Delivery To Dead-End Sidings. How do railroads handle this?

[JCitron]

I might have to spend some of the "railroad's" money and add some parallel sidings. It seems reasonable that not every time a car arrives at an industry it is immediately unloaded, or loaded. There simply must be ways to get the engine on the proper end of the consist so it, and its cars, can get on to the next customer. A poorlyl maintained (cheap) siding will cost something but pay for itself in customer satisfaction from shorter schedule times..

Many railroads do this by setting up small runaround sidings so a handful of cars can be pulled into the siding and the engine uncoupled, and sent to the back of the train to push the cars into the siding. There was an old single track line, that's now abandoned, that had this arrangement.

 

[mjolnir]

Also, in my experience in North American railroading practice, while it was not unknown to have an industry whose industry track cut directly into the main line, it was not a particularly common arrangement, either. The most typical arrangement for an industry located along a single track mainline was that there was a short siding, usually long enough to handle a typical local on the line and the industry leads connected into that siding, not into the main track itself. This allowed cars to be spotted either trailing or facing as needed, by running the engine around the train with minimal interference to the traffic on the main.

ns

 

[JCitron]

Also, in my experience in North American railroading practice, while it was not unknown to have an industry whose industry track cut directly into the main line, it was not a particularly common arrangement, either. The most typical arrangement for an industry located along a single track mainline was that there was a short siding, usually long enough to handle a typical local on the line and the industry leads connected into that siding, not into the main track itself. This allowed cars to be spotted either trailing or facing as needed, by running the engine around the train with minimal interference to the traffic on the main.

ns

I remember seeing these here and there when I was younger. Today some of the industries are still there, but the sidings cut right into the main rather than have that mainline-side siding to feed them, and the local parks the cars on the main. Where those sidings are left, they're usually so full of debris, such as rotted ties and junk, that they're better off being ripped out and in some places there's nothing but trees growing out of them.

 

[RFAX]

My wife grew up track side on a single track mainline in upstate NY (Auburn branch of LV). She and some other children were allowed on/near the train except when they were delivering a load to the factory next door with its facing spur. The crew would 'fly' (or 'drop' as described earlier in this thread) the car into the spur. Today that property is in use again as a trans-load station. For a few years they would run the train with power at both ends and use the loco on the rear to push the cars in. Recently the RR opted to convert the spur into a siding so that they could use only one loco and spot the cars as they pulled through. This 24 mile branch from Owego, NY to Harford Mills, NY only services four industries. Initially three of them had facing spurs. I know one has been converted to a siding. Not sure about the other two. The Google maps satellite view is old enough that it doesn't show the converted spur in Newark Valley.

 

[kin3]

I worked for a switching railroad at a port. The cars were usually moved to the piers or industry at night. Picking up empty cars and spotting the loads for unloading. A lot of the industries would move the cars lets say to the loading ramp with a small tractor to pull push the rail cars around. If the railroad moved the cars for the industry it would be charge for that.

We had a grain elevator where loaded hoppers/boxes where unloaded and grain put in the silos waiting for ships, the cars were unloaded and then push away form the unloading area and then gravity moved them down an incline and up another incline then an automatic switch would be tripped and again gravity would move the empty car to a track for empty cars.

In the yard it was common practice for cars to be humped, as describe above, in the yard. As they were being broken apart or putting a train together. It is a dangerous place and workers needed to be alert at all times. Simply walking across a track without looking could get you killed. Because some cars could be moving down the track after a hump and were almost silent. Until they banged into another car.

 

[JCitron]

I worked for a switching railroad at a port. The cars were usually moved to the piers or industry at night. Picking up empty cars and spotting the loads for unloading. A lot of the industries would move the cars lets say to the loading ramp with a small tractor to pull push the rail cars around. If the railroad moved the cars for the industry it would be charge for that.

We had a grain elevator where loaded hoppers/boxes where unloaded and grain put in the silos waiting for ships, the cars were unloaded and then push away form the unloading area and then gravity moved them down an incline and up another incline then an automatic switch would be tripped and again gravity would move the empty car to a track for empty cars.

In the yard it was common practice for cars to be humped, as describe above, in the yard. As they were being broken apart or putting a train together. It is a dangerous place and workers needed to be alert at all times. Simply walking across a track without looking could get you killed. Because some cars could be moving down the track after a hump and were almost silent. Until they banged into another car.

I've seen this in action too. In Lowell, MA at Metacross Street yard, the tracks run down hill over the Gorham Street overpass. A switch engine was pushing the cars and sorting them on the mini-hump created by the grade from the bridge. I agree it was pretty quiet until the cars banged into each other. When I was out in the Midwest storm chasing, I saw quite a few tractors used as switchers. They were sitting on what looked like really, really bad tracks. I was surprised that the tracks could hold some of the grain cars at all. In some places the track was so overgrown, you couldn't tell there was any there until I saw a grade crossing sign.

John