I am curious with all the intermodal traffic on the rails in the last decade how it has affected the normal superiority rules for handling traffic on a line. In the old days direction of travel often determined which train of the same class had superiority.
Back in the day I know it was common practice to make trains of one direction superior to trains of the opposing direction (i.e. eastbound superior to westbound or westbounds superior to eastbound)? I am wondering what the practice is today. How do you decide which direction is the superior direction?
Has intermodal changed this or do they just make them a class that is superior to others like passenger trains used to be (I guess AMTRAK is still technically superior to any freight, but you couldn’t tell by riding one).
I know most modern railroads still differentiate between classes of trains (so to speak) by the symbol they carry.
My question is related to trains of the same class.
Superiority of direction entered the twilight of its career in the U.S. in 1928 with the invention of CTC, and vanished on dark territory with the implementation of TWC and DTC in the 1980s. I have never in my years of railroading – all of it post Timetable & Train Order – ever heard or discussed superiority of direction with anyone, whether in a dispatching office, network planning department, or field operations. There are railways elsewhere in the world where superiority of direction still is in force, and I have worked for them, but not in the U.S.
With all do respect to railway man but he is so far off base They use to be 1st class trains had rights over all others but when track warrents came in every train became a extra train with nobody being better than the next. But that is in theroy. the train having superoity ( and im not trying to be funny here at all) is the crew doing the most whinning and having the reputation of being whiners will get run while others sit. I do 10-12 hours a trip due to the whiners…
It looks like you are not properly understanding the question and Railway Man’s answer to it.
Old employee timetables used to list First Class (passenger), Second Class (through freight) Third Class (other freight), ect, with their times expected at each station. Across the top of each subdivision graph it would say “Eastward Trains - Superior Direction”, or something like that, meaning an eastward First Class train had rights over a westbound First Class train.
A major wreck occured on our line many, many years ago. TT&TO was the rule of the day, and someone misunderstood their orders.
Today, we don’t have to worry about who’s superior - it’s whoever holds the paper. Best not be anyone else on the track. The only possible exception (not including “Rule 98” and the like, would be if the track is out of service and the “owner” of the OOS track allows more than one train in.
Or if you break down and somebody comes to rescue you…
Wabash, on my territory the whiner got last priority, because they usually figured out a way to get in everyone else’s way. The crews who got over the road quickly and efficiently held the main. But that was my railroad and the way we did things.
Semi facitiously, the train worth the most money to the bottom line gets rights over all other traffic in all directions. Yes, authority, rights and superiority were conffered by timetable and train orders according to the old Standard Code. And, yes, those same authority, rights, and superiority are not so designated in the new NORAC book. Dispatcher’s Form D’s and other permissions prevail today.
Actually there is superiority (well really “priority”) by direction. But its not in the rule book. Loaded trains may have priority over empty trains or vice versa. A UPS train going to Houston may have priority over a UPS train going to Chicago. A stack track going to Chicago may have more priority than a stack train going to Los Angeles. An auto/auto parts train going to the assembly plant may have more priority than one going away from the assembly plant. So trains of one direction may be in some fashion “superior”, but its a management decision or policy, not a rule. It certainly isn’t anything like timetable superiority.
Good discussion! I frequently listen to the BNSF Cherokee Sub on my scanner and the dispatcher is pretty good about letting crews know when they will be headed into a siding for a train that has, key word here…priority, over theirs. Usually it is a Eastbound stack train.
I know the BNSF symbol assigned to a train signify the priority (somewhat) of a train. But, the answer I was looking for was if two trains of the same type symbol, i.e. Q-train, one Eastbound and one Westbound which would get to hold the main. Is there a specific logic or rule. What I am hearing is that train superiority is not determined by timetable info but by management decisions. Obviously assigning a train symbol of Q for the BNSF moves it up on the priority list to keep it moving.
On the BNSF it seems that unit coal and grain trains get pretty low priority while stack trains and TOFC get top priority. Seems logical to me. Although I did hear the dispatcher put an Eastbound Q Train in the siding for a Westbound baretable train explaining to the Q train crew that the Chief made it a priority because they were needed out west.
So to sum it up, management establishes the priority. That is what I was looking for.
I think you’re thinking there’s a lot more policy and management edict governing meets than there really is! The decision on which train has priority on a meet has multiple variables that are balanced to arrive at a decision for each train, each meet, each time.
Variables that inform the dispatching decision include but are not limited to the following:
Which train arrives at the siding first
Hours remaining on crew’s hours of service law
Availability of deadhead crews
Availability of vans to haul the deadhead crew
Where meets will occur with these trains and other following and opposing trains during the next 4-8 hours; which is crucial as it informs which train needs to leave the meet more quickly
Location of grade crossings
Speed of turnouts
Length of siding
Weight restriction on siding
Rules prohibiting certain types of freight (e.g., hazardous, high-wides, heavy axle loadings) from taking that particular siding or any siding
Signaling system on siding, if any; whether trains enter on aspect more favorable than lunar
Descending gradient at siding; which train is loaded or empty; difficulty in stopping trains
Length of train compared to length of siding
Engineer’s known train-handling ability, and ability to get over the road
Horsepower per ton ratio of each train; ability of locomotives to start the train; issues with drawbars on ascending grades
Locations of detectors
Grade-crossing blockage rules and ordinances
Method of Operation, e.g., CTC, TWC, DTC; dispatcher workload availability to void old TWC or DTC authority and issue new one at that time; whether workload will be impacted and impact other trains that are more critical
Whether the power switch is a known bad-actor and has correspondence problems
Whether there is snow, rain, or other weather conditions present that may interfere with t
Railway Man…that is a great reply providing much appreciated insite to the inner workings of how trains are moved over the road. It reaffirms my admiration for those who “make it work”.
In my industry (airline) there is the policy and there is the reality and it sounds much like what happens in the railroad industry. I work in aircraft maintenance, the operations folks want a given airplane locked into a specific routing for a specific period of time. This allows for a smooth operation. This doesn’t allow for broken airplanes since they always seem to schedule every airplane we own to be assigned to a route all of the time (no spares). The reality is airplanes break, parts don’t show up, planes don’t arrive as scheduled and maintenance window’s are erased. Obviously the hard rule is that flight 123 must depart at xx:xx, I will swap aircraft to meet this deadline if needed. In doing so it upsets a whole host of other things that must be adjusted. So I understand what you are saying.
Like they say, if it was easy, anyone could do it!
As far as superiority goes for the same train class on the RR I handle there are some definite patterns. Although the old NYC between Buffalo, NY and Greenwich, OH is double track, I can tell you that during daylights track work creates all kinds of single track pockets to work through. There is a daily pattern in directional traffic with our UPS. Most of the “hot” stuff runs East through our divison in the morning, so priority goes to the eastbound traffic with the tight schedule UPS getting all priority. Amtrak usually departs Cleveland just ahead or many times right in the midst of our hot UPS and we make every effort to get amtrak out in front by the time they make Erie, PA.
In the afternoon/evening we get the “hot” westounds from the eastern ports headed to Chicago and St. Louis. There are a few eastbound UPS that run against the westbounds in the evening and the westbounds are supposed to get priority.
And as much as Amtrak gets abused on freight RR’s, we as dispatchers are told that Amtrak still should be considered #1. A lot of the damage Amtrak receives is from terrible planning, whether by an individual dispatcher, divison, or railroad as a whole.
I notice that Ontario Northland locos display white, red & green lights on their cabs. In the past locos displaying green lights or flags would indicate a second section of that train was following and no trains could get between the sections. Do any railroads still practice this ruling. Looking thru my pix I notice cn loco 4136 GP 9RM had the three lites & picture was taken January 2007.
We’re quite similar, but the difference is that your industry gets to reset its clock at midnight and try, try again the next morning, but we don’t. On the other hand, usually the worst thing that happens to us is we just stop, whereas your technology, umm, plummets to the ground.
Seriously, the industries are similar; and the reality you describe in the airline business is similar to ours, where “plan” and “reality” collide continually and reality always wins.
Since I spend most of my life on an airplane (over 100 legs so far this year on United!) I follow the commercial airline and aircraft industry as a hobby. Airliners.net is even a more argumentative forum than this one.
Oh I understand the question and believe me i understood railway mans answer and he understood my answer, and yes i remember time tables, and i still use them. and i know what had superiorty ( on my division ) and i dont need to see another picture of a timestable. have a great day