I’m building the first part of my layout, which is the IC freight house in Centralia, IL. I’m working from the original track plans and property maps, plus Sanborn Insurance maps and vintage USGS topographical maps.
One of the things I’m thinking about is how to switch the freight house and the other small industries around it. Here is the 1949 IC track and propertyy map of the area:
The yard is to the south of the freight house area which is downtown next to the passenger depot.
Link doesn’t open and is not visible.
Normally switching a freight house would entail lining the doors of boxcars up across from each other on parallel tracks. The clerical forces would place bridge plates between the cars and the fright house, they would unload the cars, sort the LCL then reload the cars. The cars with new billing would all be pulled and taken back to the yard to be switched. Not much detail switching other than positioning the cars for the doors to be aligned. The freight house would be spotted and pulled at least once a day or at most once a shift.
From what I see, the only cars you could “pull” into the area would be cars destined for the Midwest Dairy. You would pull into the tail track, behind the cigar co., clear the switch, and “shove” into the dairy. The tracks to the freight depot would be “shoved” in from the yard.
Unless I’m misunderstanding your question, of which I’ve done a lot of, lately.
Mike.
EDIT: The link worked for me, also clicking on the picture worked.
Mike, that’s what I thought too. The way the tracks are arranged you have to push the cars into the freight house, the heating plant, Kohl and Meyer Wholesale groceries and the CIPS ice plant. The cars going into the lumber yard and Midwest dairy would have to be pulled in behind Kohl and Meyer and then shoved into the lumber yard and Midwest Dairy.
If you look at the tracks up by the north and southbound mains, it looks like it would be a hassle to service both the freighthouse and Midwest Dairy from the same train either north or southbound. They ran a local (pulled by a 4-8-2 in the timeframe I model) from Centralia to Effingham which was about 120 miles round trip. I suppose they could have hauled the cars for Midwest Dairy up to Effingham and then spotted them on the return, but that seems like a lot of unnecessary mileage. I’n just trying to figure out how they did it.
Jeff,
My real life experience was that not every industry got switched on the same shift. Some once a day, some on every shift, some when needed. I would expect the LCL traffic got priority handling and was spotted soon after arrival. How many different inbound trains handled LCL traffic for Centralia? How many outbound? That sense of urgency carried over into the intermodal era, even though nobody went to work to unload the inbound trailers until 6 AM.
Charlie
OK, so a NB train would stop, and back the cars for the dairy on to the track between the NB main, and the track right next to the Milton Oil Co., the switch engine, if it’s waiting by the freight, what ever direction it is facing, would either back up to, or pull forward to, the cars, after getting clearance to enter the NB main, pick up the cars, and pull them, once again, after clearance to the NB main, and pull them down the spur/ladder track, to the dairy, then shove into the dairy. If the switcher is on the track that is in front of Milton Oil, he could pull forward/back, to the spur / ladder track, then reverse direction, and getting clearance to enter the NB main, pick up the cars, and pull forward/reverse, and pull the cars down the spur to the dairy.
A SB train could drop cars for the dairy, by backing on to the 2nd track just east of the NB, after getting clearance to do so. The switcher, once again, no matter which way it’s facing, could use the run-a-round, and push the cars SB, after getting clearance to enter the NB track, and then pull the cars on to the spur / ladder track, to the tail track, and shove into the dairy.
So from either NB or SB, cars could be droped for the dairy.
Easier to do, than explain, I think.
Mike.
EDIT: I don’t have the real world experience like Charlie, above, or another guy on here, Brakie (Larry), I’m just looking at the track plan on your link, and seeing what would work.
My guess is that all the local industries on the map would be switched by the Centralia yard crew using the industrial lead to the east of the northboun main. They’d arrange their deliveries in the yard according to which deliveries needed to be made, e.g. cars for the dairy behind the locomotive and those for the freight house in front before heading north out of the yard. With a three track freight house, there must have been some serious demand for lcl freight.
They actually closed the freight house for a few years in the 1930s. The IC bought a bunch of trucks and served all of the LCL traffic in Southern Illinois from the Carbondale freight house, about 50 miles South of Centralia. All the LCL traffic came in on a couple overnight trains and the cars were dropped in Carbondale where the goods were transferred to trucks and driven to the other local freight houses for morning pickup. The idea was to save time on the fast merchandise trains they ran.
The CB&Q had a freight house in Centralia with 2 tracks and the Missouri and Illinois (MOPAC subsidary) also had a freight house. There were coal mines, a lot of oil drilling operations, Hollywood Brands Candy Company had a big plant in Centralia and some other light industry but I still think that’s a lot of LCL capacity on all three railroads.
Railway Express Agency had a transfer facility in the IC passenger depot.
Depends on how busy the yard crew is doing normal yard switching. A second yard crew would be used if needed since it take time to switch industries-looking at the map 3-4 hours of work would be needed to safely switch the freight house and industries and by following safety and operation rules.
The time eaters is sitting and releasing hand brakes,walking,then theres unlocking and opening the switch and derails plus unlocking and opening gates plus the need to close and lock gates after completing the work then walking to the derail,close and lock derail,walk to the switch and close and lock switch…
Then the time needed to switch out the cars and respot car(s) if there is a need…3-4 hours sounds about right.
I didn’t cover some basic routines like connecting air hoses and opening and closing the cars air line valves.
Centralia was a division point in the era I model. There was a huge yard complex composed of 4 smaller yards, 2 for northbound and 2 for southbound traffic. Besides the freight house and the indistries there, the IC served a coal mine (that was just east of the roundhouse and where there was a disasterous fire killing over 100 in 1947), 2 wholesale grocery warehouses (the one on the track chart I posted and another just north of the passenger depot), 3 lumber yards, 2 oil field supply dealers, 5 bulk petroleum operations including a tank car loading facility for the oil that was pumped from the oilfield in the area, a grain and feed operation, the Hollywood Candy factory and interchange traffic for the CB&Q, Southern and M&I (MOPAC) so there was a lot of local work for the yard crew. I realize that not every industry would have been switched daily but if it would take 3-4 hours to switch the freight house, I can imagine that it would take two shifts just to service all the industries in Centralia.
There was a huge car shop and a division point roundhouse responsible for over 100 locomotives but both had their own switcher (an 0-6-0 for the car shops and a home built 0-6-0T for the roundhouse).
Thanks for the update… I fully agree a second or third crew would be needed to switch the industries… Maybe a dedicated crew for the freight house.