Track terminology

[NW Mailing List]

What qualified a line of track as a “branch” versus a “spur” versus a
“siding”?  Was it length, function, number of facilities serviced or some
combination?  Did all branches get mileposts with identifying prefix
letter(s)?  For example, the Northfork branch left the main at the West end
of Byrd yard on its way to Crumpler.  Buzzard Creek branch then diverged at
Algoma up to the mine.  There were tracks off to service mines along the
main stem of the branch, were these considered spurs or sidings?  There
were other significant offshoots at Bearwallow (going up to Indian Ridge),
McDowell (Leftwitch branch/spur to Greenbriar mine), and Cherokee (heading
up toward Windmill Gap to service Cherokee).

Sidings seem to have been depicted on the same sheet of the track chart as
the line from which they diverged, whereas branches appear to have
warranted their own track chart page(s).  Was it as simple as that?  If the
draftsman couldn’t adequately fit the representation on page with the main
stem, it became a branch?

Jim Cochran
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