thommack wrote:
In the Connections section of a data sheet, it will sometimes talk
about Cutoff time, Departs time, and for train 96 it talks about
Cutoffs - Regular, Special, Departs. What are these times? Also, did
the Q train (such as train 96) just leave its cars in the yard to be
delivered by a transfer run to the connecting railroad, or how did
this work? Were transfers made from the Q to the connecting railroad,
or did the connecting railroad pick up the cars at the Q yard?
Who did the transfers depended on the city and various agreements
between the railroads. For example in Kansas City, some railroads had
reciprocal haulage agreements between yards. This means for example if
the Q took a cut of cars from Murray Yard to the Santa Fe's Argentine
Yard, the Q crew would come back with Q bound cars from the Santa Fe.
Also this case, the Q would come back with cars from Argentine with ATSF
cars bound for the Wabash since the Q and Wabash yards were (and still
are) close proximity. This was an agreement between the 3 railroads.
However some KC area railroads would just make their delivery of
interchange cars to the Q at Murray and then return waycar light to
their respective home yards. The Q would do the same thing. And a few of
the railroads which had little interchange with the Q would just pay the
Kansas City Terminal to handle intrayard moves.
As for times, let's take a look at No. 67 Chicago to Kansas City. This
train had "hot cars" destined for Rock Island train 77 due to depart
Kansas City, Kansas, at 2:15 am. 67 was scheduled to arrive at Murray at
11 pm. According to a former Q clerk, a switcher would be waiting for
the train to arrive and immediately pull the Rock Island block (If you
look at the blocking for the train, there is a specific Rock Island
block and it is at the rear of 67). The switcher would then take off wit
hthe cut across the Kansas City Terminal to Rock Island's Armourdale
Yard. These cars would then make the special cutoff time for RI 77.
The regular cutoff time was when the yard would start putting the train
together per blocking instructions for the trains scheduled departure
time. This could take a few hours depending on the yard was also doing.
Bill
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