Freight Yards: What Are All Those
Tracks?, Part III
By Richard Lake
In the last article I wrote about the three different
types of freight hauls that are sent out from a yard,
through freight, way freight, and local. This seems like
a good time to discuss prototype and model operation and
to focus on the task of the yard crews in getting each
type of freight train ready to depart.
Through Freight
Operation
This is the easiest of the three trains to get ready.
Through freights are trains which travel nonstop
(barring meets with passenger trains or engine
servicing) from one yard to another. Westbound service
on the CRI&P from Armourdale to Herrington, Kansas
is the example I knew well since I worked this job
several times each of my two summers on the fireman’s
extra board in Armourdale. The train left Armourdale,
traveled the UP mainline to Topeka, Kansas, where it
switched over to Rock Island trackage and completed the
run in Herrington. My main task as fireman was to check
fuel and water gauges on the motive power just before
Topeka since that was the only place we could take on
water or diesel fuel on this particular run. The only
time we ever made a stop on that trip was on the night
the load of reinforcing bars shifted while we were
crossing the bridge into Topeka (but that’s another
story). The cars on this freight were all bound for
Herrington or points beyond. There were no stops to set
out or pick up cars at any city or industry along the
way. Through freight is the "express" service.
The crew boards the motive power in one yard and passes
the train on to another crew several hours later in
another yard 200 miles or so down the line.
Building the Through Freight
For the train yard crew, building a through freight
is a pretty simple task. The yardmaster provides a
switch list which tells what cars to pull from arrivals,
interchange and local service. These cars are already
waiting in the designated train yard tracks or will be
delivered there by other yard crews. The cars going into
the westbound for Herrington will be blocked according
to destination or interchange road. All cars to be
delivered to industries in and around Herrington will be
in one block within the through freight. Similar blocks
will be set up for cars destined for further travel on
the Rock Island. Additional blocks will be set up for
cars bound for other roads but not every city with a
yard had interchange. In some cases a block of cars for
local delivery was set out, motive power was serviced,
and a new crew took over the train for the next leg. In
any case the train yard crew’s job is clean and
simple. Take blocks of cars and assemble them into the
departure track in the order set up by the yardmaster.
The only factor this crew has to consider beyond getting
the right cars in the right blocks is the safety issue.
Cars carrying combustible materials, explosives, or
other hazardous materials had to be placed a set number
of cars away from the engine and the caboose for crew
safety.
Modeling Operation
Making up the east or westbound through freight is
probably a good job for a new operator on an unfamiliar
layout as long as the demands aren’t for too many
through freights in very limited time. Given a good
switch list, a clear yard lead, the safety regulations
for car placement within the train, and enough time,
this is a pretty simple switching job. If the yard
tracks are clearly identified by name or number and
there is an empty departure track, then the crew just
has to make sure that all the cars in a block are in the
correct block within the train. There is nothing that
will make the crew in the next yard meaner than having
to re-switch blocks to correct another crew’s sloppy
work.
Way Freight
Operation
Way freight service provides for some really
interesting operations potential. These trains serve
wayside industries and smaller towns and cities which
don’t generate enough traffic to have a yard and local
service. A typical way freight on the CRI&P might
run westbound from the Carrie Avenue Yard in St. Louis
to Eldon, Missouri. This train would not serve
industries within 40 or 50 miles of St. Louis. These
would be served by a local freight operation. In
addition, way freights do not necessarily run every day.
The train might go out to Eldon on Monday and make an
eastbound return trip on Tuesday, skip Wednesday, and
make another out and back on Thursday and Friday. The
frequency of east and westbound way freights depends on
the amount of traffic being generated by the industries
served. If there is a lot of traffic, you might have a
train every day out of Carrie Ave. Going west, the way
freight would set out loads and empties that were needed
by the industries served and pick up only those cars
which had delivery destinations further west. Any
eastbound traffic (i.e., to St. Louis or beyond) would
be collected on the return run. If the traffic on a
segment served by this way freight was really large on a
daily basis with a considerable number of cars with both
east and westbound destinations, it is entirely logical
for there to be both a westbound way freight departing
Carrie Ave. and an eastbound departing Eldon on the same
day, and if traffic is "really heavy" there
would be daily trains on a Monday through Friday
schedule. Weekend traffic would only occur if the
industries served were running more than one shift
and/or working weekend shifts which generates a need for
rail servicing.
Building the Way Freight
This can be a much more complex switching operation
depending on the number of stops and the number of
industries served at each location. Train #73 departs
Carrie Ave. with 33 cars, 22 of which will be set out at
industries between there and Eldon. The remaining 11
cars are for industries and the CRI&P team track in
Eldon. At each location along the main line there is
only one industry to serve. Two of the industries are
reached via facing point switches while the others are
all trailing point. There are six industrial locations
for these 22 cars. At each location there is at least
one car to pick up and three or more cars to drop off.
The 22 cars for delivery must be blocked within the way
freight in a manner that makes it possible for the train
crew to do its job quickly and efficiently. This means
the yard crew needs a very detailed switch list
identifying each specific car to be added to the way
freight and specifying its location within the train.
Here too the rules for crew safety must be observed
which may mean placing a car loaded with hazardous
materials within the train in the less than optimum
position for on-line servicing. It is not the yard crew’s
responsibility to know things like the length of spurs,
sidings, run-around capacities or which industries are
facing and which trailing point. They are simply going
to put the cars together in the order specified by the
switch list given to them. Building a way freight takes
the yard crew as long or longer than putting together a
through freight because the way freight involves many
moves of two and three cars at time as opposed to the
larger blocks which make up the through freight.
Modeling Operation
The way freight is obviously a bigger challenge for
an operating session. The crew putting together a way
freight needs more time to assemble the small blocks of
1, 2, and 3 cars and put them into the best sequence for
the road crew to do its job. There will be lots more
switches to be thrown, couplings and uncouplings to be
made. Each of these moves requires time. How much time
depends on how well the crew knows the yard layout and
how scattered the cars are to be assembled into this
train. (The individual who prepares the switch list also
can simplify or complicate things at this point.) While
this train is being assembled, the yard lead will be
pretty much shut down for any other moves. If there is
only a single yard with a single lead track (which is
what most of us have to do because of space
limitations), then it should be clear that putting
together one or, at most, two way freights during an
operating session will keep a crew occupied. Somebody,
in some article, in some magazine stated that model
railroad switching and prototype switching really tend
to take about the same amount of time. It is fine to run
a fast clock on the trains to produce realism but
running a yard on a fast clock is more likely to make
yard crews crazy trying to keep up and train crews
unhappy because of delays in getting their assigned
trains.
Since the layout my wife and I will have is still in
planning stages, our operating experience has been
limited to other modelers’ layouts where it seems that
usually one crew is assigned to operate a yard. This
works when the yard crews know the yard, and the overall
scheme of the layout, but there are number of different
options which can be used depending on the number of
crews available and their familiarity with the layout.
Option One: Assign a relatively
inexperienced crew the job of putting together the
through freight (this would be the train yard crew) and
then let them "go to beans" while a crew with
at least one member familiar with the yard is given the
task of putting together the way freight. After they
pass the train along to the road crew, the trainyard
crew could come back on to work on assembling the next
"express" freight. This would mean that more
operators would be needed but no one crew would have to
do it all. This style of operating would also be much
more typical of the prototype.
Option Two: Stage the yard prior to
the actual operating session with both through and way
freights sitting on designated tracks ready to go. The
yard crew’s job is to get the motive power and the
caboose onto the specified train, set up clearance out
of the yard and then pass the train on to the road crew.
This option also allows a fairly inexperienced crew to
keep up with the job pretty readily. In fact, this is
exactly what I had the opportunity to do on Pete Sanborn’s
Sierra Central on the Wednesday night before
Thanksgiving. There was plenty to do to especially when
the foreign road trains arrived from staging with the
need to swap the head and rear end foreign equipment for
Sierra Central equipment before the train could be
passed on to the road crew. And just as things seemed to
settle down, trains begin to arrive in the receiving
tracks which meant more moves with head and rear end
equipment to be pulled for servicing facilities and the
rest of the train to be relocated into the yard to clear
the receiving tracks for later arrivals. One yard crew
was all that was needed to do this but it kept us busy
for nearly every minute of the four hour operating
session. It was fun but also hectic.
Option Three: Another option which
would be very much like the prototype in operation would
call for as many as four crews to set up through and way
freights. The first crew would be assigned as hostlers.
That crew would be responsible for moving motive power.
The hostler would take arriving trains power to the
servicing facility and bring the assigned power to the
outbound trains. The train yard crew would work only on
preparing through freights. The third crew would make up
way freight trains for operation. A fourth crew could be
used to make those odd job moves that always seem to be
needed such as bringing in the last car or two from an
in town industry that is supposed to go out on the next
available train. This crew would also take care of
putting the caboose on the outbound and taking the
inbound down to be serviced before the next turn.
I started this article with the intention of
discussing all three types of freight operations, but I
really think this article is long enough and so I am
going to save local freights for another time. The local
freight is a real operating challenge for yard crews and
road crews and it would be a shame not to give a full
article to the local. Until the next issue, keep the
crews happy and the trains on schedule.
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