01-26-2012, 08:03 PM
In general, freight cars handled by a Terminal railway would terminate their journey...or start it...on the Terminal railway. A Belt Railway, by contrast, existed to connect the various railroads which entered a city but didn't physically connect to each other. Here in Cincinnati, we didn't have any Belt or Terminal railroads as every Class I railroad had a physical connection with a majority of the others or trackage rights for this purpose. As I recall, Chicago had 40+ railroads, most of which terminated at Chicago and didn't connect to anywhere near all of the others, so it needed Belt Railways to connect them. This allowed a shipper to choose, between Denver and Chicago, between the numerous parallel (competing) roads.
Most railroads did have Terminal operations, but not necessarily at every city. By contrast, a Bridge Route was a railroad which didn't really have Terminal operations, gaining most of its traffic via interchange and Belt Railways. The Nickel Plate Road was a particularly good example of this...as it hauled long trains of California Reefers destined for the East Coast at 60mph behind its berkshires which it received at Chicago and delivered to Buffalo.
My prototype of choice is the Oahu Railway (Hawaii). Its terminal operation was Honolulu. All railroad cars were loaded or emptied at Honolulu (everything either started or terminated its rail journey at Honolulu). As I recall, approximately 20% of the cost of operating the railroad went to the Honolulu terminal...the other 80% was the 70 miles of mainline and 20 miles of branch lines. The Terminal operations in Honolulu consisted of: freight cars delivering/receiving loads from ships and warehouses, delivering/receiving loads from the various industries in the terminal area (fertilizer, oil/gas/diesel fuel, lumber, tin cans, pineapples, meat, and raw sugar), delivering LCL freight to the team tracks, and the breaking down/assembling passenger trains that 3-track stub passenger terminal.
While many European nations had State Railways, the US has had 337 Class I railroads...almost entirely privately owned (an exception would be the Cincinnati Southern which is owned by my city but operated by NS). Belt and Terminal RRs worked with these Class Is, originating traffic which they would interchange to the Class I's. For most of the 20th century, the ICC's rules for interchange rewarded origination of freight more than just hauling it, so Terminal RRs did quite well despite hauling the freight for less than 1% of its journey.
Most railroads did have Terminal operations, but not necessarily at every city. By contrast, a Bridge Route was a railroad which didn't really have Terminal operations, gaining most of its traffic via interchange and Belt Railways. The Nickel Plate Road was a particularly good example of this...as it hauled long trains of California Reefers destined for the East Coast at 60mph behind its berkshires which it received at Chicago and delivered to Buffalo.
My prototype of choice is the Oahu Railway (Hawaii). Its terminal operation was Honolulu. All railroad cars were loaded or emptied at Honolulu (everything either started or terminated its rail journey at Honolulu). As I recall, approximately 20% of the cost of operating the railroad went to the Honolulu terminal...the other 80% was the 70 miles of mainline and 20 miles of branch lines. The Terminal operations in Honolulu consisted of: freight cars delivering/receiving loads from ships and warehouses, delivering/receiving loads from the various industries in the terminal area (fertilizer, oil/gas/diesel fuel, lumber, tin cans, pineapples, meat, and raw sugar), delivering LCL freight to the team tracks, and the breaking down/assembling passenger trains that 3-track stub passenger terminal.
While many European nations had State Railways, the US has had 337 Class I railroads...almost entirely privately owned (an exception would be the Cincinnati Southern which is owned by my city but operated by NS). Belt and Terminal RRs worked with these Class Is, originating traffic which they would interchange to the Class I's. For most of the 20th century, the ICC's rules for interchange rewarded origination of freight more than just hauling it, so Terminal RRs did quite well despite hauling the freight for less than 1% of its journey.
Michael
My primary goal is a large Oahu Railway layout in On3
My secondary interests are modeling the Denver, South Park, & Pacific in On3 and NKP in HO
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My primary goal is a large Oahu Railway layout in On3
My secondary interests are modeling the Denver, South Park, & Pacific in On3 and NKP in HO
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