Directions on the Tug Fork Branch

NW Mailing List nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Sun Oct 19 14:57:11 EDT 2014


The "away is west, toward is east" rule may/should apply to all N&W 
branch lines if viewed from the perspective of its dispatcher's 
territory. The Tug Fork was handled by the Pocahontas dispatcher, but I 
believe the Dry Fork and Buchanan branches were both handled by the 
Clinch Valley dispatcher. I am not aware of a timetable direction 
reversal on the Buchanan Branch.

Grant Carpenter
---
On 10/8/2014 9:45 AM, NW Mailing List wrote:
>
> Guys: Particularly in the early days, it was _essential_ for a 
> railroad to establish a track direction which was not particularly 
> related to a compass direction.  Trains had to be identified as to 
> direction (one or the other- _one_ of _two_ options) and class to 
> establish the RIGHTS of movement for a train relative to the other 
> traffic on the rails.  The was important for the establishment of the 
> proper dispatching and writing of train orders and clearance cards to 
> avoid train wrecks.  Today with radio dispatching and issuing track 
> warrants with that dispatching method, it simplifies things so that 
> direction and which train has rights of movements over others is not 
> obviously important as it was in the older non-radio days.  So the N&W 
> was "east" or "west" regardless of the actual compass direction.
>
> Gary Rolih
>
> Cincinnati
>

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