On my layout, I model a small "yard" that is mostly an interchange for the locals, with a very minor service/fueling/admin area. The layout is set between about 1967 and 1972. With Penn Central well worn trackwork ;)
Generally the trains come in from staging on either end of the layout, drop and pickup cars as necessary at the yard, and then continue through to the other end staging.
Then a couple of different locals run turns to service the small towns and industries on the branch. There is also a unit coal train that just runs from the mine to staging and back and never actually comes into the yard so thats a non-issue. My question is how the jobs would most commonly have been done in the era. Would it have been more common to have a dedicated switcher working the half dozen single ended yard tracks, building the local turns and then and just swap blocks with the road crew? Or would the over the road crew bring the train in and do some classification and swapping and then head out again if the location was this small? From a practical standpoint I have been working it different ways and I do not really see much advantage in having a dedicated switcher, but Im not sure how the railroads or the unions would have felt about it.
Thanks for any info
restoratorOn my layout, I model a small "yard" that is mostly an interchange for the locals,
Minor terminology point, if its all the PC, its not an "interchange", its a junction. An interchange is between different railroads.
You could do the locals either way.
The through freights would drop off cuts and pick up cuts. Normally you would have just one train in each direction set out and pick up.
The locals could build themselves and the pick ups or you could have a yard engine switch up the cuts and build the pick ups and locals. A pair of switch engines would be very expensive for just a couple locals. I say a pair because the through freights would set out and pick up, the first shift local comes on duty at 0700, switches up the set outs, builds the locals, they run about 9-10 am, they get back around 4-6 pm. The 2nd trick switch engine comes on duty at 3 pm and switches the locals when they get back, building the pick ups for the next day's through freight.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
Which leads me to ask a corollary question. When a train is made up in a yard, will the cars be ordered in some way that corresponds to where they will be dropped off?
Bear "It's all about having fun."
bearman When a train is made up in a yard, will the cars be ordered in some way that corresponds to where they will be dropped off?
Depends on what you mean by "where they will be dropped off". Typically trains are "blocked" in station order. If a train originates at Anna and sets out cars at Bess and Cloy, all the cars for Bess are grouped together, all the cars for Cloy are grouped together. However they are generally NOT blocked by industry. If there are 3 industries in Bess, the cars are not sorted by industry.
Normally sorting by industry is done by the local itself based on how the conductor wants to work the industries.
Cars are also blocked by where the train will set them out, not necessarily by where they actually go. A train on the UP that runs from Kansas City to N Platte will have a block of "N Platte" cars, but in reality few if any will go to N Platte. They will go to N Platte to be switched for LA, Oakland, Portland and point in between.
Dave, you got the gist of my question and I understand your answer. That is how I have been doing it, although it is probably more a function of the fact that my layout does not allow more than a 5 or 6 car train plus the locomotive and a caboose.
With such a short train you probably aren't going to be switching more than one or two stations so its not going to be that time consuming either way.
While not something you would have to worry about, on some railroads the blocks might not be in order.
Some places the train might be worked from the rear, so the first set out might be on the back and somethimes there is a mid train set out so the first set out might be in the middle.
A train runs from A to Z and carries a block for G, M and Z. It leaves A blocked :
Caboose-Z-G-M-Engine.
At G it comes off with the G's (G-M-Eng) and sets out the G's, then picks up cars for M and Z (z-m-M-Eng). It doubles back to the train (Cab-Z-z-m-M-Eng). At M it sets out M and picks up more Z arriving at Z :Cab-Z-z-Z-Eng.
Obviously not the scenario you are concerned with.
bearmanWhen a train is made up in a yard, will the cars be ordered in some way that corresponds to where they will be dropped off?
Yes,Every urban local I worked on the PRR left the yard nice and tidy.It didn't stay that way once we started doing our work.
You see some days we had as many setouts as pickups and to save time we would place these pickups in front of our train.Mind you some industries we picked up and setout more then one car and every one of those multiple setouts had to be spotted at various doors unless we lucked out and spotted them along a long open dock.
We would rearrange our train back into working at a outlaying yard or the runaround track and then we would continue going up the industrial lead.
A smooth trick of the trade:
If we knew we had no pickups we would leave the early pickups on the runaround track. All we would need to do when we return was couple the caboose to our train,then the engine would runaround the train couple to the front end pump up the air and then off to the yard.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
dehusmanThe locals could build themselves and the pick ups or you could have a yard engine switch up the cuts and build the pick ups and locals. A pair of switch engines would be very expensive for just a couple locals. I say a pair because the through freights would set out and pick up, the first shift local comes on duty at 0700, switches up the set outs, builds the locals, they run about 9-10 am, they get back around 4-6 pm. The 2nd trick switch engine comes on duty at 3 pm and switches the locals when they get back, building the pick ups for the next day's through freight.
I worked in a small yard a few times that followed a similar plan. Only difference was the morning job was ~ 6am, the afternoon job ~ 4pm. That way they could share one set of power - which was good, since that was all the power the yard had.
Daily manifest came in at dawn. Cut away from the inbounds, picked up their outbounds and left. Morning local shifted the inbounds into the dozen or so tracks and served a couple industries and interchanged with a local shortline. Afternoon local came on duty, built their train from those dozen tracks based on what was ordered by the customers that day, and shifted their industries. Both jobs would tack all the outbounds to the one or two designated outbound track for the next day manifest.
Now if the inbound manifest train was large - then the morning local may only switch out what they need for their customers, then the second shift local crew would have to finish up switching the manifest before they gathered their cars. That could lead to some peeing contests between the two crews if they weren't getting along.
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The other yard I have experience with is a bit larger. 10 or so crews. So there's dedicated yard jobs to get locals ready. They cars are blocked by industry. But in today's age of single man crews and operating rules - there woudn't be enough time to serve all the customers if the trains aren't set up from the start. BAck when we had brakemen - then the trains weren't always so prepared. But a 3 man crew can make short work of sorting a train.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.
The replies to my question beg another question. Who, what real person, makes the determination as to how a train will be blocked?
A larger railroad has a group that decides what services a railroad provides and how the trains will be blocked to meet that service, with all the caveats of labor agreements and the physical plant.
They produce a document that describes the blocking, connections and scheduling of the train(old school paper, modern computer files/document). The yards follow that document.
Switch and yard engines rarely have blocking, locals usually deault to station order. Through freights are where most of the variation is.
Blocking can vary by train and changes over time. The longest I ever saw a train go without changes was two years. Most trains had some sort of a tweak to something every couple of months.
Here's the blocking instructions for the Rock Island issued in 1972.
https://web.archive.org/web/20160331162409/http://rits.org/www/histories/freight_schedule72/Instructions.html
Here's pages from the above dealing with RI train 57, a priority (autoparts) run-through with the UP at Council Bluffs.
The first page is the schedule, the second page is the actual blocking instructions.
https://web.archive.org/web/20111230160650/http://rits.org/www/histories/freight_schedule72/p119.jpg
https://web.archive.org/web/20111230165701/http://rits.org/www/histories/freight_schedule72/p120.jpg
Jeff
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...interesting!