Yard track numbering?

[trainwatcher]

Is there any rhyme or reason to how the railroads number their tracks inside a rail yard

[dehusman]

Sorta. Most are numbered away from the main line.

Often different types of tracks have different numbers (will be consist on a particular RR, but not between railroads) .

Dave H.

[zapp]

For us a 100 yard is inbound, 200 is outbound, 300 is like tracks waiting to be humped/ switched, 700 is a RIP track, 800 is locomotive/service/caboose track, and a 900 track is the car is lost. When I say it's lost, I mean in a literal sense. If I'm the conductor and car number DRGW 54991 is on my switch list and I can't find it, then I will place that car in a 900 track (usually 999). I also enter a code beside the car number to let the "pickle clerk" know that the caar wasn't spotted or couldn't be found. 

[tree68]

Local yard here is numbered 1, 2, 3 on the "east" and 1, 2, 3 on the "west."  All going away from the main...

[edblysard]

Railroads use a fixed direction of travel, either east and west, or a north/south combination for ease of dispatching.

Geographically it doesn’t matter, but if a home terminal is, say, the “east” end of your railroad, then anyone traveling away from that terminal is going west.

The SP home terminal was San Francisco or the west end of the railroad…so if you were moving away from there, you were headed east, even if you were really going north geographically.

Anything headed towards SF was west bound.

This allows dispatchers to always know whether a train is inbound, heading “west” or out bound, going east.

Once they pick an east/west or north south combo, numbering yard tracks is then decided, and all the yards will be numbered the same way.

On my railroad, if you face railroad “north” all the lower numbered tracks, mains and yard tracks are to your left.

All our yards are like that, no matter if they run north and south, or east and west, if you are headed toward our home terminal, you are facing our railroad north, and the lowest numbered track is always to the left.

Most railroads use a system similar to this.

All of their yards will be numbered the same way, so if you are headed in a particular direction, all the yards will use an identical left to right or right to left number system.

This makes it easier for a new guy, or a foreign crew to find their way through a yard.

[mudchicken]

The railroad operating departments all have different ways of numbering tracks. Engineering and M/W have a different way of looking at tracks (the two systems are not compatable and reconciling one against the other is agony). Operating people are looking to store and inventory cars on that track. Union Pacific calls their numbering system ZTS (Zone-Track-Spot), Santa Fe's was CLIC (Car Location Inventory Control), Southern Pacific's System was SPIN (Southern Inventory Inventory Number) and so-on---The idea being how to keep track of a car and identifying where it was based on a number on a switch target. The numbers in a yard can change on the whim of a trainmaster or superintendent ( and then there are the nicknames that trainmen give these tracks, some humorous, some for nearby landmarks, some just funny or descriptive)...Santa Fe's system had its quirks and oddities including odd numbers to one side , even to the other of a main track, tracks with dual ID's, crossovers had no numbers (you couldn't store squat on 'em), phantom tracks and so on.

 

[edblysard]

We use a ZTS system to keep track of and spot cars...also used to forward cars on to our other yards for further switching.

For us, being a small road allows us to use the nicknames mudchicken mentioned all the time, they are even in our timetable.

Things like the Glass track, and Santa Ana pass, or Kings pass are shown both in out timetable and our ZTS book, which is track map of our railroad.

 

And looking through a old SP timetable, it seems they also named tracks outside of their yards, such as the Flour spur and the Ramp in Englewood.

 

 

[blhanel]

You don't have an "aluminum siding" or a "cowboy spur", do you?

//ba-dum-ching

[jimrice4449]

Yardtracks are GENERALLY numbered from the main but there are always the exceptions which can make life really interesting.   On the BN for example the Apple Yard in Wenatchee is located between the main track and the Columbia River, but the tracks are numbered from the river not the main.

[edblysard]

No cowboy track, but Santa Ana siding carries that name because it is only a few yards away from the spot where Sam Houston’s troops captured Santa Ana, hiding in a creek bed after the Battle of San Jacinto.

The Glass track is a stub track into the Budweiser brewery, where we used to spot boxcars of beer bottles…back in the day, I am told it was a popular job to catch, as crews were often used as unofficial taste testers!

 

We have a track called the Press track, which leads to one of Howard Hughes munitions factories.

They pressed the power into the shaped charges for the navy to use in their battleship guns.

 

I would bet just about every terminal and division has quite a few of these names that have, by usage, become the official timetable name for these tracks.

 

And the UP still uses the name from a SP main line called the Rabbit...let you guess why...

 

 

You don't have an "aluminum siding" or a "cowboy spur", do you?

//ba-dum-ching

[mackb4]

Interesting how railroads do things the same as well as different.

The old N&W (NS) yard's that I've been in all have tracks numbered 1 starting from the main line and so on.Even if there's a main line to the North or South of the yard.

And most yards I've been in have a track called the "Turkey Trot".It's usually the track in the middle of the yard that runs all the way straight thru the yard from one end to the other.

Sometimes numbers are missing also.For instance in Portsmouth Ohio's East yard, #20 East yard has never exsisted.It simply goes 1-19 (with a few tracks that has been removed 4-8,10 and 11) then skips over 20,then starts #21-31.

Something that the NS done around 10 or 11 years ago was get away from calling tracks Eastbound and Westbound.The East became #1 main,and the West became #2 main.I suppose this happened when we started calling the signal indications out over the radio such as "NS 184,has a clear at Kenova Crossover,West main two".It's to allow other crews to understand what track and direction your going.I think that rule was the best rule the NS has come up with since I've been there.

I think it's nice that some tracks get named in honor of railroaders.There's a west bound siding track in Circleville Ohio named Harmon track.It's named in honor of a M of W  worker that was killed by a piece of M of W machinery while working on that particular track.

Then a funny one is the "stub" track in Portsmouth,Ohio.It was named after a very short yardmaster we used to have  .That's a true story.

[mudchicken]

No cowboy track, but Santa Ana siding carries that name because it is only a few yards away from the spot where Sam Houston’s troops captured Santa Ana, hiding in a creek bed after the Battle of San Jacinto.

The Glass track is a stub track into the Budweiser brewery, where we used to spot boxcars of beer bottles…back in the day, I am told it was a popular job to catch, as crews were often used as unofficial taste testers!

 

We have a track called the Press track, which leads to one of Howard Hughes munitions factories.

They pressed the power into the shaped charges for the navy to use in their battleship guns.

 

I would bet just about every terminal and division has quite a few of these names that have, by usage, become the official timetable name for these tracks.

 

And the UP still uses the name from a SP main line called the Rabbit...let you guess why...

 

 

You don't have an "aluminum siding" or a "cowboy spur", do you?

//ba-dum-ching

Coming to mind:

Angels Flight-Pueblo (a track that drops sharply off the old hump lead fill),

 the "trap" , the icehouse, shamrock crossover, Old main (never was), long tail-La Junta

Bow & Arrow country, Kountry Line, the swamp, the looney track (Pueblo), outhouse lead, Veggy lead,sugar track, stink track (rendering plant) and on and on and on.....

 

[nbrodar]

In my yard, the tracks are numbered low next to the main:
Class and storage track: E (for Eastside Yard) 4 to 21.
Car Shop: R (for Repair) 1 to 3.

However the BIDS (Bulk Industrial Distribution Service) tracks are number the opposite way (high next to the main)
T (no one know what the T stands for) 1 to 8 and 40 to 43.

Another yard in the terminal which has the main running through the middle the tracks are numbered outward from the mains, odd numbers on the north side, even numbers on the south side:
W (for westbound) 5 to 33.
E ( for eastbound) 4 to 18.

Still another yard, located on the tail of a wye, with an Interstate Highway running next to it, starts numbering at the Interstate:
W (intermodal) 1 to 4
RD (recieving/departing) 1 to 5
G (Greenwich - classifiying) 0 to 15
L (Local - local customer cars) 1 to 4

Nick

[mikeyuhas]

And the UP still uses the name from a SP main line called the Rabbit...let you guess why...

 

Perhaps because of uncontrolled breeding?

[edblysard]

Knowing some of the old SP guys, I wouldn't doubt they tried that, too!

[mudchicken]

Brian: Aluminum Siding is on the Aluminum Spur on BNSF's Harbor Sub in Torrance (LA), CA along DelAmo Blvd. on the backside of the Mobil Oil Refinery  (Spur is 3.2 miles long and used to feed an ALCOA plant and a Douglass Plant during WW2, supports a trash train (RailCycle) now?)

You went through Glenwood Canyon and missed No Name?

White Woman Bottoms, KS ?

Siberia, CA?

There, NM?

Man, have you ever led a sheltered existance!

[da Milwaukee beerNut]

Brian: Aluminum Siding is on the Aluminum Spur on BNSF's Harbor Sub in Torrance (LA), CA along DelAmo Blvd. on the backside of the Mobil Oil Refinery  (Spur is 3.2 miles long and used to feed an ALCOA plant and a Douglass Plant during WW2, supports a trash train (RailCycle) now?)

You went through Glenwood Canyon and missed No Name?

White Woman Bottoms, KS ?    Siberia, CA?     There, NM? 

Man, have you ever led a sheltered existance! 

Now that Aluminum Siding has been spotted ...
is there a Vinyl Siding somewhere along the rail network serving the DuPont empire?

Numbering in UP yards I've examined are west to east or south to north. Mains in Butler WI are 1[normally westbound] and 2. At Proviso - Chicago they are 19 and 20.

Wear the fox hat!

[mudchicken]

Might want to talk to Nebkota RR about the Cowboy Line.

[Bob-Fryml]

Here's how track numbering generally works with Union Pacific

• 001-099 = Yard classification tracks.
• 100-199 = Leads.
• 200-299 = Receiving tracks for inbound trains.
• 300-399 = Departure tracks (including mainlines).
• 400-499 = Storage tracks.
• 500-599 = Company service tracks such as material yard, locomotive shop tracks, fueling tracks, and RIP tracks for freight car repair.
• 600-699 = Interchange.
• 700-899 = Cash customers / industry tracks.
• 900-990 = Pseudo tracks used to store train consists in the computer system prior to departure or prior to arrival.
• 999 = the lost cars track.

There are exceptions, but the above list is generally how it works.

As many contributors have already pointed out, yard track numbering usually follows a pattern wherein track numbers increase the further the track is located away from the mainline.  The old names for tracks die hard, so crews generally have to remember two descriptions for every track:  what the computer calls it as defined by station number, yard number, and track number and what the employees call it such as "The Steam Track," "Fuel One," "The Egyptian Lead," "The Old Buzzard," "Bub's Stub," and so on.   

[billbtrain]

Beverly Yard in Cedar Rapids Iowa on the C&NW (now U P) was numbered 1-10 on the north side of the mainlines and 15-20 on the south side.Each being numbered away from the mains.North main track is Main 1,south is Main 2.Does anyone know why the mains are numbered as such?(I do,but do you?)

Have a good one.

Bill B

[SFbrkmn]

I have not worked at the BN Murray yd in Kan City since 1999 but when I  was there they had a lead trk that changed #s three times. Hopefully that has since been corrected.

[blhanel]

Beverly Yard in Cedar Rapids Iowa on the C&NW (now U P) was numbered 1-10 on the north side of the mainlines and 15-20 on the south side.Each being numbered away from the mains.North main track is Main 1,south is Main 2.Does anyone know why the mains are numbered as such?(I do,but do you?)

Have a good one.

Bill B

I would guess it has to do with which track was laid first.

[mudchicken]

SFbrkmn - probably changes 4 times now...The same people that re-mileposted Pueblo-Denver after the merger?

[caldreamer]

Back in the days, Southern Pacifics Sanata Clara Yard had 38 tracks, numbered 1 to 38 away away from the main lines.  Now there are less than  8.  I do not know where the Union Pacific services the San Francisco peninusla to San Louis Obisbo industries out of.  The big Bay Shore yard with the roundhouse and shops are long gone (Torn down by the UP).

 

[CShaveRR]

blhanel

Beverly Yard in Cedar Rapids Iowa on the C&NW (now U P) was numbered 1-10 on the north side of the mainlines and 15-20 on the south side.Each being numbered away from the mains.North main track is Main 1,south is Main 2.Does anyone know why the mains are numbered as such?(I do,but do you?)

Have a good one.

Bill B

I would guess it has to do with which track was laid first.

 

The truth is simpler than that:  it's in the special instructions.

On main tracks running east and west the tracks are numbered from north to south; on main tracks running north and south they're numbered from west to east.  That's "The UP Way".

CNW was different--there was a time when all of their tracks had east-west timetable directions.  Following a railroad convention (westbound trains had odd numbers, eastbound even numbers), the westbound track had the low number.  So in those days, Track 1 was on the south side (the opposite of what UP did).

I always refer to October 1, 1995, as the day that UP turned our railroad upside down.  That's when the UP rulebook, timetables, and special instructions took effect on former CNW lines. The dispatchers for some time after that would make sure that references to tracks were made clear, something like "Track 1, the north track."  

[Norm48327]

That's interesting Carl. I have a 2000 CN/GTW track chart in which the tracks are not numbered. They are labeled as Westward Main (north track) and Westward Main (south track). OTOH, I have heard them referred to as track one and track two.

[tree68]

It's fun to hear passengers at Utica wonder aloud why track 1 isn't the one closest to the station...

Massey Yard in Watertown, NY is numbered away from the main - on both sides.  East 1, 2, 3, 4 and West 1, 2, 3, 4.