Quick Question Re Prototype Terminology

[NorthernWarrior]

I have managed to locate some "Timetable" information for a US route project I've just started (not going to announce the specifics just yet as most of my recent starts have turned to mush) and while most of the information is clear I'm stuck on one item. That is, the measurement used to define the length of sidings (aka crossing loops in UK terminology). I seem to remember reading somewhere this was the number of "cars" but what does this correspond to in fixed measurement? A "car" could be a 40ft boxcar or a 75ft passenger coach.

And I thought our UK use of SLU's (standard length units) is obscure!

Any help appreciated.

[harryadkins]

Most modern timetables such as CSX or NS define passing siding lengths in terms of feet. For example, one passing siding near my home is listed as 6800 feet in the CSX timetable. Most train lengths are also listed in feet.

[harryadkins]

In previous years a prototype siding might be listed in terms of so many 50 ft freight cars plus four diesel units and a caboose such as an Atlantic Coast Line timetable from 1962.

[NorthernWarrior]

That should help a bit Harry, thanks.

The particulars were taken from a Burlington Northern 1970 timetable and I have to admit it seems an odd way of defining the length as it doesn't take into account the size of the motive power lashup and the caboose. Referring to the DRGW site which has lots of timetables from various ersa they refer to a "car" as being 44ft (or about 14m) but applying this to the route I'm looking at would make some of the sidings only 250 feet long!

As it's an abandoned branch line (giving too much away now) not all the track is shown on topo maps, at least not on the Acme site. I'll check to see what the maps on Libre show, but their archive was down yesterday. My Google overlay shows the general course of the railway (much of it is now a walking trail) but despite being a relatively recent closure there's already been some development and not clear where the sidings and side tracks were located.

The other option is whether there's any sites offering free BN track charts as I suspect these would show the length in feet, failing that I'll just have to take best guess.

Edit:
I've just grabbed some @1970's historical maps off the US Topo site and these show the location of all the sidings etc. - sorted!

[Chacal]

Hi Vern,
What is the exact name of the "US Topo" site?

[hertsbob]

http://nationalmap.gov/ustopo/

Possibly.

[NorthernWarrior]

This:

http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/topomaps/f ... 4074808728

When you do a search you can ether see all topo maps or just the historical (well, mid-70's) ones. You need to take a guess at which map name you need as I've found US maps don't always have an obvious title. However once you've found one along the route you can use the guide on the map (either shown as a table at the bottom, or against the side on others) to get the name of adjacent maps.

The maps are in pdf format via a zip file so the clarity is quite good.