How does it work?..railroad organization that is… Are there a set number of subdivisions in a division (or is a division called something else?)?..
Set answer is there is no standard or set organization.
It varies by era and railroad. They may be organized differently, the parts may have different names (divisions, districts, service units, regions, subdivisions, lines, branches, secondaries, industrial leads, etc). The same railroad may have different numbers, names and boundries for its geographic areas in different years. The same place be on a different division and subdivision on successive decades. It all depends on mergers, reoranizations, new operating philosphies, new management structures, new managers, etc., etc.
Depends on whose operating logic you are running with and which bunch of operating bubbas get a bee up their butt and want to change things to suit their needs.
Railroads started with a military mindset before the civil war, and- with input from europe, went nuts in the last part of the nineteenth century. In the twentieth century, the lawyers and the business school yuppies twisted it around some more because they were foreign to the railroad culture.
Think in general terms of how far could a steam engine reliably run, then look at the supporting elements required to manage that. Now add in regions, line segments, grand divisions, management styles and regulation - stir to a boil[swg][swg][swg]
The on top of mudchicken’s stew, throw in tweaks made necessary to have an organization that will work within the constraints of the carriers enterprise wide computer system as well as any tweaks that are necessary to make the Computer Aided Dispatching system function.
Down in the weeds, rails, and ties, there were also the ‘sections’ of 6 to 10 miles or so, more or less, each maintained by a ‘section gang’.
And then, at the other end of the scale, the PRR - for one - had its split into the ‘Lines East’ and ‘Lines West’ mini-empires - I believe Pittsburgh was the demarcation point for that [but it may also have been either the Ohio state line and/ or Ft. Wayne, Indiana, from time to time - if I’m wrong, please post a correction]. Hazy memory tells me that the ATSF and / or SP had similar splits, but I have no idea where the end/ beginning of each was.
- Paul North.
And how far a crew could be expected to get and not outlaw.
I’m sure span of control also played a part - how much could one man(ager) actually manage?
In the steam era, crew districts were approximately 100 miles, in wide open spaces they could be 150 miles or so, in mountanious terrain they could be as short as 70 to 75 miles. In some cases the terrrain would set the limits of a crew district, in other cases prior ownership of a territory would set the crew district.
In the ‘old days’ if a crew went on the law, they would all go to the caboose and take their required rest period and then report back on duty as there was no such thing as taxi’s to take the crew off the train to a lodging facility and deliver a recrew from a on duty point.
Santa Fe had 3 grand divisions…Eastern Lines, Western Lines and Coast Lines with several divisions under each.
As for the divisions, the size and limits seemed to change every 10 to 20 years.
(Heard more than once: "It’s a subdivision. Whad’ya mean I can’t get a plat of that in the courthouse?[%-)])
Knowing that 100 miles was the basic day for freight train crews and all engine crews, I had wondered why Sanford, Fla. (125 miles from Jacksonville and 115 miles from Tampa) was a division point until I learned (from the June, 1893 Guide) that Sanford ws the southern terminus of the Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West Railway, and the northeastern end of the Plant System’s South Florida Division.
The original railroad terminii did not always dictate division points; for instance the Alabama Midland ran 175 miles from Bainbridge, Ga., to Montgomery, Ala., and a line of the Savannah, Florida and Western ran 132 miles from Waycross, Ga., through Thomasville to Bainbridge Jct. The division point in more modern times was Thomasville, 104 miles from Waycross, and 203 miles from Montgomery. Also in more modern times, the Waycross Division of the ACL covered Savannah-Jacksonville (both the original line and the Jesup Short Line), Albany-Waycross-Brunswick, Waycross-Montgomery, and a line from DuPont, Ga., down to a junction with another ACL division at, I think, High Springs, Fla.
Fifty years ago, the Southern had about twenty-one divisions; thirty-five years ago, with almost the same mileage, there were no more than half that many.
Johnny
Paul, El Paso was the east/west dividing line for the SP. Los Angeles was another dividing line. West of El Paso, all mileposts read from San Francisco (no matter what the actual compass direction, if you were headed towards SF, you were going west, if you were headed away from SF, you were going east). East of El Paso, the mileposts ran from various places, depending upon just where you were. Apparently, by the time the SP took control of the various roads (such as the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio and Morgan’s Louisiana and Texas, those roads were so well established that it was folly to renumber the miles. Even in our time, whenever the SP straightened a stretch of track out, the outer end of the stretch would have two mileposts–the original and the new one. The UP has renumbered some mileposts in Central California.
Johnny
MC you are just too young. In the 1940’s (before my tenure) the Santa Fe had FOUR of what they called GRAND DIVISIONS;
The Eastern Lines, Gulf Lines, Western Lines and Coast Lines. Each Grand Division had a General Manager and was staffed with AGM’s, Chief Engineers, Signal Engineers, Communication Engineers and Mechanical Supt. The GD’s supervised Divisions all of which had staffs reporting to these supervisors.
And of course the Grand Divisions all reported to the SYSTEM OFFICE in Chicago where the VP’s, Chief Engineer System, etc, had jurisdiction over their lower ranks.
Eastern Lines Divisions were; Chicago Terminal, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas City Terminal, Eastern, Southern Kansas, Oklahoma and Middle.
Gulf Lines Divisions were; Northern, Southern and Gulf.
Western Lines Divisions were; Western, Arkansas River, Colorado, New Mexico, Rio Grande, Panhandle, Plains & Slaton.
Coast Lines Divisions were; Albuquerque, Arizona, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Terminal, Valley and San Francisco Terminal.
All of these eminated from even more predecessors and consolidation gradually eliminated elements from each level until the merger which resulted in BNSF who now has their own designations.
The C&NW had, I think, seven or nine divisions when I hired out. One of these, the Missouri Division, was essentially all that was left of the Chicago Great Western (minus the lines in Illinois).
These divisions were slowly consolidated, until there was just an Eastern, Central, and Western Division. Later the Central Division was split up between the other two, then, toward the end, everything was operated as one division.
UP has broken up its former CNW properties into three Service Units: Chicago, Council Bluffs, and Twin Cities. The Powder River line is part of whatever service unit handles lines west of North Platte (North Platte is its own service unit). Commuter Operations are operated as a separate service unit, though they operate over the same trackage as portions of the Chicago Service Unit.
The railroad is broken up into three regions, Northern, Southern, and Western. During the height of the post-SP meltdown, there was a Central Region as well. Also, at least two service units have been consolidated with others since the SP merger; I have no details at present.
Instead of Iowa Service Unit it’s actually the Council Bluffs Service Unit. It says so on my first half 2009 safety award, a HO gauge Observation car. [:)]
Which brings up the employee time tables. On the UP currently, they are by region, not necessarily by Service Unit (division to most everyone else) boundries. Some of the Iowa Region time table belongs to the Council Bluffs Service Unit, the rest to the Twin Cities Service Unit.
Jeff
Thanks, Jeff! My post has been adjusted to correct that, and yes, I was probably thinking of the timetable when I put it down (I do know better!).
Actually the UP timetables are by “area” which is more by crew hub. They are arranged so that most crew members will only need one, maybe two timetables to work on their seniority.
The UP has 3 regions, 21 service units and 18 area timetables.
Area, that’s right, I don’t know what I was thinking.[
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I carry with me the Iowa, Council Bluffs, Chicago, Twin Cities and Kansas City area timetables when working the extra board. Some of the areas we only go a few miles on, but must have their ETT and the specific subdivision general order. When I can work a pool I trim the load a bit knowing I won’t get to some of those other areas.
Jeff
I don’t really use any of them, but am required to have the Chicago area timetable on me. My notebook also contains the Iowa and St. Louis area timetables, and one for the commuter schedules. Just in case I ever have to work in places I’ve been before, or areas where I’m allegedly qualified. Then there’s the CORA book, which usually doesn’t accompany me to work, but would if I were going out on anything that could morph into a transfer run.