Can anyone explain the use for several very short pull-out sidings that I noticed on the Sunset Limjted route. These short stretches of new track, that I observed on the north (2nd) track, were perhaps no longer than about 100 yards, switching off to the north and parallel to that new north track and then returning back to that north track. Thanks for your information.
On your specified route, I have no idea.
That being said I find it counter productive for my carrier to be installing defect detectors every 15 to 20 miles and not having set off tracks in the near vicinity to be able to handle the serious defects that the detectors may find.
Major delay when a hot box is found and there is no set off track available…car gets rewheeled in place…6 to 12 hour delay…doesn’t happen all the time, but it creates a major mess when it does occur.
Plus it give MOW equipement a place to get out of the way.
…Regarding the “short sidings”…If in territory of helper use, I wonder if it may have something to do, such as a place for those unit{s}, to stand by until needed.
Probably related to the new construction, not ongoing operations.
The ‘bad-order’ set-out and M-O-W uses are the most logical ones, in my opinion. If you can get a photo of the Summit area of Cajon Pass, there’s 1 or 2 of those there, too, likely for all of the above reasons, including helpers.
Another possibility is that they are ‘run-around’ tracks to facilitate switching a local spur that ‘faces’ the wrong way from that main. With the shorter siding, the local freight can do that without having to run 10 miles or more to the next mainline cross-over, and trying up both mains for a hour or so while it makes that maneuver - and then again on the way back.
- Paul North.
The UP put a couple of tracks like those out in western Iowa when they put the second main back in.
Bad order set-outs and places for MOW to park equipment is exactly what they are for. Most of the places they put them in had long ago lost other tracks that could be used for that purpose.
IMO, where I run they could use more of them. Especially since they have started pulling up the frogs and straight railing switches on some of the tracks that still exist. They even did that to one of their new set-out tracks out west. I guess they figure that things don’t break as much anymore.
Jeff
Bad order set outs…which mysteriously can be found just beyond the draggers (DED’s) and the HBD’s …
Jeff: The signal bubbas want what ever isn’t used gone so they don’t have to constantly test and adjust them in CTC and ABS country. There aren’t enough maintainers to keep up with them and do the new work the feds are asking for with PTC implementation. (especially w/ Uncle Pete).
Wouldn’t be surprised if the switch you saw go away wasn’t a (primarilly) head-in switch on the side of predominate traffic in multiple track country, mimicing what BNSF does a lot…The roadmaster can use that frog, stock rails and points elsewhere, especially where the M/W budget has been cut back.
From a roadmaster’s point of view, if you kill off the main track switch to a lead track, you kill off all those tracks behind it too. (The FRA inspection paperwork issue is still a nightmare, especially being that the headquartered sections have huge territories and no people. Concentrate your efforts where the traffic is and kill off un-neccessary inspections as much as possible.) Sounds like the the operating bubbas/dispatchers don’t realize the poker game with the Track Condition Messages is allowing the MTO’s/MTP’s to control the hands being dealt…If you don’t use it you lose it.)
That makes sense. They also used to have a phobia about facing point switches in double track, current of traffic areas. They’ld pull out facing point crossover frogs, leave them laying along the track so they could put them back in when the x-overs were needed for MOW outages.
Most of the ones pulled out now are remnants of old business tracks. Doing that means you can go 20 plus miles with no place to set out a car. Farther if MOW equipment ties up tracks that are still left.
Currently, a westbound on track 2 (formerly the westward track before CTC) leaving Norway MP 98 has only one place to set out a bad order. That’s at the paper mill (active customer) track at Tama about MP 133. After that the next point is Marshalltown about MP151. For westbounds on #1 it’s worse. Before CTC it was the eastward track and except for the siding at Tama, there is no trailing point switch to any track between Boverly and Marshalltown for westbounds.
For that matter, all across Iowa a train running what used to be against the current of traffic would find very few places outside of the terminal areas of Beverly, Marshalltown and Boone to set out. The west end is a bit better than the east end, but not by muc
I guess we will have to start a program of having each defect detector requiring at least one set out a month or more so as to continue to have a place to set the cars out. That should increase the efficiency and velocity of the operation.[soapbox]