Track terminology

[NW Mailing List]

a branch a whole train will take off from the main whether it may 
parallel the original line or 90 degrees but may not have any 
reconnection back on the end. It can have sidings/spurs on it.

A siding is mostly about holding a train so another can pass. It might 
not have 2 turnouts as some interurbans had stub ended sidings, 
obviously later rectified to 2 turnouts.
Again it could be for a freight siding industry, and on and on...
A spur is generally a short track off a main or pass or branch with an 
industry or purpose.

Then you have a lead, a piece of track that leads to a track area, or a 
switching lead.

-Lynn-

On 11/6/2014 1:39 AM, nw-mailing-list-request at nwhs.org wrote:
> Subject:
> Track terminology
> From:
> NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
> Date:
> 11/5/2014 10:39 AM
>
> To:
> NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
>
>
> 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
>
>
> ForwardedMessage.eml
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist6.pair.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20141106/d4378466/attachment.html>