Re: Re: (erielack) Scheduled Trains in One Direction

[bob gillis <robertgillis_@_verizon.net>]

> 
> From: jon.liles_@_us.schneider-electric.com
> Date: 2005/02/02 Wed PM 03:18:21 GMT> To: erielack_@_lists.railfan.net
> CC: robertgillis_@_verizon.net
> Subject: Re: (erielack) Scheduled Trains in One Direction
> 
> >>jon.liles_@_us.schneider-electric.com initially asked:
> 
> >>List,
> >>Just out of curiosity, I noticed in the two ETTs below that the schedule
> >>for the Buffalo and Southwestern Division has three westbound 2nd Class
> >>trains but no complimentary eastbound trains.  Are these trains going back
> >>to Buffalo from Jamestown via another railroad?
> 
> >robertgillis_@_verizon.net graciously answered:
> 
> >I believe many railroads made a scheduled train going in one direction,
> >usually from the oringinating point.  This allows the train to run without
> >needing any train orders.  The return trains were run as extras.  Usually> >only one train order needed to start the train.  All meets were made by the
> >timetable.
> 
> >bob gillis> 
> Bob,
> Thanks for the answer.  I never considered that the train would be run as an
> extra.  What would be the advantage to doing business this way?  Wouldn't't a
> schedule be better so the potential passengers might have a better idea when
> to show up at the station?

Secondary trains are usually freight trains so only the railroad is interested in them.  

Some secondary trains may be mixed trains but they are run primarily for the freight.

Randy Brown wrote:

Definitions help.  A train consists of a locomotive, with or without cars, going from someplace to someplace under some authority.  It is identified by the presence of marker lamps on the rear.

Authority can be time table or train order or, I suppose, track warrant or paddle or staff.  Trains are classified into classes.  First class was/is almost always passenger schedules.  The other classes varied by railroad to accomodate what each thought important.

Extras are non-scheduled trains of any class indicated by white flags or lights on the locomotive.  Many railroads run/ran all their freight as extras.

Sections are pieces of regularly scheduled trains indicated on all sections except the last one by green flags or lights on the locomotive.

There were no "return" trains.  Trains originated, they ran, they terminated, they died.  Their equipment and crews went to other trains, usually not together.

This is sketchy, and I'll bet there will be other responses, but it's a start.

Randy Brown

<Definitions help.  A train consists of a locomotive, with or without cars, <going from someplace to someplace under some authority.  It is identified <by the presence of marker lamps on the rear.<

These are very old rules.  

snip

< There were no "return" trains.  Trains originated, they ran, they               < terminated, they died.  Their equipment and crews went to other trains,   < usually not together.<

What I meant was the locomotive, caboose and crew would return to the other end of the line as an extra train.  I do not know which was home terminal, Jamestown or Buffalo.  The loco, caboose and crew could perhpas made a round trip with the 16 hour limit or would tie up in the away terminal and return the next day.

The use of secondary trains in one direction and extras in the other simplified dispatching.

bob gillis

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