Model Railroader – October 2019

On Operation

October 2019 63

By Jerry Dziedzic

Stations don’t need depots

Make no mistake about the

original ownership of this

Joint Line trackage roughly

12 miles north of Pueblo,

Colo. The locomotive leading

the Burlington Northern

Santa Fe (BNSF) freight in the

background, still wearing the

proud Warbonnet paint

scheme, hints at it. However,

the real giveaway is the classic

Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe

(ATSF) design of the station

sign, as recognizable as one of

the road’s distinctive canti-

lever signal masts.

The Joint Line connects

Denver and Pueblo. The

Denver & Rio Grande

Western (D&RGW) first laid

track between the two; Santa

Fe surveyors found a roughly

parallel route soon after.

Officials agreed to joint oper-

ation as traffic grew, combin-

ing parts of both lines to cre-

ate a southbound and

northbound track. Union

Pacific (UP) and BNSF, their

successors, continue this

arrangement today.

The cottonwood branches

framing the station sign and

the barren space beyond

suggest it’s a relic of an earlier

time, perhaps what remains

of a site sporting a depot,

section house, and other

structures. Close inspection

shows otherwise.

It’s relatively

modern and well-

maintained, indi-

cating some impor-

tance. Indeed, it is.

It marks a specific

location on the

railroad, alerting

crews with “Hey,

look at me!”

Surveyors know

the term “station”

as a precisely

located reference

point. Railroading

gives it a similar

meaning, little

changed since the late 19th

century, when the Standard

Code defined it as a place des-

ignated on the timetable by

name. Today’s General Code

of Operating Rules (GCOR)

and Northeast Operating

Rules Advisory Committee

(NORAC) definitions read

almost identically.

The timetable to which

these codes refer is an

employees’ timetable. It con-

tains a list of stations for each

line, their milepost locations,

and the railroad facilities

located there. Some informa-

tion shows symbolically. For

example, Bragdon’s listing in

the station column of BNSF

Colorado Division

Timetable No. 6

of 2009 shows

“X(2)”, “X” mean-

ing crossover and

“(2)” indicating

that there are two.

Bragdon

received more

attention in a

1953 ATSF time-

table, when a

tower guarded the

Rio Grande and

Santa Fe grade

crossing there.

The tower earned

the station the

symbol “C”,

designating it an “office of

communication.” By that

time, Bragdon no longer mer-

ited an “f ”, or flag stop,

whether or not a depot build-

ing remained.

Many railroads elaborated

on Santa Fe’s office of com-

munication designation with

“D” and “N” symbols. N indi-

cates a station manned

around the clock. These are

typical of yards, towers, junc-

tions, and other critical loca-

tions. D indicates stations

which might be open only on

weekdays or only during

specified hours. Each road’s

timetable gave the hours these

part-time stations were open.

“Open,” in this sense of

the word, means that an

operator is on duty. A dis-

patcher (DS) could send a

train order to the operator to

be delivered to a train. Also,

the operator could “OS” (“On

Sheet”) the train, recording

the train’s arrival or depar-

ture and reporting it to DS

for entry on his train sheet.

A station can mark a point

at which the method of oper-

ation changes. BNSF timeta-

ble no. 6 made Bragdon the

point at which Track Warrant

Control with Automatic

Block Signals ended and

Centralized Traffic Control

(CTC) began. A southbound

train from Denver needed a

track warrant to reach

Bragdon. For example, the

dispatcher (DS) could issue

one with box 2 checked, read-

ing “Proceed from Crews

to Bragdon on main 1.”

Centralized Traffic Control

governed movements from

Bragdon to Pueblo. Signal

indication alone was enough

for DS to continue the south-

bound’s movements, without

the need for a track warrant.

A station can also mark a

limit of authority. The track

warrant example above gives

the limits of Crews and

Bragdon. In 1953, when time-

table and train order was the

method of operation, a train

order corresponding to this

track warrant would include

the phrase “Run extra

Crews to Bragdon.”

Signs can locate stations

on a layout just as the sign in

the photo locates Bragdon.

Most of the stations on my

own layout are kit-bashing or

scratchbuilding projects yet

to come off the workbench.

However, each station has a

sign on the fascia, as well

as the location’s track dia-

gram. You see, stations don’t

need depots.

A STATION CAN

MARK A POINT

AT WHICH THE

METHOD OF

OPERATION

CHANGES. IT

CAN ALSO

MARK A LIMIT

OF AUTHORITY.

• JERRY

A BNSF Ry. southbound headed by a diesel in the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe’s classic

warbonnet scheme passes Bragdon, Colo., in September 2008. Tom Schmieder photo