Newbie question here; What is a Team Track?
I’ve looked here at the glossary and didn’t see it. I own several of the Kalmbach books on realistic track design and haven’t seen it clearly defined (or maybe I’ve just missed it). Yet it is pointed out on almost every track layout I look at, so I assume it has some great significance to the operation of the railroad (or layout).
Thanks in advance, guys.
A team track is a siding, switch or spur that is used by industries that do not have a facility of their own that is serviced by rail. Generally these sites have at least one dock that is used for loading/unloading cars. Additionally, some team tracks have conveyors for unloading hopper cars (coal, grain, etc) and some even have a crane or other type of hoist for loading/unloading open cargo, such as that which would be loaded onto flat cars or gondolas. The name “team track” got it’s name from back in the days before trucks, wagons were pulled up to these areas with a team of horses to either load or unload freight cars.
It’s a general purpose track for the transfer of merchandise to/from freight cars by merchants whose shipping needs aren’t sufficient to require a private siding. It gets its name from the horse and wagon teams that were used prior to the introduction of motorized vehicles.
BTW, you could have also Googled “Team Track”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_track
HTH.
Andre
In addition to the other excellent response, a "team track’ is also called a “public delivery track”. In the Reading Railroad’s ‘shippers guide’ customers are listed as either having a public or private track. Those with a private track are directly rail served with their own spur. Those who are public, use a team track.
Here is an example of a team track like operation, a customer unloading plastic pellets at Valley, NE. All that is required is the ability for a vehicle to pull alongside a railcar.
The team track got that name because it was a railroad-owned track where wagons (drawn by teams of horses controlled by teamsters) could be brought alongside (or end on to) freight cars in order to transfer goods from one to the other.
These days, the wagons have given way to trucks - still driven (for the most part) by Teamsters…
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - where that sort of thing is done at railroad-owned freight stations)
Team Tracks as noted are basically a siding where businesses who don’t get enough shipped in (or out) by rail to have their own spur track can go to receive occassional rail shipments. It works well on model railroads for two main reasons, so are included on many track plans.
First, they don’t take up much space - it can just be one spur track or siding with a dirt or gravel or paved loading area stuck in a corner of the layout, along the aisle, or in an odd shaped space by the backdrop…pretty much anywhere that other industry buildings wouldn’t fit.
It’s also kind of a “universal” industry track, as you could have boxcars, refrigerator cars, tank cars, stock cars, pretty much anything spotted there. Empty gondolas could be spotted there for hand-loading of pulpwood for example. Flatcars with machinery or tractors could unload there. There often was a small loading dock next to the railroad track, perhaps with a crane. Even truck trailers could unload there, since some team tracks had an end ramp for unloading one or two piggyback flats.
There is a third point. In the days when most freight traveled by rail, most every town had a team track. There might not even be any other rail-served industries in a small town, but there was almost always a team track of some kind.
Fred W
Thank You.
How to sometimes find a quicker answer. You can use Yahoo or Google or other search engines. Store the links you like in Favorites.
Rich
Some railroads call 'em a *distribution track…*It’s a fancy marketing word for a old fashion team track.[:O]
Many town depots had a ‘house track’ that often ran behind the station. If the town had industry spur tracks, they could branch off from the house track, but sometimes there was just the house track which could serve as a team track. You might have something on the house track like a small livestock pen and loading area - I know in the distant past many Soo Line depots in Minnesota had such pens. They weren’t for cattle, but for horses. Many farmers were loggers in the winter, and if they brought their draft horses with them to the logging camp they could get hired on as teamsters rather than just laborers, with considerably higher pay.
Stix ,A lot of teamsters use mules since they are rugged enough to stand up to the work and terrain…
If we’re talking logging teamsters, that probably was true in the western / mountain states. Here in Minnesnowta the terrain was relatively flat, so it was AFAIK just big draft horses that were used.
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/assets/es/mn/es_mn_logging_1_e.jpg
Stix ,Right you are…I should have said in the more rugged country…
Even today loggers in Kentucky,West Virgina and Southern Ohio uses mules to drag logs to the loading area…
Here is a Team Track with a dock and ramps. When I worked for the Federal Government we would get things sent out from Ottawa and they asked where we wanted it sent for pick up. I once asked if it could be sent to this “near to our office” Team Track, and they said sure no sweat. We would get a boxcar full of our specialized equipment or special vehicles sent out sometimes. We had to bring a piece of deck plate with us to offload the vehicles from the flatcar as there was a gap to cross. It worked out quite well. We would often unload in the middle of the night just to have fewer spectators shall we say.
A team track can get some interesting customers coming along. MacDonald Dettwiler who does Space robotics like the arm for the Shuttle and ISS are about five blocks from here. Before each shuttle mission they had large shipments of computers and software and other parts big and small to send off to the Cape and other places. I was in a position to witness them using this Team Track discreetly on occasion.
Brent
Even the Strasburg Railroad sometimes uses team tracks for modern deliveries. My last time there they were unloading building materials to trucks from modern railcars. I was there a couple of hours before opening.
The teamsters are easy to spot. They’re the one’s standing around doing nothing and watching the horses work. 
here is an interesting site i found that sells mobile dock systems to be used on team tracks…
http://portabledocksystem.com/
they have a video showing how it can be used to load a box car… im thinking of modeling one of these now…