What and how long is a super siding?
From what I have been able to glean from some folks I know with the railroad, A super siding is a side track (passing) that exceeds 15,000 feet in length. Trains magazine a few issues back did a write-up on the Eastern corridors. One was the old AB&C (now CSX) from Jacksonville to Birmingham, AL. The article described a super-siding as being 20,000 feet.
Any way you look at it, the trains are getting longer and the fluidity is getting better because of them.
Hope this helps,
PL
P.S. I am always open to correction from more knowledgeable members in the forum.
“Super siding” is a term used by CSX. It is not a term with general industry use, nor general industry agreement on meaning or purpose. CSX uses it to describe sidings of ~ 20,000 foot length that are in effect short sections of two main track.
RWM
BNSF may also use the term, as they have installed several in New Mexico. I assumed it was a long siding, but I didn’t know any particulars.
Do these sidings have only one way in and out, or are there crossovers between the ends?
BNSF does not use the term in an formal or informal sense that I have ever heard in Fort Worth or any meeting or any technical or industry publication or from any operating or network planning officer. It is CSX-only at this time. Perhaps a railfan called them that because he/she thought it looked like CSX to he/she? BNSF has outside sidings in New Mexico between Clovis and Mountainair in two-main-track territory used for overtakes and block swaps, which is not at all the same thing as sidings in single-track territory used primarily for train meets, which is CSX’s application. Railfan publications do not necessarily reflect what we do.
Some CSX long sidings have mid-siding crossovers, some do not. In a presentation I attended in Jacksonville last year given by CSX on recent network improvements, no mention was made of mid-siding crossovers as a general practice to be applied to all “super sidings.” In fact, I don’t recall anyone at CSX even using the term “super siding” in the presentation, but perhaps they did and I missed it.
RWM
The only time I’ve ever heard the term “super siding” was in the aforementioned article. All of the crews around here (on the same Fitzgerald Sub. line mentioned in the article) simply refer to these new additions as “much needed double track” and are NOT considered any type of siding. (track two is given all the same top notch amenties/maintenance as track one) All of them are equipped with 45-50mph double crossovers at midpoint. Their goal was to fill in all non-expensive single tracks gaps where obstacles suchs as overpasses/roads, etc were not in the way. Those will be tackled later as traffic warrants.
Super-siding was never in ATSF’s vocabulary, at least not where I worked which included NM and CA. The company was more into how many trains could be crammed by the operating department into the hole at that particular location. Have never heard the term out of BNSF either.
A “super” siding is one that you don’t get stuck on for hours on end [;)]
LOL [(-D] I know several engineers who would certainly agree with you on that one!
And I know some internet posters who do, too…
I think I remember reading an article a while back that mentioned the practice as used in the southwest, probably by BNSF. IIRC, there was a mention of such sidings essentially being part of an eventual second main track.
My apologies in advance, but it strikes me as a purely CSX thing to brag about such “super sidings”–no doubt created by removing the second track on either end.
[(-D] [(-D] [(-D]
No comment.
Ah screw it - We both know it’s true. [:D]
[:-^]