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How are Railroads Divided Up?

  • Can somebody please tell me how divisons, sub-divisons, etc, are divided up? Thank you. Kyle.
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  • I believe that a division (in theory, of course) is the distance a train and crew could go within operating hours.
  • I beleive mr railman is correct about how divisions and sub divisions work. It would make since. For example I live near the CSX Philadelphia subdivision. It is a part of the Delaware Division, the subs are Phila and Camden, etc. .. These routes can be traveled within train crew opperating hours. It's the same thing with the CSX Mountain Sub.
    LORD HELP US ALL TO BE ORIGINAL AND NOT CRISPY!!! please? Sarah J.M. Warner conductor CSX
  • QUOTE: Originally posted by CSXrules4eva

    I beleive mr railman is correct about how divisions and sub divisions work. It would make since. For example I live near the CSX Philadelphia subdivision. It is a part of the Delaware Division, the subs are Phila and Camden, etc. .. These routes can be traveled within train crew opperating hours. It's the same thing with the CSX Mountain Sub.


    The CSX Philadelphia Sub is a part of the Baltimore Division. The Mountain Sub is a part of the Cumberland Coal Business Unit.

    Divisions and Sub Divisions are nothing more than a geographical means of organizing the railroad and the management of the railroad.

    At one time, back in the 19th Century, most of what are today Sub-Divisions, were at one time independent railroads....as the 19th and early 20th Century mergers progressed, those small independent railroad formed easily identifyable 'sub-divisions' and thus a number of sub-divisions are identified by the name of the railroad they once were.
  • Railroads are divided into Regions or Districts, then Divisions and then subdivisions. A region is under a General aManager or Vice president. A division is under a superintendent (and defined that way in many rule books) and a subdivision is part of a division.The boundries are entirely arbitrary and may or may not be based on crew districts. They are not fixed either. The UP (post MP, pre SP) in the last 20 years has had anywhere from 12 to 36 divisions depending on the structure and 3 or 4 regions. Subdivision boundries change too. 1985 subdivisions won't line up with 1995 subdivisions.

    Dave H.

    Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com

  • To most of us we wonder who at any railroad is making decisions because it isn't the way we would do it. In my case modeling the PRR they changed divisions and subs several times. When you think about the business side of the equation some of it makes sense. If you said that every sub would be 100 miles in length regardless of where that is on the railroad it would be logical. Now take two more factors into account. There is a major city 15 miles from the end of the sub which would make more sense since you have yard and engine facilities there and also take into account that sub1 is a 4 track mainline and sub2 is a 2 track mainline. That means the manager of sub 1 probably has double or more the maintenance costs, personnel and number of trains to deal with as well as customers and maybe you would want to subdivide that one futher. Obviously there are reasons we don't take into account or understand for the practices adopted.
  • the sub divisions are divided up by some of the citys that the railroad passes through in. Like in Michigan the subs are divided by major citys like Grandrapids,Lansing,Detroit and Saginaw.
    It has nothing to do with the length that a train crew travels in any given day.
    Herb
  • Ndbprr : Nothing says that every manager's territory has to be the same size or have the same budget or the same density of trains. As a matter of fact few if any do. You say that if every sub was 100 miles long it would be logical. I don't think so. You are applying the logic of somebody on the outside looking in. From the inside the decision may make perfect sense and be very logical. Towns aren't spaced even distances apart, mountains aren't spaced even distances apart, factories aren't spaced even distances apart. The railroad adapts to changes in business and its environment.

    Dave H.

    Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com