Whats a Team Track???
From the TRAINS website Glossary
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Team track
A rail siding for general usage by freight shippers, named for the teams of horses that once pulled the wagons to fetch the freight
LC
just think of it as a set of parellel sidings with loading docks along side the outter endes where trucks or wagons can be backed up and unloaded/loaded directing into/off the corrisponding freight car.
They are usally paired, such that a bridge plate can be used across the set to load and unload 2 boxcars at the same time into/off the same truck on one of the docks.
There is and old one near me. It basically consists of two tracks and a ramp/dock so that either boxcars can be loaded/unloaded or flats can be loaded/unloaded elephant style. It looks like this.
D = dock
R=ramp
DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
RRRRRRDDD========================
Quite often the docks had hand powered cranes as well to help load or unload larger shipments.
My grandfather was a teamster, in that grand old sense of the word. I don’t think we had a team track in our town, although the track next to the elevated platform of our station (the “house” track) often saw cars being unloaded into trucks or teams from the open side.
Just so you are clear, a team track can be one or more tracks which allow a wagon or truck to pull up next to the car and unload directly from the car to the vehicle. There may or may not be an unloading ramp or dock. Some are paved, some gravel, some just dirt.
It is a comoon spot for companies without a rail spur to recieve things by rail. If you look at lists of steam era rail shippers you may notice dozens of shippers without a track. They use the team track. Kind of a railroad “general delivery”.
Dave H.
Last I checked, UP has a map of all their remaining team tracks on the website. The configurations vary but all are for the use of off-rail shippers. The dock/ramp configurations, so artfully diagramed by dharmon, were frequently used to unload automobiles when they were shipped in box cars.
dd
They are also used to unload heavy equipment from flatcars.
Mark or I will have to explain the Elkins Act and why team tracks still exist somewhere. (Just a hare busy now - will get back on this)
- In short, railroads are NOT allowed to play favorites and or determine track rental rates to serve industries. Think on that for a while.
I think there might be one here in wichita kansas. The overnite trucking business is right by the UP yard and they have 3 tracks and sometimes boxcars in it and they trucks come up to it and load
[B)] i dont know if this a team track or not!
Have a great day[:I]
A few years ago, Transloading Centers (TC) seemed to be a hot issue. A “team track” for the 21st Century. Regionals, shortlines, and even a Class 1 or two got into the TC idea. Basically, a TC would be built, often able to unload numerous commodities from railcars and “transload” into trucks for finally delivery to a customer.
This would include “landlocked” customers–those who did not have direct rail service, or those who did not receive the service desired from the railroad which they had direct access.
For instance, if railroad “A” did not give adequate service, railroad “B” might approach a customer and say ship it to the TC we serve–while it will not go directly to your dock on a railcar, we can get it to you sooner if you truck it from the TC. Coil steel, corn syrup, printing paper, and lumber were some of the commodities brokered by TC’s, often a subsidiary of the railroad itself, or subcontracted by the railroad.
I haven’t heard a lot about TC’s in the last couple of years, perhaps due to a shortage of truckers, and the escalating cost of fuel which has driven many independent truckers out of the business–furthering the trucker shortage.
Just my thoughts.
SRVfan
Great answers to a question that has been bugging me, too. So I guess this means that a “house” track would be one with a station on it, separated from the main line?
A house track is a track that serves a freight house.
Dave H.