Would it make sense for a team track to be located on a shortline of less than 10 miles or would a class one just have a team track near the shortline customer and have it trucked over to the customer?
I think the answer would depend somewhat on the era and also on the locale, with the truck scenario making more sense the more modern the era. However, unless you’re modelling that part of the Class one, it removes a very useful traffic generator from your layout. If I were faced with this situation, I’d increase the supposed length of the shortline (you don’t have to actually model the extra track if your space is limited), and include the team track. If space is a consideration but you still want to include trackage of the Class one, you could include a stretch of track parallel to that of the shortline (it wouldn’t necessarily be connected - even large layouts sometimes have to relegate interchange to off-layout (unmodelled) locations). This would give you a place to run and/or display locos and trains of the Class one without taking too much from the space allotted to the shortline and it would give you an opportunity to show some Class one infrastructure alongside that of the shortline.
Wayne
The old Minneapolis Northfield and Southern Ry. “high line” thru Bloomington, Richfield and a little of south Minneapolis MN included a team track in Bloomington. The line is now run by Progressive Rail and I believe the team track is still there. There are a number of businesses nearby who don’t have direct rail access, I assume many of them get shipments by rail that they pick up there. Bloomington is the third largest city in Minnesota so it’s not “out in the boonies” but still has a shortline-served team track.
Since a team track is often enough just a siding and an adjacent gravel access road, no reason for a short line not to have one. I know the NY&A had a section of a yard where trucks would pull up to the doors of boxcars carrying pallets of bagged rice and load directly there (don’t have any good pictures).
I do remember some friction in the 1990s where Class I’s would build a transload center and try to snag customers from shortlines in the area, but I think this was sorted out after some protest from the shortlines. I have no examples of this happening, though, but it did make the news now and again.
The Santa Maria Valley Railroad has a team track at Betteravia, about on the mid-point of the shortline.
(There are a lot of industries ideas at that site like storage for private cars, etc.)
Once most any town along a railroad right-of-way would have a depot of some sort, usually served by a house track often also serving as a team track. This early-mid fifties photograph taken of the SP’s San Ramon Branch at Walnut Creek , CA shows the house/team track being served by a Mogul (hopper cars are on the main track.) The structure with the train-order signal was the combination passenger/freight depot. (Branchline is gone now, but the depot still exists.)
Even in the present, a short line with established customers would probaly have a team track. Most Class 1 operators really don’t care to service a track that might only have one or two car movements a week unless it is only one of several customers in the area.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Thanks for everyone’s input. There’s alot to consider.
I think that era will play a very large part.
In earlier eras I think most RR were Common Carriers and therefore had to provide public access. (Maybe someone would confirm or deny this please)?
Then again most shortlines would want all the revenue they could get so providing some sort of facility would always be in their interest. The lower the cost of the facility the happier they would usually be. therefore a just-large-enough patch of hard dirt surface next to both road and rail might be sufficient. Shortlines aren’t usually moving in a great hurry.
There was an item in MRR or MRC years ago about a RR unloading rock salt for road de-icing from hoppers on a bridge on the main track straight into trucks/spreaders parked underneath on the regular road. I would reckon that most cars could be unloaded in a variety of similar ways provided the highway was not blocked for too long.
In a more modern context I would speculate that if a shortline lost an industry that it had served with a spur it might use the spur’s lead as a team track if it had a suitable road access. Alternatively where a plant had been shut down and partly or completely demolished the site and possibly some of its loading facilities (docks) might stay in use as a team track.
The big thing would be for there to be sufficient traffic to provide revenue to make any service worthwhile. A couple of boxcars a year would only warrant a quick unload at roadside. A boxcar or two a week plus maybe a gondola or two begins to not just need a spur but to pay for it.
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All interchange railroads are common carriers. In plant switchers would not be common carriers. Common carriers have to accept any shipment for which there is a tariff.
No railroads in the US have to provide public access.
Depends on who owns the land. The railroad can’t just appropriate another company’s property for its own use. Doesn’t matter whether the industry is active or not. If somebody else owns the land the railroad can’t just set up a public delivery track.
The railroad might be able to use the track to store cars (if the railroad owns the track) but that doesn’t mean that the public (other companies) can use the property to load or unload the cars.
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A lot of modern short lines uses what they call distribution centers which includes warehousing, bulk and liquid unloading.
Here’s the ticket…Short lines walk a thin line for every customer gain they may lose one due to plant closure or a shift to trucks so,the more aggressive short lines uses distribution centers regardless of its mileage size.
I agree about the shortlines using team tracks/bulk transloading facilities. Some modern shortlines base most, if not all, of their traffic on these facilities (i.e. the new Grafton & Upton). When did modern shortlines adopt transloading facilities?
I’m going to be modelling the summer of 1979 and I wouldn’t mind such a universal industry. I’m just trying to justify everything on my layout.
The reason for my question is that I remember reading in either Trains or Classic trains that alot of shortlines didn’t have team tracks because it was simpler & cheaper for the shipper/receiver to just drive their truck to the railroad yard than to have it shipped by rail.