Team and Clean Out Tracks

 After a recent clinic on Freight House Operations it was determined that a clean-out track needed to be placed near or adjacent to the Freight House. The reason is because of the amount of bracing materials used in LCL operations. When loading LCL packages into cars these loads needed to be braced so as to minimize the amount of shifting that would occur during transit. This reduced L&D claims, the bain of Railroad LCL operations.

LCL shipments arrived at Transfer Freight Houses, these cars were unloaded, the interiors of these cars were stripped, and the bracing materials that could not be re-used were discarded. A significant number of LCL cars took a trip to a local clean-out track. Once clean, they were re-spotted at the freight house for re-loading.

Now I’m guessing, but do not KNOW, that in the 1950’s this discarded bracing material was burned at some convenient spot adjacent to the clean-out track, but burning trash does not help us on model railroads. So a trash hauling gondola must be spotted.

In addition to the Clean-out track the City Team Track is usually located here. Team Tracks are the universal industry. Nearly any load can be spotted there. I think these types of team tracks should be paved because trucks are going to be pulled right up to the cars. Many team tracks, in fact, several that I have seen, have an associated loading dock. Quite a number of loads shipped to team tracks are braced, and this bracing is stripped off and usually discarded right on the ground, not many crews make provision for trash removal*.

So all this waste bracing needs somewhere to go. I suggest several models of waste bracing piles, and a waybill directing an MTY gondola be spotted at the “Clean-Out/Team Tracks”

Team Tracks directly adjacent to the Freight House are an excellent place for 50’ cars or open loads that got billed to the freight house. Make no mistake, freight houses accommodated 40’ boxcars only. Quite often a 40’ reefer was spotted, but the door spacing was unsuitable to 50’ cars, and loads in gondolas or on flatcars simply did not work. So the one in a thousand chance that a 50’ car gets billed to your freight house, the switch crews need to divert this to the Team Track.

*Quick note here from my work at the studios. I have to tell you that numerous times a set was NOT built because of the costs of removal afterwards. I “Built” a beach on a sound stage. It amounted to a couple dump trucks of washed plaster sand being dumped in a pile, then raked smooth. At the production meeting prior to this operation, the producers wanted to know why the set would cost $1500 to build, but over $5000 to remove. “Dumpsters for the sand are $900 each (Top gouge Hollywood price)”. You should have seen their faces when I suggested an alternative to the dumpsters, “If we remove the sand at night, we can just dump it into the LA River”…