Saturday Slanguage: Ready Tracks

Today we talk about engine servicing facilities.  First, a quick history lesson.  Back when steam engines were the backbone of railroad horsepower in the United States, there were servicing facilities of varying sizes in almost every sizable town along the right of way.  Steam engines required an enormous amount of maintenance, and needed to be serviced as frequently as every 100 miles.  Consequently there were places to water, fuel, and grease them in many towns along the railroad.  They required heavier maintenance periodically, and facilities to handle the more in-depth maintenance typically developed in larger towns, where there were more people to employ in the various trades required to keep the engines going.  Today, with modern diesel locomotives, servicing usually only needs to happen every few thousand miles, and so a lot of the servicing facilities in smaller towns, which once fueled, watered, sanded, and greased steam locomotives, are either gone or unused.

The larger servicing facilities always developed around a building called a roundhouse.  Roundhouses were, as their name implies, large, round buildings, with tracks inside them.  The tracks were arranged so that they all met in the center, at a turntable, and then extended out from there in a radial pattern.  This arrangement allowed equipment to be moved in and out of roundhouse tracks without interfering with any other equipment in there.  Because of the need for organization at larger facilities, a system developed to bring a locomotive into the servicing facility, do all the servicing required, and then leave it somewhere for it to be assigned to another train.  The ready tracks were the last step in this process.  After servicing and inspections, engines are left on ready tracks, named because that is where locomotives ready to be sent out on another train wait.  The ready tracks were simply a place where an outgoing train crew could find their engine, or engines, to put on the train.  Ready tracks are still used today in many servicing facilities.  Steam locomotives are long gone, but today just about any arrangement of diesel locomotives can be found idling on the ready tracks, waiting for their next train.  Typically, if traffic is high, locomotives will not wait long for a train, and the ready tracks will not have very many engines on them.  If traffic is a little slower, engines may wait longer before going out again, and the ready tracks will have more engines on them.

Steven and I have an announcement to make, concerning the Saturday Slanguage posts.  Unfortunately, we will be suspending them indefinitely, effective next Saturday.  This is for a few reasons, although primarily it is to free up a little time for myself.  I was beginning to feel a little swamped with the blog and work, and since the Saturday Slanguage posts are our least popular at the moment, they are getting the ax.  If you want to see more of them, please visit our Facebook page and vote on your favorite feature of the website and blog!