Railroading is a fascinating business combining engineering, mechanics, marketing, geography, geology, and tons of other sciences and arts.
To me one of the more fascinating aspects of the industry is the number and types of maps and charts. As a kid who liked National Geographic for the maps as well as the photos, railroading was an early attraction.
A couple of questions about control points. On certain railroads these are assigned an alpha code and other railroads the points are assigned a numerical identification (based on mileposts).
What are the benefits and advantages of both assignments? and, who gets the authority to name the control points.
For instance, in Decatur there is a Control Point where the St. Louis line diverges from the Hannibal line. The Control Point carries my last name, which is not a common name, but has some local representation. How could one find out who named that point and the significance of that naming?
Closer to home the NS line here in NW Indiana has a siding called Nickel, which is an interesting name, being the original line was the Nickle Plate…note the difference in spelling.
Someone with a lot of authority at the railroad gets to name timetable stations and their respective CPs, that’s who. Names might be suggested by the minions responsible for designing the signal system, but the proposal always goes to higher authority for approval.
On a railroad with a computer-supported CTC system, no two control points can have the same name, because that would create a computer code conflict. It wouldn’t know which address to send the command to. It’s not a good idea even without that issue to have two CPs with the same name anywhere near each other – certainly not on the same subdivision or in the same dispatching office, as confusion creates risk, and risk creates dead bodies.
Railroads now like to use CPs that are numbered based on mileposts. As a result of mergers railroads have many lines with the same milepost scheme. Even railroads like SP with 0.0 at the Ferry Building in San Francisco, and everything further away counted upward (with a few exceptions), there would be multiple “milepost 212” locations. So an alpha character is added to the mileposts to give each line a unique scheme. Thus, for an imaginary scheme on a fictional SP, CP A212 would be on the Overland Route, B212 on the Shasta Route, C212 on the San Joaquin, D212 on the Coast Line, and so forth.
Many timetable stations are named for retired or deceased officials to commemorate their dedication to the service.
I recently named, on paper, several timetable stations on a railroad line that is proposed to be built. I’m waiting to see if they stick all the way through construction, or beyond it. Probably someone More Important Than Me will realize that the names I chose are by no means etched in stone and think of something more to their liking than the long-ago railroaders I chose to commemorate with my naming scheme.
My favorite control point name was CP Cumbres on the SDNRR (at the top of the Miramar grade). Took me a couple of seconds to figure out who came up with that name.
As for that location, the correct name was supposed to be Mercer. Named for the street that passes underneath the junction. The story goes as the control point was being named someone incorrectly copied down the name as the two sound basically the same. The mistake wasn’t caught until after all the appropiate paper work had been approved. The signs were also already ordered. And so in a twist of fate your name became the name of this junction. But you can always make up a story and say it was some prominent relative of yours.
A few years back NS changed the names of the sidings and control points on the Illinois division. So instead of East Harristown and West Harristown you now have Righter and Harristown. Righter was the last name of a dispatcher at the time. The man in charge of the signal department got to decide names. And when he ran out of dispatcher names he came up with something to his own liking. This man was an avid hunter and gun collector. So several control points are named after guns. NS now has control points like Ruger, Winston, Colt, Browning etc…
Thanks for the info for “CP Mosser”. About 10 years ago I was driving thru Decatur, probably coming up Rt 48 when I saw the sign. Could never figure out how to find out…who to contact at NS. So, for 10 years it just swims around in my mind and then I ask the question and within a couple of hours the answer is provided. Amazing.
Years ago Millikin University had a pretty good little point guard named Roy Mosser and with the junction being adjacent to the university, perhaps it was named after him. He is currently a real estate developer in the area.
Interesting story about the names of firearms. Looking at the Springfield - Hannibal Division, there is a “Holliday”. Was that named after Doc Holliday?
The CSX Montreal sub is all dark territory. All of the control points/block stations have names, not numbers. Most are somehow related to the specific area (PHIL = Philadelphia, RIVER=Indian River, BRAD=Bradley Street,RICH = Richland) but the rationale for some is less obvious, probably rooted in some former landmark or other significance (or a surveyor). I still haven’t figured out “ROOTS,” and “KANE” has me scratching my head, too. I figure “ROCK” has to do with a big rock or maybe a cut. I haven’t been there to check, but it figures regularly into EC-1’s.
There is a “station” in Fort Wayne on the switching leads used by Triple Crown trains switching Piqua Yard that was named after the Chief Engineer, Construction who was retiring when the track was built. I asked the Construction Engineer I was working with on the project because I could figure out “Midway”, but I couldn’t figure out the other place name.
Another point of interest is a couple of control points on the east leg of the UP Phoenix Line, both in Mesa, AZ. The first one is called “McQueen”, and nearby is a road named McQueen (running south from Baseline through Chandler and beyond). Another CP is called Germann (Ger-MAN not Ger-MAINE), and there is a corresponding city road named Germann.
In both cases above, it would appear that the railroad CPs lent their names to the city streets mentioned above, as none of the roads existed when the railroad was built.
An exception would be Higley - even though the CP corresponds with a city road by that name, both are named after a small town they are in.
On a territory that I am familiar with a new passing siding was given the combined last names of two Trainmasters, shortly thereafter one of the Trainmasters was fired. The siding was then named for its geographical location, however the computer system still identifies it under it’s original trainmaster derived name.
I know of a storage track named after the guy who destroyed part of it, prior to that it had no official name. Most all the dark territory I ran in on CSX had blocks and sidings named after the cities they were in. Some were named after trainmasters and superintendents.
Control points are great fun to try and dissect and I actually wish there was more originality in naming them. When the Long Island Railroad built a new Park and Ride to handle increased commuter traffic, the control points on either side of the station were CP-Park and CP-Ride. [zzz]…At least most of the eastern railroads I know of don’t have alpha-numeric codes and still relate to some geographic or historical significance to the area they serve. Things like CP-Brandy and CP-Wine on the NEC or CP-Zoo and CP-Grundy further up the Corridor.
I always wondered about control point names. Here in Hanford prior to double tracking the BNSF line we had East Hanford and West Hanford. Now we have Hanford and Mingo. Don’t know where they got Mingo from. It must be a person because if they would of used a street name, it would be Grangeville.