Does secondary main lines exist?
I read a book in the 90s that said about two track main lines. He said the right side is the main track the second track was the secondary. Now I don’t remember which one is which. Does the secondary main goes onto the branch line track or not.
Much help would be appreciated, thanks.
Not sure what you mean. Are you referring to a siding? Or a branch line designated as a Secondary Track?
The railroads I am familiar with designate the lines with the greatest traffic as Main Lines. They can consist of one or more tracks. Then there are Branch Lines, which carry less traffic but also have one or more Main Track(s). Then there are Secondary Tracks - which also have one or more main tracks. Then there are Industrial tracks, running tracks and yard tracks, as well as sidings. Confusing? It varies, line by line, and railroad by railroad. This is why railroads issue timetables, to designate and define tracks. To add to the confusion, some railroads use the same nomenclature but define things differently.
Joe
Depends on the railroad and how they name their tracks. Mainlines were mostly unidirectional and some roads had passing tracks in between two mains. It could be called a secondary main.
Pete
A secondary main can also be one that shares the attributes of a mainline, but with a significantly lower traffic level.
One example is the Monon. The main lines consisted of a line from Louisville north to Hammond, IN on the lake. The other one ran from Indianapolis to Chicago. The two lines crossed at Monon. In fact, the primary main was considered the line from Louisville to Monon and thence to Chicago. The lines from Monon to Indanapolis and Hammond were secondary mains.
Another example was the Illinois Central. The original “charter” line (I’m not an IC expert, so someone suggest corrections if needed) ran north/south. Problem was Chicago developed as an alternative goal after construction started, leading to another line down from it to intersect with the charter line. It became the primary main, complete with double-track, etc, while the charter line was a very much secondary single track line.
The idea of a secondary main can come in handy when imagineering your layout. In my case, I extended a Rio Grande branch to Moab down to Durango, where it intersects the narrowgauge. This provides a smaller scle, Alamosa-like version of Durango, conveniently enough. And Durango WAS dual-gauge for a time. The line follows the Farmington branch, built as SG, then converted to narrow gauge once it became clear that the rest of the NG would never be widened. It then proceeded south to Grants and, perhaps most implausibly, traffic rights on the Santa Fe into Albuquerque.
The connection never existed in real-life, but parts of it did. It would have never seen the traffic of the rest of the Rio Grande, but would have made a great scenic route for another Zephyr, the Houston-Portland Zephyr or HP Zephyr as we like to call it.
This is what happens when read something when your 8-12 year old reading in the library by the shelf. And not remembering the name of the book or the author. I knew it was a long shot to get a straight answer.
I’m still confused,------ mind lost into words on this topic.
Also a main line can say run from Columbus(Oh) on a direct route to Cleveland while a secondary main may take a roundabout route to Cleveland…
Of course the longer roundabout route sees less traffic and is usually the first to be abandon,downsized to locals only or it can be sold to a Port Authority or short line operator. .
I think the ROW that passes within a mile of my house, the B&O [now CSX] Old Main Line between Baltimore and Point-of-Rocks, MD, fits the description of a secondary main line. It originally was the B&O’s route westward from Baltimore, then the Camden line was built between Baltimore and Washington DC, and the Metro branch from DC to Point-of-Rocks. These two newer branches were better-suited to higher speed traffic so they became the primary route to- and from Baltimore. The Old Main Line, with all its curves and steeper grades, handles lower-priority trains - mostly coal drags with an occasional mixed freight. No containers or passenger [commuter] trains.
For a while in the 1980s, something kind of like what is described was in effect along the former Rock Island double track main line in Illinois and Iowa. After the RI ceased operations, the railroads that took over service on some of the double track portions didn’t need two main tracks. One of the mains, usually the one in better shape, was designated as the main track and the other track became an industrial lead.
There is a reason why the second main track wasn’t pulled up right away. During the early operations, many of these railroads operated the trackage by lease from the RI estate until they actually were able to purchase the lines. In a few cases, the original operator was not the one who would eventually buy the segment they initially operated. Once the lines were sold, the new owners could then remove the unneeded former second main track.
Jeff
The PRR had secondary mains to move freight off the main line. There were secondarys from Trenton to Thorndale by passing Philadelphia, the Atglen around Harrisburg allowing a southern entrance to Enola. One at Pittdburgh and muleshoe from Hollidaydburg to Galitzen and others. Anywhere a bottleneck could slow things down.
Never heard that definition in my career. A lot of confusion is over the terms "main line’ and “main track”. “Main line” is a route. “Main track” is the track between stations and through yards. Railroad rule books refer to “main track” not “main line”.
A “main line” is usually the most heavily trafficed line. For example the PRR line from Philadelphia to Harrisburg was the “Main Line” (even the suburbs between Phillie and Paoli are called the Main Line) and the RDG line from Pottsboro to Philadelphia was call the Main Line in th etimetable. Lighter trafficed lines might be called branches or on the PRR “secondaries”. On many railroads everything that was a main track was a subdivision (MP). On the RDG the Main Line was the main line and everything else, regardles of traffic level was a branch.
Normally if there are two main tracks they are equal. A secondary is the branch. The main line, secondary and branch all have main tracks.
And that should clarify things quite a bit except a branch line is not a secondary since a branch can be found off the main line or the secondary main.
A secondary from my railroad days was a roundabout route between point A and point B whereas a branch could and would terminate in a small town or city,be a mine or a industrial branch…
A secondary could also join the direct main line at a junction.
I model a secondary main line.
Country, Japan. End points, Tokyo and Nagoya. The main line is the Tokaido Hon-Sen, which pretty much follows the shoreline.
My prototype, the eastern portion of the Chu-o Nishi Hon-Sen, is part of the route that runs through the mountainous interior from Tokyo to Nagoya via Shiojiri. Traffic density is much lower than that of the coastal route. In fact, there are very few people living in the area I model, which rather resembles West Virginia in topography.
A quick touchstone of the relative importance of the two routes. The original ‘bullet train’ route was the New Tokaido Line (AKA Shinkansen) and it paralleled the original Tokaidi Hon Sen. Half a century has passed, the Shinkansen system has spread all over Honshu - and no one has even suggested that a route should be built parallel to the Chu-o Nishi Hon-Sen.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)