NORFOLK - Two More Questions for Mr. Bundy

[NW Mailing List]

I will disagree and say that neither of your “may have been two exceptions” actually involved a yardmaster having authority over a main track. They were likely telling the dispatcher that they had no place to put the train and to hold it but the dispatcher would have been the one with the actual authority and was just acting on the information he was given. For the switch tender, since those switches would have been within yard limits and the authority comes from the rule book (yard limits), not the dispatcher. Instructions and information are not authority.

When I was an Asst. Trainmaster in Sandusky, nothing moved between the yard and the coal dock until the yardmaster let the crew know they were lined up over ex-NYC Conrail to avoid blocking road crossings. But when the YM told them they could go, he was not giving any authority. The authority came from them being in yard limits and for passage through the interlocking, from the interlocking signals (controlled by the Conrail dispatcher). All the YM was doing was passing on information.

Final point: Anyone able to give track authority is governed by Hours of Service. Dispatchers and Operators are HOS jobs (today limited to nine hours, may have been longer in the past). Yardmasters are not (and in Sandusky, when we were short, some YMs would do a double (16 hours)).

-- 
Larry Stone
lstone19 at stonejongleux.com





> On Sep 25, 2024, at 1:03 PM, NW Mailing List via NW-Mailing-List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
> 
> Abe - regarding yardmasters controlling main track movements -- Yardmasters could designate to trains which yard track to set off or pick up cars, but could not govern main track movements.  On Norfolk Terminal, there may have been two exceptions.  As reminded by Dr. Blackstock -- there was a "hold-out" signal at Yadkin (east end of the Dismal Swamp). If there were no empty tracks for inbound coal, the train would be held there until track(s) were made empty.  Then, a yardmaster would notify Bridge #7 to clear the signal allowing the eastbound to proceed.  The other exception MAY have been at Lamberts Point yard.  The yardmaster would notify a switch-tender which turnouts (manually thrown) to line up for an arriving train.  In the 14-miles from Yadkin, the main lines were designated Automatic Block Signal (ABS) territory.  However, it came close to being Centralized Traffic Control territory. There were two interlocked bridges (staffed by bridge tenders ?)  and at least 4 interlockings -- just east of Bridge 7, the Belt Line had a "push the button" interlocking on their South Branch.  Trains going to the branch would stop clear of U. S. 460, press the button that notified Bridge 7 they were ready to cross.  Next was South Norfolk staffed by a VGN operator who controlled crossings of VGN-N&W main lines.  Next was N. S. Junction that handled N&W's crossing with NS Railway's Berkley Branch (N&PBL had trackage rights). Next was Bridge No.5.  Can't say whether or not Bridge 5 controlled the next interlocking, but  control of the junction between the N&W main line (to Norfolk Terminal Station) and the Lamberts Point Branch MAY be designated in N&W's Norfolk Div. Time Table # 7 (eff 11/09/1947) as Lovitt Avenue.  I did not find Lovitt Avenue on Mapquest. 
> 
> On Saturday, September 21, 2024 at 12:39:43 PM EDT, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> Larry Stone
> lstone19 at stonejongleux.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> > On Sep 21, 2024, at 4:57 AM, NW Mailing List via NW-Mailing-List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
> > 
> > Aytsch -
> > 
> > 1. At Norfolk, where was the split-point between control of tracks by the Train Dispatcher, and control of tracks by the Yard Master ?
> > 
> > Which is another way of asking, Where did Main Track rules begin? (In the 20th Century world of the N&W, this change would normally have been made at an interlocking.)
> > 
> > 2. When the crew for a westward train went on duty at Lamberts Point, where did they Register their train and get their Clearance Card and Train Orders?
> > 
> > Thanks for your time, Sir. It is nice to have the experts around.
> > 
> > -- abram burnett
> > .
> > Detox with our Magic Turnip Elixir :-)
> > .
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