My layout is fictitious and it has two fictitious railroads on it. The main railroad is a class 1 railroad operating in northern New Jersey and the southern tier of New York. The past several years I have been adding another fictional railroad which interchanges with the class 1 road. I have been referring to this as a branch line but it has come to my attention recently that the correct term for this would be a short line. Are these terms mutally exclusive or could a connecting short line also be referred to as a branch line?
These terms are in common usage but I don't think there is some grand central body that rigidly defines them. I can think of examples where short lines were sometimes referred to as branch lines. One would be where the Green Bay & Western, and its subsidiary the Kewaunee Green Bay & Western, met and interchanged with the Ahnapee & Western. The relationship between the two was such that the A&W functioned more as a branch line of the KGB&W than the short line that it was. But the GB&W locomotives did not continue onto the A&W tracks; the A&W had its own locomotives and its own crews. Maybe that is one way to think of a branch line versus a short line: whose locomotives and crews does it use?
Another example I can think of is where (also in Wisconsin) the Chicago & North Western met and transloaded from and with its narrow gauge subsidiary (a small museum in Fennimore WI preserves some of the history of that 3' gauge line). The narrow gauge could be thought of as a branch line or a short line.
Dave Nelson
My short line runs its own locos and a single caboose. It has a passenger coach and a combine plus a doodlebug recently added for passenger service. It is based very loosely on the Ulster and Delaware which connected with the NYC West Shore line at Kingston and ran through the Catskills. My fictional railroad is located southwest of there. Like the U&D, it's primary loco is a Ten Wheeler of which it has two.
My late '30s layout hosts four free-lanced roads, with one of them basically in charge of the others....by the mid '50s, it's very likely that the other three will have been absorbed into the bigger one.
I also have direct interchange with four real railroads, based on my hometown of Hamilton, Ontario, which regularly hosted trains from the CNR, CPR, NYC, and the TH&B, the latter controlled by CPR & NYC.
All of the "foreign-road" cars on my layout - there's a wide range of them - come through those interchange partners.
I'm probably stretching reality a bit, but I'm one of those "it's my railroad" kinda guys, so I pick what I want, whether it's realistic or not.
Wayne
The shortline would be a separate railroad from the class I.
A branchline is a branch of the class I.
I use them interchangeably because operationally, they are very much the same.
It comes down to ownership and paint scheme, IMO.
And then there are the "shortlines" that are owned 50/50 by CSX and NS for example, LOL.
- Douglas
doctorwayne My late '30s layout hosts four free-lanced roads, with one of them basically in charge of the others....by the mid '50s, it's very likely that the other three will have been absorbed into the bigger one. I also have direct interchange with four real railroads, based on my hometown of Hamilton, Ontario, which regularly hosted trains from the CNR, CPR, NYC, and the TH&B, the latter controlled by CPR & NYC. All of the "foreign-road" cars on my layout - there's a wide range of them - come through those interchange partners. I'm probably stretching reality a bit, but I'm one of those "it's my railroad" kinda guys, so I pick what I want, whether it's realistic or not. Wayne
I strive for plausibility although I'll occasionally cut corners too. The NYC and Pennsy are both major stockholders of my class 1 RR and both have trackage rights over parts of it and run joint passenger trains. This gives me an excuse to run locos from either parent RR. My RR is set in 1956, shortly before discussions began for a merger between the two giants. I acquired a nice F7 AB set with the NYC cigar band paint scheme which wasn't adopted until 1960 if my memory is correct. I figure if I can invent a fictional RR running through towns that never existed, it isn't much of a stretch to move up the date for a paint scheme.
Why not model a short lines branchline?
JJF
Prototypically modeling the Great Northern in Minnesota with just a hint of freelancing.
Yesterday is History.
Tomorrow is a Mystery.
But today is a Gift, that is why it is called the Present.
As far a I know, the only difference between "Short Line" and "Branch Line", is that one exists on a Monopoly Board, and the other does not.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
A branch (at least to me) is a smaller segment of a larger railroad.
Such as (in the east end of the Southern Tier) the Hudson Secondary (to Warwick) and the Walden Secondary were to Conrail's Southern Tier line. Or, the "Maybrook Branch" of the old New Haven Railroad.
A "short line" is just that -- a railroad of relatively small size and short runs. Again using the territory mentioned above, the Middletown & New Jersey (definitely a "short line") now operate the lines from Campbell Hall to Warwick and Campbell Hall to Walden.
I reckon that back in the days I worked there, they were "branches" off Conrail's Souther Tier main (even though CR didn't use the designation "branch" much). Now they're a "short line" under the auspices of the M&NJ...
Aside: I don't believe CR ever used the term "subdivision". Rather they had "regions" with [main] "lines", "secondary tracks", etc. I've never quite come to grips with the concept of "sub" or "subdivision" as used on other railroads to the west and south... (although the Central Vermont used those terms when I ran the old "Montrealer" up the CV from New London to Palmer, MA...)
Yeah CR only had regions with mains and secondaries And industrials like the chemical coast industrial secondary. from what I recall that was an odd government thing.
when a railroad is owned by two or more it is a joint line. loke the St. Louis terminal railroad. Unless you refer to ns/Csx territory. Then it is shared assests another government quirk. Hence the designation CSAO.
shortlline is an independent little railroad of a certain amount of track or annual earnings. Branch line is a division of a larger line again designated by a certain amount of traffic. Usually light Traffic. That is why they are called class 1. Or class 2. and so on based on the classification system set up by the FRA. A short line referred to as a branch line is so nicknamed because it was at one time an actual branch line of a larger operation that either sold that off or spun off that line when the larger line was merged out of existence. That is the one that confuses many.
shane
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
A lot of short lines emerged as larger railroads gave up their branch lines due to profitability issues. Its the exact same trackage with exactly the same customers and train requests, interchanging with the Class I mainline at the same place.
My layout is a short line/branch line. Its one or the other depending upon what roadname is on the locomotive.
Here in the U.K.
A branch line is a line leaving a Companies main line and (usually) going to a terminus station.
A short line (called simply a railway line) is a line owned by a Company and goes from A to B. Invariably linking to other Railway Companies at A and/or B.
David
To the world you are someone. To someone you are the world
I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought