T&GN/NT&O Symbol Methodology
The original driver for my putting pencil to paper for the purpose of designing schedules and symbols for these two railroads actually had nothing to do with the need for train schedules and symbols. This exercise began to support my efforts to develop my locomotive roster. After all, how would I know how many SD40-2's I needed if I didn't really understand how many trains this railroad ran on a daily basis?
When I first set out designing the flows across the system I had in mind that I would use a plain three-number system like the early NS employed. It was simple and classy in my opinion. For the intellectual exercise of defining traffic flows it worked great. However as the project progressed I discovered that I was spending much effort going back to the "master list" to decipher what the train numbers meant. For real railroaders who work the same territory day-in and day-out, train 314 and train 221 and train 19 might mean something. But for someone trying to grasp a whole railroad it can be overwhelming.
During my time living in Lincoln, NE I was fortunate enough to have been invited to operate at several of the wonderful model railroads in the greater Omaha area. There is an exceptional group of modelers there and the experience for me was very revealing. I have to say that the first time I filled the Yardmaster position at Santa Fe's Barstow Yard on a very operations-based model railroad I was a bit intimidated. Like a fish out of water. The train symbols coming at me were not familiar and it took a while for me to gain any real situational awareness. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the experience; but, it also gave me a new perspective on the direction I wanted to head with my own train symbols.
Back to my own symbols, my methodology morphed from a straight number system to an Alpha-Numeric system of the popular Train Type, From, To, Date pattern, i.e., M-SHVI-01 would be a Manifest train from Shreveport, LA to Vicksburg, MS departing on the 1st of the month. But then I thought, no, this is not what Proto-Freelancing is all about. I wanted to come up with something different, something my own, something that would help define these railroads as being their own entities with a unique culture.
So I reached into my professional experience, particularly as a train dispatcher, and thought about what the symbols meant in terms of actual train movement. There is logic to the meet/pass decision making process when running trains. Depending on the condition of the railroad these decisions are either driven by the hours of service of the train crew or by information discerned from the train symbol.
The first step to developing my unique symbol methodology was to separate the elements of the common North American Alpha-Numeric symbols and then rank each element in order of usefulness from the perspective of a Train Dispatcher, Yard Master, Control Operator, or anyone else involved in the train movement decision making process. Surprisingly, this approach lead to a ranking almost the exact opposite of the order seen on the prototypes.
In order from most important to least important I ranked the elements as follows:
1 - Priority Level
2 - Key Train Status
3 - Destination
4 - Point of Origin
5 - Train Type
6 - Date of Origin
And so there it was! My unique train symbol nomenclature now had a format. The most important item is train priority. If a train dispatcher needs to spend about one-half of one second to decide how to set up a meet, he or she needs to look no further than the first character in the train symbol - an "8" symbol vs. a "5" symbol meet should give priority to the "8" symbol. Who cares what the train is or where it came from at this point?
One other thing I decided to do to give a feeling of significance to the Meridian Speedway's place in the North American rail network was to recognize the origin and destination cities for the trains that originate and/or terminate at points not on home rails. The KCS was inspiration for this with their own priority traffic on the Meridian Speedway. Specifically hot-shot trains I-DAAT and I-ATDA. While the DA for Dallas, TX is a terminal on the KCS, the AT stands for Atlanta, GA which is not on the KCS. Rather these trains get into and out of Atlanta via connection with the NS at Meridian, MS. The BNSF did the same thing when they operated trains via the KCS Meridian Speedway by creating the station codes AUG for trains going to Austell, GA and ATG for trains going to Atlanta, GA.
After all that is part of the magic and lure of the Meridian Speedway for me - taking a traditionally poor and out-of-the-way part of the world like North Louisiana and Central Mississippi and placing it right at the heart of a new and thriving transportation corridor.
Now let us take a look at what these symbols would look like in a practical operating scenario. It would be reasonable that the following five trains could be operating eastbound between Shreveport and Vicksburg at any one particular time:
9-ATCIZ-05, 5K-ATIRM-07, 3-CABTG-06, 9-ATRIZ-05, and 8-ATDAZ-07
One can quickly see that four of these trains are going to Atlanta and one is going to Chattanooga on the old NT&O. Two of them are highest priority. Now let's say these trains came out of Shreveport back-to-back in the above order heading towards Vicksburg and there is a planned Maintenance-of-Way window on the Mississippi River Bridge at Vicksburg that will not be over before this fleet hits the bridge. The dispatcher looking no further than the first character of the train symbols will know that the move to make would be to put the "3" Symbol and the "5" Symbol trains in sidings to be passed by the second "9" Symbol and the "8" Symbol so that upon completion of the Maintenance Window the trains would operate across in order of priority - 9 - 9 - 8 - 5 - 3. From an operating viewpoint there is no need to care much about each symbol beyond that.
When I first set out designing the flows across the system I had in mind that I would use a plain three-number system like the early NS employed. It was simple and classy in my opinion. For the intellectual exercise of defining traffic flows it worked great. However as the project progressed I discovered that I was spending much effort going back to the "master list" to decipher what the train numbers meant. For real railroaders who work the same territory day-in and day-out, train 314 and train 221 and train 19 might mean something. But for someone trying to grasp a whole railroad it can be overwhelming.
During my time living in Lincoln, NE I was fortunate enough to have been invited to operate at several of the wonderful model railroads in the greater Omaha area. There is an exceptional group of modelers there and the experience for me was very revealing. I have to say that the first time I filled the Yardmaster position at Santa Fe's Barstow Yard on a very operations-based model railroad I was a bit intimidated. Like a fish out of water. The train symbols coming at me were not familiar and it took a while for me to gain any real situational awareness. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the experience; but, it also gave me a new perspective on the direction I wanted to head with my own train symbols.
Back to my own symbols, my methodology morphed from a straight number system to an Alpha-Numeric system of the popular Train Type, From, To, Date pattern, i.e., M-SHVI-01 would be a Manifest train from Shreveport, LA to Vicksburg, MS departing on the 1st of the month. But then I thought, no, this is not what Proto-Freelancing is all about. I wanted to come up with something different, something my own, something that would help define these railroads as being their own entities with a unique culture.
So I reached into my professional experience, particularly as a train dispatcher, and thought about what the symbols meant in terms of actual train movement. There is logic to the meet/pass decision making process when running trains. Depending on the condition of the railroad these decisions are either driven by the hours of service of the train crew or by information discerned from the train symbol.
The first step to developing my unique symbol methodology was to separate the elements of the common North American Alpha-Numeric symbols and then rank each element in order of usefulness from the perspective of a Train Dispatcher, Yard Master, Control Operator, or anyone else involved in the train movement decision making process. Surprisingly, this approach lead to a ranking almost the exact opposite of the order seen on the prototypes.
In order from most important to least important I ranked the elements as follows:
1 - Priority Level
2 - Key Train Status
3 - Destination
4 - Point of Origin
5 - Train Type
6 - Date of Origin
And so there it was! My unique train symbol nomenclature now had a format. The most important item is train priority. If a train dispatcher needs to spend about one-half of one second to decide how to set up a meet, he or she needs to look no further than the first character in the train symbol - an "8" symbol vs. a "5" symbol meet should give priority to the "8" symbol. Who cares what the train is or where it came from at this point?
One other thing I decided to do to give a feeling of significance to the Meridian Speedway's place in the North American rail network was to recognize the origin and destination cities for the trains that originate and/or terminate at points not on home rails. The KCS was inspiration for this with their own priority traffic on the Meridian Speedway. Specifically hot-shot trains I-DAAT and I-ATDA. While the DA for Dallas, TX is a terminal on the KCS, the AT stands for Atlanta, GA which is not on the KCS. Rather these trains get into and out of Atlanta via connection with the NS at Meridian, MS. The BNSF did the same thing when they operated trains via the KCS Meridian Speedway by creating the station codes AUG for trains going to Austell, GA and ATG for trains going to Atlanta, GA.
After all that is part of the magic and lure of the Meridian Speedway for me - taking a traditionally poor and out-of-the-way part of the world like North Louisiana and Central Mississippi and placing it right at the heart of a new and thriving transportation corridor.
Now let us take a look at what these symbols would look like in a practical operating scenario. It would be reasonable that the following five trains could be operating eastbound between Shreveport and Vicksburg at any one particular time:
9-ATCIZ-05, 5K-ATIRM-07, 3-CABTG-06, 9-ATRIZ-05, and 8-ATDAZ-07
One can quickly see that four of these trains are going to Atlanta and one is going to Chattanooga on the old NT&O. Two of them are highest priority. Now let's say these trains came out of Shreveport back-to-back in the above order heading towards Vicksburg and there is a planned Maintenance-of-Way window on the Mississippi River Bridge at Vicksburg that will not be over before this fleet hits the bridge. The dispatcher looking no further than the first character of the train symbols will know that the move to make would be to put the "3" Symbol and the "5" Symbol trains in sidings to be passed by the second "9" Symbol and the "8" Symbol so that upon completion of the Maintenance Window the trains would operate across in order of priority - 9 - 9 - 8 - 5 - 3. From an operating viewpoint there is no need to care much about each symbol beyond that.
TGN/NTO Symbol Pages are divided into Business Units. The buttons below will take you to each Symbol Page:
