Nelson,
I will let the guys who know far more about Burlington,IA than me answer
that part in particular.
The Qs general pattern was to list yard classification tracks starting from
the main in numerical order. Yard one was closest to the main and
increasing therefrom as you move farther out. Now keep in mind many places;
Mendota,IL south yard in particluar comes to mind,had few # tracks but
everything had a name. Some examples at Mendota were the coach,the diner,the
mill #1,2,3,etc. and many others. The North yard was very straight forward
1,2,3,etc. I actually kept marked up trk diagrams in my bright red Q ETT cover
for Mendota and other points that were unique.
The above applies to classification tracks. If were talking about a
repair,storage,frt house or other type of non classification yard tracks the
system was just the reverse. The track closest to the building,outside,etc was
one and then numbered upward from there and these were often increasing as they
became closer to the main line ?!
Confused yet ? No,good because here comes the third case.
In a BIG yard like Cicero/Clyde for example, there were multiple
yards,each with its own unique numbering system. In Cicero and other
major yards you really needed to know which yard you were in because for
example, receiving XYZ could be right next to 'D' yard ABC. 14th st had an
A,B and C yard.
I understand the C&NW Proviso yard was even more confusing in it's
numbering and naming system.
Finally smaller locations often didnt have any #s for side tracks,just lots
of names. Rochelle would be a prime example. And the names never changed long
after the orginal purpose was forgotten. For example we were still referring to
the coal chutes x/o at Rochelle in 1979 !
Leo Phillipp