Tom:
That is only partially true in the present. Lines that
are obviously North/South do use those directions.
One example is Denver to Pueblo.
TheVLBG
--- Bryan Howell <tubaman21@y...> wrote:
> Hi list! I was watching some videos I got for my
> birthday over the weekend and the Pentrex Powder River
> Basin video kept talking about railroad east, which
> was south(probably wrong). Why were railroad
> directions different from standard directions. This
> is really confusing me if anyone can hel;p me out.
> Thanks in advance!
>
>
> =====
> Bryan J. Howell
> tubaman21@y...
> tubaman221@h...
> http://www.angelfire.com/il2/burlingtonzephyrs
>
>
> I know you are confused so I will try to unconfuse you. When you hear
railroads speaking of directions, they are speaking in "timetable
direction", and not "geographic direction". Take for example the BNSF
mainline from Galesburg to Chicago. Obviously if you are heading towards
Chicago, you are heading east. In this case, it is also Timetable East.
Same is true with Galesburg being west and Timetable west. Well since
mainlines and branches go North and South, and timetables use the analogy
of east and west, that can become confusing. I speak this as I was a
former conductor on the BNSF and I worked in both types of situations. It
is a general rule, that in the four directions, west/south are together
and east/north are together. Case in point, trains running on the
Beardstown Sub between Galesburg and Paducah are running west when moving
southbound and are running east when moving northbound. This is true even
when you are sitting on the train and know you are moving either north or
south depending on the situation. Hope this explains it to you.
Tom Kaufman
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