I want to know something about the operation of local and short-haul freight on prototype railroads and how it should be duplicated in model railway form.
Topics:
A. What's a local and why does it exist?
Locals service industries in the area around ("local" to) a yard. They exist because it is more efficient to use a dedicated local to do the work than to have through-freights stopping at the various
industries to pick up or set out cars. If through-freights did it, it would slow down the movement of freight and clog up the main line with slow moving trains. In addition, sometimes-local
destinations are far off the main line where it wouldn't make sense to send a through freight.
That doesn't mean through freights *never* stop to pick up or drop off cars. When I worked on a railroad in the 60's, our hottest train would sometimes stop to pick up a hot car (a reefer of
cherries, say) from a siding. In addition, we had a train called a "local east" that wasn't a real local in the sense I defined it. It spent almost 16 hours following the route of a through freight
picking up and setting out, mostly from small yards and large industries along the main line. Train crews hated catching a local east.
B. What's a short-haul freight; how and why is it different from a local?
I always thought of "short-haul" as being an adjective for a short line railroad. The railroad I worked for never used this term. We did, however, have transfer operations where cars were transferred
from our yard to another railroad's yard. Switchmen performed this because it was within yard limits, but I assume brakemen did it in yards on other railroads.
C. How do locals operate?
Where I worked: Through-freights brought cars into the yard from distant terminals. Switch crews sorted out the cars, and all local cars were switched into the "local yard," which consisted of 5
tracks. Each night, a switch engine "made up the locals." The cars for the various locals (as many as 7 locals ranged out from our yard) were separated from each other and "blocked" (cars for the
same industry were put together in the same block), and a caboose put on the end. Each local had its own, personal, caboose with the name stenciled on the side ("ping-pong," "Garfield Local,"
etc).
The locals left early every weekday morning and came back to the same yard at night. They picked up and dropped off cars at the various industries on their assigned routes. Usually, they would talk
to a foreman at the industry and "give him a switch" according to his instructions. Sometimes the foreman wouldn't be ready and the local would go off and switch someone else, then come back. The
local crews were fairly customer oriented. These were "bid" jobs, so the same crews generally worked the locals day after day, and they got to know the industry foremen. Through freights, on the
other hand, got their crews from "the pool," which was a revolving list of crewmen where "first out" was assigned to whatever train happened to be ready to go at whatever time of day or night.
D. How does a short-haul operate?
Don't know.
E. On a model railway, how should this facet of operations be replicated?
I think you can duplicate the operations of the prototype as I've described. The main thing is to have some industries sprinkled along the main line for the local to service, and some places for it
to go "in the hole" to clear a through-freight that needs to pass. Passing sidings can be used, or the industrial siding can be deep enough for the local to fit in and clear the main line.
Industries may receive either loads (lumber yard, coal yard) or empties (quarry, coal mine), or both (steel fabrication shop, brewery). After emptying or loading, the cars are taken back to the yard
and switch crews assemble them into through-trains.
Paul Welsh
Locals service industries in the area around ("local" to) a yard. They exist because it is more efficient to use a dedicated local to do the work than to have through-freights stopping at the various
industries to pick up or set out cars. If through-freights did it, it would slow down the movement of freight and clog up the main line with slow moving trains. In addition, sometimes-local
destinations are far off the main line where it wouldn't make sense to send a through freight.
There's another reason for the "local" aka "Peddler" and a number of other names, which can vary from road to road and region to region.
That reason is called "Hours of service"- it's a law that requires a railroad to permit a crew to "rest"- eat, sleep, etc. Although the law is often screwed around with by the railroads, its intent
is that crews not be required to work more than 12 hours in one stretch- the length of the period used to be 16 hours, and is sometimes called the "Hog Law" which stipulated that a train that carried
livestock had to stop, remove the stock to a holding pen, where they'd be fed, watered, and allowed to rest before the train proceeded.
Around here (Las Cruces, NM) there are actually at least two locals- one comes up from El Paso, TX and may proceed railroad east (compass north) as far as Dona Anna, a few miles up from here. It
mostly works industry and sidings between Anthony, on the Texas/NM state line, and up to Dona Anna. The other local is an El Paso-Anthony switch job, and is works several industries, including two
scrap yards, two steel mills, several agric-business operations, and a few sidings where grain is spotted for transfer to dairy and ranch customers.
That one even has a manned caboose- they have to run extended distances in reverse, and there are some crossings where the locals seem to drive by ear- so as a brakie told me the other day, rather
than pay someone to hang on to the side of a box car with a walkie-talkie, they decided to give them a caboose.
The local that comes into town usually has two medium horsepower "B" truck units, coupled back to back. It has usually worked most of the sidings between here and El Paso, and when it gets here, they
work a bulk corn syrup transfer plant, a few tracks that get building materials, and where a local stone operator loads hoppers with lava for decorative stone around the country. Crushed, cool lava-
no active lava fields in the area... There is also at least one beer distributor in the area that gets beer- it's a Coors distributor and they Eel River kits are the appropriate cars for them.
After the train reaches Las Cruces, they swap ends, call the dispatcher ("BNSF DS 19") clear their track warrant and get one to return to El Paso, work the yard, swap ends (move the control from the
engine that led coming into Cruces to the other) work Dona Anna and head back down the line. In no set order-, it depends on the conductor. Although obviously they have to get there warrant before
leaving the yard limits.
Typical loads include hoppers of grain for cattle feed, hoppers of plastic pellets for an electronics maker in the area, tank cars full of corn syrup, box cars of beer, and bulkhead flats with lumber
and wall board.
I've also seen gons loaded with re-bar from one of the steel mills in Anthony, but usually they pick that sort of thing up on the way back.
A couple of times a year, there are boxes loaded with big cardboard drums used by a chili processor in town, and from time to time other loads. Once in a while there may be flats loaded with farm
machinery, and once in a very long time, something military for White Sands (most of that goes to a siding on the SP track, east of the base) or the White Sands Test Facility for NASA, and again,
once in a seldom while a heavy duty flat loaded with transformers or such. Yes Virginia, there are prototypes for those big four truck flats like Walthers makes- I've seen two at the same time in the
local yard, carrying transformers for a new substation out in the desert somewhere for El Paso Electric and made by Rolls-Royce.
Other locals carry things that will depend on the area, of course. I'm sure there are fascinating loads and empties for the two scrap yards and steel mills, but they are too far away to go casually
check on any regular basis. Condemned cars may be spotted by the Anthony switch job, or they may be set out by one of the manifests running between Belen and El Paso. That depends on how many they
have to spot.
Most of the empties we get are hoppers for the crushed lava.
That doesn't mean through freights *never* stop to pick up or drop off cars. When I worked on a railroad in the 60's, our hottest train would sometimes stop to pick up a hot car (a reefer of
cherries, say) from a siding. In addition, we had a train called a "local east" that wasn't a real local in the sense I defined it. It spent almost 16 hours following the route of a through freight
picking up and setting out, mostly from small yards and large industries along the main line. Train crews hated catching a local east.
B. What's a short-haul freight; how and why is it different from a local?
I always thought of "short-haul" as being an adjective for a short line railroad. The railroad I worked for never used this term. We did, however, have transfer operations where cars were transferred
from our yard to another railroad's yard. Switchmen performed this because it was within yard limits, but I assume brakemen did it in yards on other railroads.
"Short-haul" can also refer to a practice, which the roads don't like, of taking traffic and delivering it to an interchange with a road that has a shorter and/or cheaper route to the customer's
market than the originating line can provide. A customer having a load delivered to El Paso to hand over to the UP to deliver to a location in California rather than routing it via BNSF all the way
would be a "short haul".
I gotta run, I can hear the local hooting into town as I speak, and I want to see what is on the front, besides the dash8-40 I heard the DS giving warrants to a bit ago...
Fred D.
Car types are standardized for the types of freight which can be hauled. Here is a brief rundown:
Boxcars: imagine a shed on wheels. That is a boxcar, used to handle dry freight and packaged goods. Boxcars can be very colorful, for the owners would paint them as a moving advertisement for their
services. Railfans and model train fans especially like boxcars.
Reefers: refrigerated cars haul perishables, and are something like a meat locker on trucks. The older cars had ice bunkers which were replenished at icing stations along the way. Today's reefers
have mechanical refrigeration units. Like boxcars, they were often painted as billboards.
Stock cars: in shape, they resemble boxcars. These cars are slatted for ventilation. They carry livestock, from steers to sheep to hogs. You can usually smell them coming.
Tanks: tank cars handle fluids, from edibles to petroleum products and acids. They are literally tanks on trucks.
Flat cars: the flat car handles large, bulky freight that is not vulnerable to weather. This might include lumber, logs, heavy pipe, machinery, construction vehicles - anything that is more or less
weatherproof. Stakes and bulkheads can be fitted for hauling odd-sized freight. A depressed center version is for objects that would normally be too high to make it through tunnels and other
clearances.
Hoppers: the hopper is made to haul loose, granular dry goods. Uncovered hoppers carry loads which are not affected adversely by weather, such as coal and gravel. Covered hoppers are for items that
would be affects: salt, concrete, grain, etc. Hoppers are loaded from the top, and unload from the bottom. A special ramp with an open space between the rails is used. Underneath are bins or waiting
trucks. The hopper's bottom hatches are opened to allow the goods to flow out.
Gondola: the railroad's catch all, it can handle anything a hopper can, as well as many types of flat car load. The gondola is a large tub on wheels. I have seen them loaded with junk, iron ore, and
even small vehicles. Gondolas are also favored for maintenance of way work.
Caboose: riding on the end of the train, the caboose is a conductor's office, mobile kitchen, bunkhouse and crew quarters. They are brightly colored for visibility - a train approaching from the rear
can more easily see them. Cupolas on the roof or side allow crews to observe the train and watch for problems like hot boxes. Cabooses are getting rare, as modern regulation have replaced them with
an "end-of-train" device.
How common is it to mix roadnames in rolling stock?
For example, you see many starter trainsets with mixed stock, such as a Conrail engine and a Chessie caboose and maybe a UP gondola, a B∓N boxcar, etc. You also see a lot of mixed Union Pacific
and Santa Fe, plus a mix of other things, such as sticking B∓N into anything.
Do real train companies mix stuff up like this? I know that Chessie System isn't really a railroad company, but is rather a mix of C∓O, B∓O and WM working together, and that all of these were
bought by / merged with Conrail and eventually CSX. (I could be wrong, though. Won't be the first time :-) )
So, it seems to me that mixing Chessie, CSX, Conrail, B∓O, C∓O, WM, etc. on a layout would be fine. But, would you really see Santa Fe, B∓N, or Union Pacific in the same railyard? Just how
much rolling stock "sharing" do railroads really do?
Very common indeed. Cars are interchanged between roads to get them where they are going. A car (assume an ATSF reefer) loaded with oranges in Orange, California, would travel via the AT∓SF or SP
to an interchange point and then passed along to another road for movement east, say, for instance, the B∓O in Chicago. It would then go to the destination in the east. The B∓ O would then
attempt to fill it with a suitable load and then send it west, hopefully to someplace on the Santa Fe line. The foreign road would pay the car owner a fee (per diem) for each day that the car was off
home rails.
Thus, a road would try to keep it's cars home, thereby cutting per diem. It would also attempt to send foreign cars in the general direction of home. Cars were swapped around all the time in this
manner.