Naming trains?

[Gary S]

I was wondering how my little shortline would name its trains.

The trains run as follows:

1. A morning local freight "turn" which starts at the BNSF interchange, travels to the UP interchange, then returns to the BNSF interchange, switching out local industries all along the way in both directions.
2. An afternoon local freight, same as above, when traffic warrants.
3. A morning freight run to the town of Seabrook, which switches that area and then returns in the afternoon.
4. A "unit" train from the BNSF interchange that delivers loads and picks up empties at the Mountain King Potato facility.
5. A "unit" train from the BNSF interchange that delivers empties and picks up loads from GERN industries.
6. A "unit train from the UP interchange to GERN industries, as in 5 above.
7. An extra train that may be used to move home road empties from the interchanges to a storage yard if needed.
8. An extra train that may be used to move empties and loads to/from GERN and storage tracks if needed.

How would we name these trains "formally" and how would the railroad personnel refer to them slang-wise?

[TinGoat]

Hi Gary,

Back-and-forth between two interchanges.... Flip-Flops...

1. Flip-Flop
2. Flop-Flip
3. Beach
4. Spud
5. Flip-Flux
6. Flop-Flux
7. Flux-Redux
8. Flux-Redux

Formally, in this day and age, they'd be numbered. Say even numbers are east bound and odd numbers are west bound.

eg: #501 would become #502 on its return trip even though it is the same run out and back...

[Gary S]

So on the numbers, how would we come up with those? Any method to the madness?

On the slang, I'm sort of assuming that some of your names were "tongue in cheek"? What has come to my mind so far is:

1. Morning turn
2. Afternoon turn
3. Seabrook turn or job
4. Spud Run
5. Flux Job
6. something like above except denoting the origin at the UP
7. ?
8. ?

With a little modern shortline like mine, would the trains even have formal names/numbers? Or if we needed to move some home road empties to storage, we'd just grab an engine and make the moves without a formal name? My layout is similar to the LAJ in operation. Would each train be in contact by radio to prevent collisions and facilitate passes and meets? Or would there be some other formal means of routing traffic?

[Brakie]

1.The Sweeper

2.Second Sweep

3.The Seabrook job/turn

4.The spud job.

5.The BNSF GERN-BNSFGE(empty) and BNSFGL(loads).

6.The UP GERN-UPGE/UPGL.Same as BNSF.

7.EUPT-Extra Union Pacfic Transfer.

8.The GERN switcher.

[railohio]

Most turn jobs will keep the same number both directions. It signifies the same crew is onboard both directions.

You can number them by on-duty time. You can number them by origin point. You can number them by the phases of the moon. Study how similar railroads operate and go from there.

[BR60103]

Gary: the numbering will depend on how big you see your railroad. Is it a purely local line or part of one of the Big 5? Someplace at home I have CPR's numbering system which divides the trains into 100s -- each 100 has a class of train. (Book not handy) so 700 might be unit coal trains while 900 is intermodal hotshots. 200-300 types of locals.
Last 2 digits are the route.
British railways had a 4 character code once. First number was class -- 1 express passenger to 9 as a clunky local. second character was a letter for route or division. Last 2 were the position of the train during the day.
A small railway might not need that much numbering. But you could have something numbered that never runs but might or maybe used to. A cattle train left over from the cattle drives. An extra for the sugar beet harvest.

[Gary S]

The Almeda Terminal & Gulf is a small switching railroad which serves local industries in southeast Houston, the "Almeda" area. It has a track to the town of Seabrook which is 30 miles south on Galveston Bay (Gulf of Mexico") hence the "Gulf" part of the name. Era is modern. The trains would be all freight.

For the slang names, I like Brakie's suggestion of "Sweep", for example, the "Afternoon Sweep". And that suggests the morning train to be the "Dawn Patrol"? Is that too much of a cliche? Seabrook Job and Spud Job sound good. I also like the term "Transfer" for moving the empties.

For Brakie's suggestion on trains 5 and 6:

5.The BNSF GERN-BNSFGE(empty) and BNSFGL(loads).

6.The UP GERN-UPGE/UPGL.Same as BNSF

What would the crews call those trains? Would they say all the initials?

[FCIN]

What would the crews call those trains?

Some interesting possibilities there. Often train crews will have their own names for certain trains and/or the railroad company itself will use names for certain trains that often refer back to older railroads in the history of the railroad.

Couple of examples. On the L&N we had trains R160 and R163 that ran between Louisville, KY and Ravenna, KY (those trains were R161 and R162 between Lexington and Ravenna, due to the direction change at Lexington). Train crews called this train "The Gut Run" because of all the set outs/pick ups on this train. It was supposed to be a through mixed freight, but was actually more like a big local freight using 6-axle power.

In Louisville, there was the "Durkee Man" - a switch job that ran from South Louisville to switch the Durkee Foods plant in East Louisville every afternoon.

Another regular job was the "Big Four Puller" that ran from South Louisville to East Louisville. That name referred to the fact that originally it was a transfer job that handled interchange traffic between the L&N and the Big Four (NYC) connection in East Louisville along with traffic to be handled at the East Louisville yard. Even after the Big Four bridge was closed when Penn Central took over the NYC, this name remained.

Other typical names used by train crews (and management) usually referred to where the local train originated, such as the Frankfort Local, Frankfort Switcher, Richmond Switcher, Patio Turn, etc., even though the specific train had a designated number. One of my favorite names for a train was the "Tobacco Worm" that worked the tobacco warehouses in Shelbyville, KY, between November and February, every year. Many times, train crews would have names for certain jobs that I can't use on this web site!

Also rather interesting how names for some railroads were used when that company had vanished many years in the past. In Lexington, KY, the L&N always referred to the Southern Railway as the "CS" (Cincinnati Southern).

[Gary S]

That's some great info, it helps. If anyone can think of anything else, please let me know. I'm still wondering how I should number the trains.

[faraway]

Gary, the UP follows a system. It is documented in this PDF file : http://www.uphs.org/articles/trainsymbols.pdf. Your UP trains should fit into that system. However, there are nick names in parallel.

[Gary S]

Thanks Reinhard. That's good info that gives me ideas to work with. I'll do some more checking on the web to see what else I can find.

[MasonJar]

If you plan to run passenger trains, they will still have a name or "class of service" based on named trains that ran in the past. However, for practical purposes, they still have a number for scheduling, etc. For example, The Canadian run by VIA in Canada is derived from the premier cross-country passenger train run by the Canadian Pacific Railway. VIA numbers it 1 and 2 (west- and east-bound). Other passenger train names I like (prototype and fictional): The Ocean (VIA), The West Wind (B&M), The White Pine and counterpart The Red Pine, and The Highlander (all fictional OA&GB).

Local frieghts had some pretty interesting names, not always related to their goods or destination, but often. CNR and CPR trains in Southern Ontario at the end of steam had colourful names like Moonlight, Dog, Mad Dog, but also more pedestrian Orangeville Extra, Gravel Extra, Petrolium Extra North/South. Often just referred to by number, with an M indicating a mixed train.

Andrew

[faraway]

Gray, here we go with the BNSF train symbol conventions http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&...eLsj-yhUvQ.
Let's see if we can find the ATSF rules too, here we go:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&...FOURed-IOw

[steinjr]

Here are some more random examples:

Jobs on the Twin Cities and Western Railroad in Minnesota: http://www.tcwr.net46.net/operations.html - examples : "UP turn" (transfer run to interchange), "Unit DDG" (Dried Destillers Grain - animal feed, byproduct of ethanol production), "Glencoe Turn", "Utility Job", "West End Switch".

Some more Twin Cities area train ids from various railroads: http://twincitiesrailfan.com/trainids - the Minnesota commercial number their trains as "Job xx", where xx is a number, but the trains also have nicknames - like Job 19 - the "Hugo Job", or Job 88 "Northtown transfer", or Job 46 - the "Belt job", while the Canadian Pacific uses Hxx, like H18 - "Morning Ford Hauler", H32 - "Afternoon Ford Hauler", H33 - the "Hastings Patrol".

So you have a lot of ways you can number and name your trains. You could pick train numbers at random, or you could have some kind of system, where a train that goes from your main yard to the UP interchange is e.g. train 24, while a train that starts from the UP yard heading your way is train 42. Or group them by type - saying all local turns/patrols is in the 10-series, all transfers are in the 20-series, all unit trains are in the 30-series and so on and so forth.

Smile,
Stein

[BR60103]

I think I see what you need.
I think you should number the trains by the route travelled.
1-9 are through passenger trains interchanged with both UP and BNSF.

10s and 20s run between the UP and BNSF
30s run from the UP interchange to somewhere on the line. (or back)
40s from the BNSF interchange to somewhere on line.
50s run in the middle of the line.
90s are yard switching jobs -- no to minimal mainline action.

Definitely have nicknames for the worst jobs. If the GERN plant produces automotive Flux, it could be the Grease Job or the Grease Monkey; medicinal Flux the Lady of Mercy or the BandAid. If the official name of the train gets over 3 letters the crew will probably have a shorter and ruder name for it.