The map this month in Trains Magazine is of the Up Bailey(?) yard in North Platte, Nebraska. The map shows Eastbound runthrough tracks, and Westbound runthrough tracks.
Runthrough tracks makes sense to me, but there are 6 or 8 of them side by side. Since they can’t run 6-8 trains east or westbound at the same time, the tracks must be used for something else as well. What is a runthrough track used for, besides the obvious?
On both the eastbound and westbound runthrough tracks are service facilities. I would think these are for fueling, sanding, etc for trains that do not have any cars needing classification at Bailey.
In a big terminal with that many train starts, makes perfect sense and keeps trains from being hoglawed out on the supposebly fluid main track. (especially with the funky things that happen with crew supply & demand off the extra board)
Meaning, that instead of the trains running through these tracks, some are used as a parking lot, for trains heading through , and waiting for new crews?
Look at it this way: only one or two trains can leave the yard at the same time in any direction. That’s perhaps one train every ten minutes, tops.
However, it takes an hour or so to give the trains their 1000- (or 1500-) mile inspections, and fuel the locomotives. So it makes sense to have six tracks available for this operation in each direction just to handle trains spaced ten minutes apart. You start arriving and departing trains on two tracks in each direction, you could probably use twice as many.
I’m not discounting the idea of using these tracks to wait for rested crews–but if things are running smoothly, that shouldn’t be a problem.
Thanks guys, for the explanations. What makes sense to a railroader, calling them runthrough tracks, didn’t quite make sense to a dummy (me). I guess I’ll consider them staging tracks for runthrough trains.
Murph,
There’s no such thing as a dumb question if you don’t know the answer and ask because you want to acquire knowledge…
Are these runthrough tracks usually dispatched as part of the mainline, or are they under the control of the Yardmaster?
Yeah, don’t necessarily use the dictionary to define railroad terms. Runthrough means a train that will run through a terminal without changing power or being switched; or a movement through a switch not necessarily lined for the movement. Or, in this case, a track for trains that are not going to have power changed or otherwise car switched out under normal circumstances but which can accomodate refueling, watering, sanding, inspections, and the windshield wiped while the crew changes. This is how it is here but not necessarily everywhere. There might be runthrough tracks in some yard on some railroad that are just that, no stop; probably or more likely called bypass or mainline tracks. Under the control of? Depends on the railroad and the location. Depends on the location’s difinitive yard limits and the railroad’s difinitive instructions and rules. If all within yard limits and all train movements within yard limits are under the juristiction of the yardmaster, then yes, the yardmaster is in charge. But if they might be maintracks or bypass tracks, or somehow or another don’t connect to the yard, they may not be within yard limits but under the direction of the dispatcher or operator. I will go out on a limb for this yard and assume that do to the enormity of the yard, its all encompassing operation, not seeing a through mainline track or bypass track, that the yardmaster in in charge the entire distance east to west and north to south and hands things off to dispatchers east and west of the yard.
Looking at the map of Bailey, and noticing that only the east and west bound hump yard towers are shown, I can’t help but wonder if there may be more yardmasters involved than we may think. It’s one huge yard, and I can’t imagine one person being capable of controlling the whole thing.
In something this big, there may be yardmasters in charge of receiving and departure yards as well as the ‘spare’ yard and the yard around the diesel shop. It would be a presumption on my part that the runthrough tracks are controlled by dispatchers in Omaha. The Bailey Command Center is sure to be one busy place.
Definitely upon completing the reading of the article on Baily Yard, things are a bit more complicated with Transportation Directors, dispatchers and yardmasters working together…best way for an answer is to suggest reading the article!