glossary for branch, spur, siding, team track

[GerFust]

Okay, the first thing I can take a pretty good guess at, but what is a team track?

Check me if I'm wrong on these....

Branch - rail road serving a town, etc.
Spur - serves a single industry. Is stub ended?
Siding - runs along side the main line. May or may not serve an industry, may or may not rejoin the main.
Team track - ??????

Thanks,
Jer

[Anonymous]

"Team track" apparently comes from the "team" in "team of horses" that were originally used to pull the wagon to meet the train. A team track serves as a general loading and unloading area for industries that aren't big or busy enough to warrant their own siding or share of a siding.

Team tracks may or may not have ramps (at the side or end), a crane of some sort, a scale/scale house, etc. Walther's makes a nice little kit that illustrates the team track concept well:
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3166

Andrew

[DSchmitt]

A BRANCH LINE is a line usually connected to the MAIN LINE at one or more locations (but there may also be isolated branches) which is operated separate from the mainline (although the branch line trains may run on the main line too) There are branches that serve only one industry, but it would be more common to serve more than one customer. The branch serves areas off the main line, which may or may not be separate towns.

A SIDING is connected to another track at both ends. It usually runs parallel to and close to the main through track. It may serve industries directly, but would more often be used for passing, run around, and in some cases parking trains or storing cars.

A SPUR is a stub ended track, often but not always, diverging from (not parallel) to the main track or siding and usually serving only one customer. Spurs often connect to sidings instead of the main track.

[dehusman]

Branch - a line which is secondary to the main route. Its usage varies all over the map. The RDG called everything other than its route from Pottsville to Phillie and from Phillie to New York branches, even though they handled more tonnage than many railroad's main lines. Some railroads didn't officially have branches.

Spur - usually a single ended industry track.

Siding - traditional definition from a 50's era rule book " A track auxillary to the main track for meeting or passing trains."

Team Track - a track used to unload cars to wagons or trucks.

Dave H.

[Anonymous]

Have wondered what exactly a "Team Track" is/was for ages - thanks for clearing that up. I guessed it had to be some sort of general unloading siding from looking at the Walthers kits, but the definition was interesting!

[coalminer3]

And a great source for activity on a layout; team tracks handled all sorts of cars.

work safe

[Anonymous]

Incidentally, the term "team" as it is used in "team track" is also the origin of the name of the Teamster's Union, which is now comprised largely of truck drivers. An LCL (less-than-carload) warehouse is essentially the same facility, where partial loads are collected or delivered to a variety of customers. I usually think of a team track as one serving an open platform, but I see little reason why you couldn't attach an LCL freight house (often this exact facility was provided within the depot).

I have always thought of a branch line as one where the traffic flow is largely uni-directional such as a branch to a coal mine- empties go in, loads go out. In this manner, it really is just an overly large industrial spur, although a given branch might serve several industries. Also, a branch line is like a dead-end street; there's no through-routing for general freight, or else a more convenient mainline route is predominantly used. I like knowing, however, that the definition of "branch" varies by railroad.

[Anonymous]

Avondaleguy,

I think your definition of a team track is right on. A small refractory liner producing company I worked for as a maintenance man years ago received some of it's bulk fiber from rail. The problem was that we had no siding... So, the receiving guys would drive around the corner to a siding called Basset Team Track on the SP line parallel to Valley Blvd in La Puente, CA to unload a car dropped there. Simply a concrete ramp with a flat about 200 ft long. Lots of comanies used this to offload or load goods/materials from all manner of railcar. Here was the kicker... In as far as our company was concerned, I could not go to the team track, only the shipper/receivers could go because they were in part of the teamsters union, I was not... One of the guys told me that was part of the union contract...

[Jetrock]

Team tracks are one of those wonderful "multi-industry" bits that are really, really easy to model and can make use of many types of cars. Okay, maybe not tank cars--although if you place a hose from a nearby storage tank off the team track, you can park 'em there too.

One of my favorite finds in the local railroad museum library was a collection of railroad customers in the town I model--the street addresses of each business, and the capacity of each industry's spur or siding! Many of them, however, simply had "Team" listed--they were served via the team track. Fortunately the same reference had the location and capacity of the team tracks in town...definitely some good information!

[DSchmitt]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Jetrock

Team tracks are one of those wonderful "multi-industry" bits that are really, really easy to model and can make use of many types of cars. Okay, maybe not tank cars--although if you place a hose from a nearby storage tank off the team track, you can park 'em there too.

In the mid to late 1970's at Fairfield, CA what was left of the Sacramento Northern line ended near Air Base Parkway just east of Peabody Road. While not a team track, several tank cars would sit there for months while their cargo was unloaded into tank trucks. I don't know what they contained. A hose was run from the outlet on the tank car to the tank on the truck. It apparently took months to empty one car.

Another thought about tank cars. Early in the last century the Pacific Coast Railroad had a thriving business hauling crude oil from the oil fields to Avila CA, where the oil was loaded onto ships. The oil was unloaded from the tank cars simply by opening the valves and letting it flow into an open unligned trench (not very environmently friendly) It was ten pumped from the trench to storage tanks on a hill above the track. When a ship was to be loaded the oil ran by gravity to the loading point on a long pier. In the early day the "tankers" were old wooden sailing ships with their masts cut off. They were towed by a steam ship.