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At Zeigler, we had a track called the "hog hair spur" which was actually the interchange track between the MOP and Q. It seems that one time and only one time a coal car was rejected by the coal company because it had the remains of a load of hog bristles in it and it was placed on that track. We also had the "new storage " track built in 1917 and the "old storage" track built in 1905. In the yard was number one scale track, number two scale track and number three scale track but the scales were on the lead and the scale tracks were numbered so that #1 was farthest from the main. We also had an "apple track" which once served an apple packing house (in the nineteen teens) but in my day, it was the "no bill" track. From: "Jpslhedgpeth@aol.com" <Jpslhedgpeth@aol.com> To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com Sent: Friday, August 3, 2012 8:24 PM Subject: Re: [CBQ] Fwd: [BRHSlist] Yard Track Numbering System Question Leo...I'm glad you made mention of the fact that the original track name never changed, no matter how long the original purpose for the track had been gone....and probably forgotten by all but the oldest head...
For example at Muscatine IA there was a track, I think it was right next to the main track which was called the MB&S..this track was the original main track for the Muscatine, Burlington and Southern a railroad which actually existed at one time..probably at least 100 years ago. The track was used daily for making up pickups and assembling cars to go out on The Island..another puzzleing name..The Island was a "peninsula" of land which stuck out into the Mississippi 'River and where most of the large industries at Muscatine were located.
I thinking of names such as The OLD east...and the NEW east. The NEW east was probably 50 years old....There were also tracks...although I can't think of any specifics right now whose names we would be "censored" if we were to use them on this "family friendly" list.
Pete
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And one last thing to really muddy the waters. If you were called to an investigation"to determine your responsibility,etc........" or to testify at a civil lawsuit in court;tracks were referenced by their engineering/property/acctg dept #s. So a question might be, were you proceeding on track 51237896-347 ?
And the appropriate answer would be............ we were on main one.
Leo Phillipp
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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
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I've learned that railroads had conventions as to how they numbered tracks,
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