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"A Couple of General Railroading Questions"

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LawrenceKellie (1161 posts)
Jan-25-02, 08:13 PM (EST) "A Couple of General Railroading Questions" I have not been what would be called an "active" rail fan for the many of years that many of you have. In fact, MSTS brought out that interest in me. Therefore, I do not have an understanding of many terms or phrases that many of you do.I was looking at a BNSF timetable, and I have the following questions that would be nice to get answered. If the answer is a link to a website, I am more than happy to go read it.1. It was stated "Through all turnouts equipped with dual control switches...." talking about speed limits. What are dual control switches?2. Much of the line is using the CTC type of operation. I discovered that means "Centralized Traffic Control" and is referring to the dispatcher controlling the traffic. Is there someplace where I can get more information? I did a search for Centralized Traffic Control, but nothing very informative came up.3. It divides the general speed limit on the line by "up to 100 TOB." Further, I read that TOB most likely means tons per operative brake. What is that referring to? How does one calculate TOB? I have to assume that means you have to have so many engines per weight of the train.4. Why do they call it a time table when it doesn't really give any times??? 5. It gives the Line Segments, Yard Line Segments, Line Segment Limits, Road Line Segments, Ballast Pit Line Sigment Limits. What are these referring to?6. In a section titled Locations Not Shown as Stations, it gives various locations. There is a column that is for Switch Opens. Then either East, Both, or West are entered in that column. Does that mean the obvious? As in if it opens to the East, you can only enter *from* the east? That is by a Westbound train?Thanks for your help.Lawrence Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
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Subject Author Message Date ID RE: A Couple of General Railroading... kevarc Jan-25-02 1 RE: A Couple of General Railroading... sd90mac Jan-26-02 2 RE: A Couple of General Railroading... dvdhoven Jan-26-02 3

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kevarc (48 posts)
Jan-25-02, 10:08 PM (EST) 1. "RE: A Couple of General Railroading Questions" On that page are the rule books for the RR. They should have definitions or explanations for that. Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
sd90mac (97 posts)
Jan-26-02, 03:21 AM (EST) 2. "RE: A Couple of General Railroading Questions" 1. Dual Control Switch - A power operated switch that can also be operated by hand.3. Tons Per Operative Brake is figured by dividing the total weight of the train by the number brakes on the entire train. The number of brakes per car isn't logical. Don't think 4 or 8 brakes per car. Some cars might equal only 2 1/2. Articulated intermodal cars are figured differently. Download the BNSF System Special Instructions and see page 4 and 5 for further reference.The TPOB is an important number to an Engineer. An 8000 ton train with 90 TPOB is not going to stop as fast as a 8000 ton train with 45 TPOB. What is the difference in the two trains? The one with the lower TPOB probably has more freight cars and a lot of them are empties.4. Freight trains do not run on schedules but passenger trains do and mainly in the years past the timetable was an information book as to when those trains were scheduled to arrive and depart at certain stations or sidings. That way other freight train crews knew when to expect a passenger train and get clear of the mainline. (I'm talking about the pre Amtrak days here) Nowadays the timetable is a book with rules pertaining to operations on a single division.General Code rules are superseded by the System Special Instructions which is superseded by the Timetable for a given division. 6. Yes the obvious. "Both" means it is a siding with switches at both ends. If a direction is given then it is a deadend spur track.TAP
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dvdhoven (495 posts)
Jan-26-02, 03:40 AM (EST) 3. "RE: A Couple of General Railroading Questions" Lawrence,Here is a link for signalling and CTC, etc.
http://www.lundsten.dk/us_signaling/index.htmlAnd is an other for very much technical railroad information:
http://www.trainweb.org/railwaytechnical/Dick van den Hoven
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