Bond is at milepost 129. Can someone please explain what that means?
Generally, on the Rio Grande, mileposts are numbered according to their distance from Denver. So Bond would be at Milepost 129 from Denver.
Generally, most railroads have a similar arrangement, assigning a central point, usually where the line started buuilding from, to which mileposts on radiating mainlines and branches are referenced. Of course, line changes, acquisitions and mergers complicate this general rule on some lines.
Stations, like Bond, will be noted as being at a particular milepost, but every other part of the rail infrastructure will also have its location noted acording to mileposts. Many buildings and bridges will have a number plate on them indicating the milepost location rather exactly. Typically, there will be a milepost at every mile along the line, with a white sign indicating the mile, but also sometimes at intermediate points, with the fraction of the mile indicated. So if there is a broken jointbar or washout along the line somewhere, its location is noted by milepost to make it easy to find. Also, slow orders and other such info are referenced by the milepost. In the days before speedometers, train crews would time how fast they covered a mile and calculate their actual speed. Thus, mileposts are very important to operation and maintenace on any railroad.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Bond, whatever it is, (a place, a person, a station house?), is located at milepost 129, which is 129 miles from a point of origin, usually a rail yard location.
Railroads used the milepost system to locate specific areas such as towns, stations, sidings, interchanges, etc. The railroads adopted the practice from the original roadway mile marking system which is still used on the interstate highway systems and other roadways.
The Interstate highway system uses mileposts that always start from “0” on the western edge of the state and go up as you travel East. North-South roads increase from the South to the North. Interstate exits are numbered for the milepost at the location of the exit.
Railroad mileposts generally start at a major rail yard location and continue to the next major rail yard, even if state borders are crossed.
Darrell, quiet…for now
Interesting… So is it common to model these milepost number plates on a model railroad, and what do they look like?
Electrolove, each RR had its own unique mileposts. They may be wood, metal, or concrete. I’m not smart enough on the D&RGW to know what their specific ones looked like. I do know there are engineering sheets out there that describe exactly how they will look. You may want to repost and ask for help from a Rio Grande expert.
RIck
you’re not suposed o know where 007 is. He’s a secret agent, even if he is very old.
Greg
I won’t claim expert status (they’re on the D&RGW Yahoo list, though), but I do have some handy reference material. The couple of photos I found in a quick page through show a white sign with black numbers, arranged vertically, like this:
3
5
1
That would be milepost 351 in Genwood Canyon, just east of Glenwood Springs. In this case, the milepost numbering follows the original Royal Gorge Route mainline from Denver, so it is considerably closer in mileage to Denver via the Moffat Route, which came later.
The sign is just a metal sheet attached to the top of a post, which was frequently on old piece of rail for durability. I think the white background on these was reflective after that became available.
On the narrowgauge, I think wooden mileposts survived much longer than on the standard gauge where it appears that they were replaced with metal signs by the 1950s. Since mileposts were used for issuing orders, it was always important that mileposts be durable and relatively well maintained, although this standard was somewhat more lax on the narrowgauge.
Obviously, with selective compression on models railroads, you really can’t have mileposts at one mile intervals. Many modeles use mileposts or designate another common sign, like whistleposts, to visibly indicate where electrical gaps are in the trackwork. This was handy with DC control, with all the blocks you can have, but somewhat less important with DCC, I presume. Obviously, nothing establishes a location quite like having a prototypically numbered milepost located at a location you’re modeling. It’s one of the things that helps set the model scene as being at a specific location.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Any chance you can post a picture of the sign?
This might be of some help.
The first is a website that shows many concrete mileposts that are still existing along an abandoned right of way in southern Maryland, outside of Washington D.C. It’s an interesting website about the original Southern Maryland Railroad.
http://www.geocities.com/ken72465/SMRR.htm
Tichy/CMA makes concrete mileposts in HO scale. You can see them by going to their website at http://www.tichytraingroup.com
On the left, click on SIGNS. Then click on DETAILS next to Part #1011 Milepost Markers for a photo.
Dale Latham
Thanks a lot for the links.
Bond has been on the Spike Channel for several days…8 days of 007…[:P]
Bond has been on the Spike Channel for several days…8 days of 007…[:P]
Bond?..James Bond.[:D]
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The railroads adopted the practice from the original roadway mile marking system which is still used on the interstate highway systems and other roadways.
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RR mileposts were in use LONG before the Interstate system was built. I think the adoption was the other way around. I’ve seen references to mileposts in the Civil War era.
Brad
Electro, you should consider joining the DRGW Yahoo Group. There’s some seriously knowledgeable folks there. Many of them worked for the Grande.
[quote]
QUOTE: Originally posted by twcenterprises
Actually, mile markers go back to long before trains were ever heard of, possibly back to the Roman Empire or even earlier. Stones were placed at regular intervals along the road, hence the term MILESTONE.