Traditionally Team Tracks

Traditionally Team Tracks were located at Stations, they were for Less Than Car Loads that were to be picked up by local businesses. As such usually only Boxcars or Reefers were located there.

They got their name because the local merchant would pull his "team" of horses and his wagon up to one of the two sides of the cars.

So any team track would have had accessibility on both sides of the track.

Here are a couple of links:

http://smallmr.com/wordpress/traffic-sources-freight-houses-and-team-tracks/ 

https://atsfinroswell.wordpress.com/2014/03/08/the-beauty-of-team-tracks/

Hope this helps. 

Thank you Will for the links!

From what i have read, there were various iterations for the team tracks, close, adjacent and away from a depot. I am going for the latter (away), following the principles outlined in Tony Thompson's  article on team tracks in MRH #102 (August 2018) where he included dock and small shed from the elements i list. The question is, given the industries i intend to serve, what kind of elements should I include.

I think (but this is where i want to double check, to make sure i don't overload the scene):

Crane, for heavy loads from flat-cars and gondolas (piping, structural material etc.. for the building supplies, as well as heavy machinery for the other manufacturing-goods industries.

Portable conveyors for aggregates (sand/gravel for the building supplies industry)

Dock for all other goods in boxcars/reefers.

From what i have seen almost all kinds of cars were seen, not just boxcars/reefers, LCL was for freight houses if i am not mistaken.

Team Track

Also called public track.

A team track could be anything from just a track with access for a truck/wagon to pull up along side it to a facility with all the stuff you mentioned.

The least likely item is the shanty.  No real need for it.  There isn't a railroad employee at a team track and there is no need for the customers to have a shanty.  Just an attraction for vandals.

Next least likely is the portable conveyor.  Not the railroad's problem how to get the stuff out of the car.  If there is a portable conveyor its most likely property of the company that is unloading the cars.

Cranes are usually only at locations that were fairly large or busy points or had a specific industry that needed a crane and was going to give the railroad many carloads of business (or did at one time).  For example on the Reading Company back in the 1950's, they had hundreds of team tracks and two, maybe three dozen cranes.

End and side loading platforms were pretty common.

One of big "customers" of a team track is the railroad itself.  Most of the incidental track material for the MofW gets unloaded at the team track.

LCL was primarily handled through a freight house or depot.  Most team tracks didn't handle LCL because there was no security at a team track.  LCL was handled at the freight house or depot to keep it under lock and key.  The LCL might have been spotted on the house/team track near a depot if there was no track with a loading dock at the freight house or depot. The LCL would be moved by wagon or cart to or from the team track to the depot or freight house.  Customers wouldn't get LCL directly out of or put LCL directly into a car, because the railroad would have to weight, and write up a waybill for the shipment or collect freight for COD deliveries. In most cases a car wasn't left for LCL, it would have to be a pretty large station to get a separate car of LCL.  In most cases they would just pull up the LCL car on the main in front of the depot, unload the LCL for that station onto a cart, they would load the outbound LCL back into the car and then the train would take the car down to the next station.  Team track business was most carload and was intended for businesses that did not have their own tracks.

Thank you Dave, re: cranes

About the cranes, if the said team track did serve industries with flat car and gondola loads (machinery, pipes, structural parts etc...), would it be more plausible for the customer industry to bring their own crane when needed (truck mounted etc...) or to have a small gantry (or jib) crane permanently on-site? (Similar to the one seen in Walthers Team Track scene kit and/or the Piggy-back scene kit, or similar to the Kibri 39316 crane).

I was considering a kibri gantry crane (kit 39316), but from what you say, maybe its an overkill for a single-spur team track, no?

CB&Q team track

If memory serves, Robert Schleicher wrote an article about a sizable team track the Burlington had in Denver.  He also built a model of it.  It included a crane and a dock.  One of the regular loads was boxcars carrying used automobiles.   I think the article was in a late '80s issue of "Model Railroading" magazine and might be available on Trainlife.

Scott Chatfield

Typical team track

  The team tracks I saw in the 50's on the SP were just spurs with a paved or gravel lot. No permanent infratructure except for maybe an old oil drum for trash or to build a fire to warm your hands. Most common loads were flat cars or box cars of lumber and other building materials. Customers brought their own unloading method, a fork lift or maybe unload by hand for some stuff. I've also seen railroad MW cars left on the team track if it was near the site of their work....DaveB

Very useful “industry”.

The team track has long been noted as a “universal industry” capable of handling a variety of car types. At one time team yards or at least team tracks were located at various points in every city. Team yards were usually paved with paired tracks and some sort of ramp(s) provided. The larger ones often had overhead cranes straddling a single track and paved loading area.

An unadorned team track like you’re considering can be about as simple as you’d like to make it. It might simply be a flat piece of ground “paved” with cinders. Ramps were handy but far from universal. I recall one in South Minneapolis that was also used as a runaround track and was double ended. It had a ramp built up from railroad ties and filled with packed dirt. I helped unload a gondola full of scenic rock there once when working for the Bureau of Mines. A crane had emptied most of it but there were a few tons left for my coworker and self to shovel out. And this was no low-side “shovel car”.  Every shovel full had to go over those five foot sides. Whew, hot work.

I’m aware of a few very active team tracks currently in service. One is nicely paved, even between the rails, and is largely used for unloading bulkhead flats. Amazing how much one man on a forklift can unload in less than a day. I recently saw a Tank Car being unloaded on a different team track, and a gondola being filled with tree stumps.

Great choice of industry.

Barry P.

Many Flavors

Team tracks come in all kinds of flavors.  From an "impromptu" location on a spur-line or industry siding that sees little traffic to an actual siding(s) with nice covered ramps and paved truck parking.   

"To add interest to my layout, my planned team track will be a few feet of abandoned spur where the railroad has left enough track intact to serve as a public team track"   (The rest nothing more than overgrown roadbed with a few rotted ties)

In regards to structures such as cranes, conveyors, etc...  Again this would not be an unusual site at some team tracks although the railroad itself would probably not supply these items.   

"Bottom line is you have many choices here that are part of the real world"

Joe

Open & Prepay

There is a book about the size of an ORER or large city phone book (for anybody that remembers what those were) called the "Open & Prepay".  It is a directory of all stations in the US.  A station is a named point.  In order to bill a car to someplace it has to be in the Open and Prepay as a valid station and has to be listed as able to receive traffic.  There are lots of stations that are just "places" and cannot be used as a destination to bill cars.

The reason I am mentioning this is the comment about "impromptu" locations.  A railroad can't just arbitrarily declare a track is a team track on the spur of the moment, they have to go through the paperwork to let the ICC (or whatever agency depending on era) know that the station is an open station to receive freight.

Having said all that, since virtually all places with switches are associated with some sort of station, that's usually not an issue.  The Open and Prepay is only to station (not track) level, so the railroad is free to designate which track at any station is the "public" track or where any traffic is spotted to be unloaded (as long as the consignee can get to the car).  Joe is 100% correct that you can pick any track you want regardless of what it used to be (as long as its not privately owned), its just the prototype doesn't arbitrarily turn team tracks on and off at stations.

Less is more i take it...

Thank you all for your replies and detailed info provided.

I take it, that given the single 3-4 car-length spur i plan, i should not add anything more than a dock/ramp (and not an overhead crane).

I suppose that a self-propelled crane (like those nice Kibri vehicles kit 13035 for example...), or a truck with a crane, is a good option representing the customer who wants to unload a flat car / gondola right? (transformers off a flat car, pipes off a gondola etc...).

Team track

Hi,

what an interesting discussion

On my model railroad I have a "team track" which will be served mostly by/with containerized goods. So, there will be standardized containers (in my case 20-footers and probably 10-footers also) delivered to the team track. I am currently working on a container crane to put there (which will be an actual operating model in N-Scale!). As such, with a little mechanization I can deliver anything that fits into a standard container to my team track. And I get to build a crane

(Who says it has to be modern containers, crated goods or things in barrels have been common for quite some time...)

Otherwise, it seems that many team tracks didn't have side dock-type platforms, but rather the delivery truck will drive right up to the boxcar and hopefully the truck's bed will be about the same height as the boxcar floor?

End ramps are actually quite useful, as they allow direct loading of vehicles. Which does not say anything about putting complete trucks on railcars - lots of dead weight being carried...

Finally, if there is a paying customer, would the railroad company bring one of their wrecking cranes to a team track for unloading heavy freight?

Have fun!

@Dave

Dave,

My comment was referring to model railroad options not necessarily prototypical operations.   While your unsolicited knowledge of prototypical operations is interesting, sometimes license has to be taken in the model railroad world.

A section of track that doubles as a “team track” is a great opportunity for an extra industry when model railroad space is at a premium.

Hopefully the “Feds” won’t slap too hefty a fine on modelers for not filling out the correct paperwork.   

Joe

All sizes

Depending upon your modeling location, team facilities could be multiple tracks. Here's a look at the Lackawanna freight facilities in Orange, NJ. Ray Breyer focuses on the freight cars in the photos but you can see there are four team tracks here plus a few tracks for the freight house.

 Here's part of a valuation map that inspired my Wheeling Freight Terminal layout. What you see here became the core of my 10 x 16 HO scale layout. There are four tracks just right of the upper center of the photo that are a team yard. This B&O facility is adjacent to the downtown Wheeling business district. This team yard has no crane, dock, or ramp. There is another B&O team yard across the creek to the right of the image edge.

The Pennsy had a freight house and some team tracks between the B&O freight station and the Ohio River, which would be about where this text is located. The W&LE had a small facility a few blocks away and also adjacent to the creek at the right. If you model a decent size city, a team yard was where goods came in for wholesalers and retailers that served the community.

 Here's an April 1912 image documenting a public works project. The photographer is focused on the wall construction but we get to see a team track on the B&O Allegheny Yard branch in Pittsburgh. The cars are on a spur track. Running tracks are on the other side of the cars and the Allegheny River is just beyond. This was one spur here. There's another track that curls off to the left to serve a storage warehouse. This is a basic team track with a crane and no dock. There were three larger team yards on this branch, two of them within a half mile from this location. Neither of those had a crane.

While these are older images, many of these railroad facilities survived into the 1960s with reduced usage. Keep that in mind when you find old photos from the 1900-1930 decades. 

Eric

I just plan on building the

I just plan on building the proverbial wooden ramp and dock for my team track. It will have it's own spur or share a spur with my stock pen. I haven't completely decided the arrangement of my "industries".

a modern look

Let's take a look at a modern example. I lived in El Paso, Texas for a few years and noticed interesting rail activity at the former Texas & Pacific freight terminal. Along Overland Street were a pair of tracks separate from the adjacent main yard. These are the team tracks.

I pulled these photos from Google so they are fairly recent. Note the dock on the far side of the two tracks. I went by here a few times and frequently saw boxcars and mechanical reefers being unloaded into trucks. A larger produce wholesaler is served directly on another nearby track, but here is where smaller companies could get rail delivery service. On this Google street view, no cars are spotted. I'll look through my photos to see if I snapped any shots here. This is an older facility and two tracks remain for use. 

At the far end of this pair of tracks a concrete ramp remains in place ready for use.

This 1917 image shows part of a team yard in Washington, D.C. I'm certain the photographer was set up to catch the mainline action on the left but we get a nice view of a busy team facility. As a comparison of infrastructure, this isn't that different from the recent El Paso photos.

Team yards and tracks were heavily utilized before WW2. As trucking became more common and roads improved, the railroad team facilities were used less frequently. There are still a few modern examples out there but team yards and tracks are not nearly as common as they once were.

Eric

One Example

My layout has team tracks in three locations.  One of these has an end loading ramp with bridge plates, while the others are simply track with truck access like the photo above.

....

many thanks Eric for the information and photos provided! I plan to settle on a ramp and dock only similar to the "more modern look" photos you posted (probably i ll combine ramp and dock in one single concrete structure). Further along the spur I plan to leave some empty space for direct access to a boxcar such as the scene that Rob (Spangler) posted.

Rob many thanks for chiming in, always a pleasure to see scenes from your layout.

Stuff at the Site

Yanis,

A team-track is not limited to general use and can get "fancier" than a concrete ramp and gravel pad. 

For example, many times an industry or team of industries does not have the space for an on-site spur.  Cost is a huge factor which is why a group of industries will sometimes opt for a shared team-track.

"So who is to say the folks who own your team track location did not opt to put in an overhead crane?"  Especially if the need would justify the cost?  

That's the nice thing about team-tracks!  Endless modeling opportunities. 

Joe

It occurs to me that one

It occurs to me that one could model some sort of hoist with a block and tackle arrangement  rather than a full fledged crane. That or something in the range between the two.

Simple

The simplest thing is to just do the prototype team track and put whatever facilities he wants.  That allows any shipper to use the track for any shipment whether they have a track to their business or not.

The challenge isn't what a prototype has at a team track, its that its only a three car spot. Fitting a crane and a dump and a end ramp and a loading dock and a spot to access both sides from the ground is going to be REALLY hard with just three cars of room.  

Simplicity is to put an end ramp and a one car loading dock then the other two spot have access from both sides.  Buy a truck mounted crane model or a crawler crane and when you spot a gondola , put the crane on the team track like the customer leased a crane to unload his car.

This being Pasadena, probably the big commodities will be autos and lumber.  In 1960 there would still be a lot of autos in boxcars, so its feasible to have an auto box spotted every day or every shift the track is worked, with the end doors facing the end ramp.

A friend of mine models the ATSF Surf Line to San Diego and at San Diego the team track has about 4 tracks each 4 or 5 cars long, two have docks along them and two back up to an end ramp, one has an "electric crane", a stationary overhead crane.  The end and side ramps receive a steady stream of auto boxcars.

Dump

And now for something completely different, here is a picture of a team track at Granogue, DE that has a coal dump, a sheet metal chute under the track so coal could be unloaded from a car into a dump truck.  Obviously this isn't appropriate to Pasadena, CA, but its something that hasn't been shown before.

more dump

Going the other way, the town siding at South Porcupine had a ramp for loading nickel concentrate from a dumptruck into a Hart (short, high-sided) gon.  Neat way to have a mine on the layout without having to have the mine on the layout.  The other main use of the town was pulpwood loading which required no infrastructure since the crane was on the truck bringing the pulpwood.  This in the mid- to late-70s.

David

...

There was a team track(s) at Pasadena right across the depot where the frequent loads were indeed cars as Dave mentions (as well as bagged cement if i am not mistaken, in pallets). Lumber from what i remember (from reading) must have had its own spur along the mainline south of the depot. The said team track (three tracks) was all paved with a covered dock & auto-dock-ramp. It also had a great ATSF sign on top of the structure - dock cover. Another use of these (3) tracks was to park special passenger trains such as the Rose-Bowl specials. This is something to consider for a future layout if i opt to add an extra small extension in the depot area to model this particular team track.

As i mentioned in the opening post, the area i am placing the this particular team track that concerns this topic  is east of Pasadena, in particular in the area of Wilton-Lamanda Park-Chapman (serving different industries than these of the aforementioned team track across the Pasadena depot). As such, i got in mind following the recipe that Dave mentioned, ramp & dock (1 car length) & open third spot, but with access from only one side (the other side is the mainline...no space there). I will look into portable cranes - conveyors in due time.

Interesting and very different team tracks posted there!!! I remember a photo in a book where they were using something similar to offload quickly road-salt from hoppers into dump trucks.

Track plans and a follow-up question

Having decided what to include based on your help i placed tracks and boxcars on the layout and tried to switch the team track etc... on paper. I got two options, make the team track (industry 7) an industry switched by the Westbound local (Version1 Track plan), or make it an industry switched by the Eastbound local (Version2 track plan).

Some concerns - thoughts:

Version 1 (Westbound):

If i opt for this, i am having a perfect balance between 4 EB and 4 WB served/switched industries on the layout but one train has approximately 5 more cars than the other (imbalance of car-spots EB/WB).

On the flip-side, having the turnout on this particular place on the layout (on a main module), i need to add an extra tortoise-control panel for uniformity reasons.

Version 2 (Eastbound):

In this option, i can get away without an extra tortoise/panel since the newly added turnout will be placed on a "disposable" part of the layout which is above one of my work-bench areas, in front of a window and w/o a backdrop (area between industries 7&8, no backdrop here).

On the flip-side, now i got a 3-5 balance between the industries served by WB and EB trains. Car spots though and train lengths are similar and more evenly balanced now.

My important concern/question: Does any of the two versions/options have any operational issues / problems that i cannot see so far? For example, unrealistic switching moves in a particular version, odd placement of turnouts, issues with uncoupling that i have not foreseen etc... For example i theoretically see a potential issue backing the train and coupling to the rest of it, in Version 2, where the rest of the train/caboose will be parked on the main behind the urban area (Downtown Pasadena). Having said that, the "rest of the train" is a caboose and 2-4 hoppers which means they would be parked within reach, roughly in the location of industry 6 on the main.

Many many thanks in advance for your extra replies/time

PS. Trains start from the unscenicked area between industries 1 and 8.

Yannis

VERSION 1

VERSION 2