Track numbering

[motor]

How are tracks numbered?

For example if I'm railfanning along a three track wide stretch of the Amtrak NEC and standing on the south side thereof , which track is track #1, #2 and #3? How do RRs number tracks? [?]

motor

[grampaw pettibone]

I can't speak for your area, but the CSX double track main (A LINE) through here used to be known as east track and west track. A few years ago, east track became track 1, and west became track 2

[chad thomas]

I think #1 is the northernmost or easternmost depending on it's orientation on most railroads.

[jchnhtfd]

I have seen so many variants on how tracks are numbered I get dizzy... I've seen it the way Chad says; I've also seen the opposite... I've seen (on four track lines) numbers 1 and 2 in the middle, and 3 and 4 on the outside. I've seen...

oh forget it. It depends on where you are!

[chad thomas]

Jamie's right. I was just flipping through a timetable and there are many variations. Examples
UP Cima sub when facing west #1 is the middle #2 is to the left and #3 is to the right.
SCAX River sub north track is #3, south track is #4

[tree68]

I think it depends on the local situation. I can't find my map of the Syracuse area, but I do seem to recall that the old 4 track "Water Level Route" was numbered something like 3-1-2-4, with the middle tracks being the express tracks. Today there are only two. But the CSX tracks in the SYR area also includes a "runner," and there is a "track 7," with no sign that I know of of 3-6... I'm sure you'll find many tracks that hold a designation with no current significance. They were called "track 7" when there were tracks 3-6, and the name has stuck.

Yard tracks seem to have interesting variations, too, sometimes differentiated by a function or or other label (ie, track 2 in the east yard).

[CShaveRR]

UP's current "protocol" is to number tracks from north to south, and from west to east. This would, of course be based on timetable directions. For example, our three-track line, which is east-west by the timetable, has Track 1 to the north and Track 3 to the south (with track 2 in the middle).

This happens to be exactly the opposite of the way CNW did it, so that's why I say that 10/1/95 is the day that the UP turned our railroad upside down.

[TheS.P.caboose]

Southern Pacific and Santa Fe before they mergered into other railroads used the #1 track as the westward track and #2 track as the eastward track.

One thing that made SP kind of hard to follow was that everything going towards San Francisco was westward trafic and everything going away from San Francisco was eastward traffic.

Like those before me, all the railroads have their own way of doing things.

[PBenham]

Since the New York Central's track numbering system has been covered (except to say that the track 7 in Syracuse NY was given that designation as a yard track. The rest of the yard,i.e. tracks 1-6, was torn up years ago) PRR numbered its tracks (north to south on an east-west by timetable route) 4-3-2-1 but on lines it inherited fron the PCC&STL the exact opposite prevailed! Most lines (CNJ,DL&W, ERIE,LV and no doubt others, numbered their tracks so that the track that ran west out their eastern terminal was track 1, with track 2 being the one that ran into their eastern terminal. Erie was a problem in north western Pennsylvania, since the second track was built on a different alignment, to compensate for grades facing eastbound (westbound?) Trains. The two tracks crossed over and under one another a few times from Jamestown to Meadville,PA. (See Erie Lackawanna in color Vol.2 New York State by Larry DeYoung pp 11-15.)

[timz]

QUOTE: Originally posted by TheS.P.caboose

Southern Pacific and Santa Fe before they mergered into other railroads used the #1 track as the westward track and #2 track as the eastward track.

SP used #1 and #2 over the Sierra-- but on most of their double track routes did they even number the tracks at all? And you remember how SFe used "North Track" and "South Track" where the two tracks were separated.