elsewhere.
Well that team track is still there and still in use, there are several industires in town, both construction and agraculture that use the team track. Actually, both are owned by the same man. In one place he makes steel grain bins, and in the other he handles specailty grains that are put up in baggs and loaded onto box cars.
Oh, Now the town also has a big ethanol plant (think 300 cars or more) and now also a big Halliburton frack sand plant, hundred car trains in, hundreds of trucks out. From our diningroom window we can watch the trucks going up and down highway 8.
From I train room window, I can watch the sand trains come and go.
Sand comes from Wisconsin in smaller covered hoppers. The plant has two donkies to move the cars arround. These look like engiens but have rubber tires for traction, and rail wheels for direction. Because of the rubber on rail combination, these little things can pul an amasinglyh large cut of cars without undu effort. And they are not subject to locomotive inspection rules since the can pull up their rail wheel and to to a local gararge for repairs.
ROQRA
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
gmpullmanAll Shriners are Masons, but all Masons are not Shriners.
Interesting. I have known a lot of Shriners and a few Masons. Never has anyone told me that either group had anything to do with the other.
On my layout, I have team tracks in three locations for reasons already stated. They require little real estate and scenic features. A dock, a ramp, and maybe a crane. They were used by local industries that either didn't have enough traffic to justify their own spur track or because they weren't located on the rail line and building a branch to their location was cost prohibitive. As someone else has pointed out, they could be quite extensive in large cities with multiple tracks. For modelers, their greatest advantage is the universal industry aspect. I can drop just about any type of car there shipped from just about any industry, either from the modeled portion of the layout or staging. It gives great flexibility without straining reality.
SeeYou190 The term "Team Track" supposedly originated in a day when these freight cars were unloaded into wagons pulled by "teams" of horses. I have also heard the term had something to do with the "Teamsters" union which had contract rights over the labor of unloading at some of the tracks.
When I tell people that both of my grandfathers were teamsters, they always say "oh, they were truck drivers?". No, they were teamsters - they drove teams of horses (one for a meat packing company, one for a dairy). The term goes back at least to the 1840's.
Team tracks were created so local businesses that did not have their own spur track or siding could still be served by rail. Freight cars would be spotted on the track, and the owner or employees of the local business receiving the shipment could unload the contents of the car into their wagon and take it back to their business; the wagons were pulled by teams of horses.
The name 'team track' has nothing to do with the Teamsters Union, except that the union was originally an organization of men who drove teams of horses for a living (which is why the union logo has two horses and a wagon wheel).
I believe that Trains magazine had an article about an appliance store who had an annual sale straight from the box car in the 50's and early 60's. May have been in the upper midwest; my memory is not what it used to be.
A pessimist sees a dark tunnel
An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel
A realist sees a frieght train
An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space
The holdings company that owns the Nittany and Bald Eagle along with other lines in the region all have a large number of team tracks. They field some good length trains for little regionals that serve mostly team tracks
Wolfie
In my hometown there was a team track with a small platform and a small building, about the size of a one car garage. on the same level as the platform. This way if the business couldn't get there right away the merchandise was stored inside and there no charges for the car sitting around waiting to be emptied. I'm going to add this just past the depot in one of my towns. Have to spot car(s) between passenger trains. Another scheduling problem to confront.
God's Best & Happy Rails to You!
Bing (RIPRR The Route of the Buzzards)
The future: Dead Rail Society
Actually a couple months or so ago, anothe rmodel railroad magazine actually had a short historical article on the appliance selling from boxcars. I forget just how long the period was, but I THINK it was happening intop the 60's.