Reference pages

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Route Cards — 10: Southern Pacific

This post is connected with, but not about, waybills, so I have not treated it as a segment in my ongoing posts on waybill subjects. Instead, it is about routing cards.That’s a topic I introduced some time back, in a general post about these cards (see that post at: http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2011/11/chalk-marks-and-route-cards.html ). Once introduced, I went on to provide more history and details as I discovered them; here are  links to two of the nine previous posts in the series. Others can be found using the search box at the right of this text, key words “route cards.”

http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2011/11/route-cards-2.html
http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2013/12/route-cards-8.html

     Most if not all railroads had a system of using route cards in major and many minor yards, to facilitate switching and train make-up. I have wondered for some years if I could find out anything about the Southern Pacific system, though for a long time I could turn up nothing. Finally a friend sent me a photo of a switchman’s pocket card, summarizing routing numbers for various destinations out of West Oakland Yard. It appears to be a 1936 document. I still don’t know what the route cards themselves looked like (see post no. 8, link above, for some examples from other roads), but at least I know some codes. Here is the photo I received:


You can see that it is folded to make four pages, and is pocket-size. Visible here, though hard to read, are page 1 on the right, and 4 on the left. Below is shown one of the interior pages, page 2. (You can click on the image to enlarge it.)


     This page is more readable than most of this document, so I have transcribed the entire list, shown below as a jpeg (I can send you a PDF if you like). Some readers may be surprised at the railroad place names in a few cases, but a careful study of a Western Division map, such as the one on the end sheet of John R. Signor’s book, Southern Pacific’s Western Division (Signature Press, 2003) will locate them. A few locations, like Tie Pile for destination 77, are located in West Oakland Yard (see the map on page 95 of the book just cited). The “Desert” in destination 44 refers to Desert Yard. You can click to enlarge, or download to enlarge as you wish.


     I don’t know what these SP route cards may have looked like, but a reasonable guess, from a very simple perspective, might be something like that shown below, adopted from one of Keith Jordan’s cards shown in Part 8 of this series (link near top of the present post).


     I would love to find information from more terminals, or actual SP route cards, and will continue to look for examples.
Ton Thompson

7 comments:

  1. A 1931 San Jose track directory show the "tag" numbers for sidings in the area, and for cars destined outside. Raw document here:
    http://www.vasonabranch.com/railroad/timetables/index_assets/1931%20SJ%20Track%20Directory.PDF

    More details on the directory here:
    http://vasonabranch.blogspot.com/2011/12/teasing-out-operating-details-from.html

    Work immediately around San Jose got tagged based on the likely switch crew doing the work. Cars destined further up the Peninsula had slightly broader numbers, with "Lawrence and Atherton" having its own number, as did "Redwood City and West". Campbell to Santa Cruz also had its own number, probably because that work was handled by a road crew, not by switchmen. Interchange cars always had their own tag number.

    The track directory also had the phone directory, which makes it easy to see the number of jobs and offices scattered around San Jose.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, Robert, interesting to know. Presumably these kinds of tag lists were used system-wide. Would still like to find an example of one of the tags.
    Tony Thompson

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Tony! I plan to use route cards on my Lehigh Valley Harbor Terminal. I don't know if the LVRR used them or not, but I like the simplicity and the look. I have collected a large sampling of route tags, most are from Midwest and Western roads. I'll see if I have any SP ones I can send your way.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ralph, I would be interested to see examples from any Western roads, and Midwestern ones I haven't already sampled. I appreciate the offer.
    Tony Thompson

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi again, Tony!

    Right now, my layout room is a disaster and I have NO idea where they might be, but I was trolling the old posts of my blog this afternoon, and found my post about rote cards at - http://lvnyharbor.blogspot.com/2012/03/new-and-improved-paperwork-primer.html.....Hopefully, you'll read something of interest within! In the meantime, I'll start digging......

    Ralph

    ReplyDelete
  6. Excellent post, Ralph, and a number of interesting prototype route card. I think this is a topic worthy of further exploration.
    Tony Thompson

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi again, Tony - I'll be sending you some of those route cards scans later today via the Signature Press e-mail, I remembered to bring them to work to scan finally! I think you'll find some of great interest!

    Ralph

    ReplyDelete