Saturday Slanguage: Roll Up Track

At least once on almost every trip, the train dispatcher will ask the train crew to "roll up some track" for him.  Sometimes he asks for a "roll up," and other times he will tell the crew to "roll up" a certain milepost.  While this may sound like a physically challenging task, I assure you it is actually quite simple and easy!

When the dispatcher asks a train crew to "roll up track," he wants to know where the rear of the train is.  Usually he needs this information so he can send a maintenance crew or track inspector out behind the train.  For obvious safety reasons, he would not want to send them out without knowing that the train has passed the location that they will be working.  When the rolls up track, the conductor tells the dispatcher what location the rear end of the train is past.  The most recent milepost is the most common location reference.  The dispatcher repeats this back, and then verifies it with the engineer.  At that point, the dispatcher knows that the the train is clear of the named location.

Sometimes the dispatcher knows he will want to send out a track inspector at a specific location.  Rather than wait until he thinks the train is past, he will tell the train crew in advance to roll up a certain location.  All this means is that, when the train has passed the specified location, he wants the crew to let him know.  From there, the roll up procedure is exactly the same.

Let's take a look at an example:
Dispatcher: BNSF 9697 West, for a roll up, over.
Conductor:  BNSF 9697 West, Conductor Ogden verifies the entire train is clear of milepost 96, over.
Dispatcher: BNSF 9697 West, on track warrant 612-56, entire train is clear of milepost 96 at 9:57, 0-9-5-7, is that correct?  Over.
Engineer:  BNSF 9697 West, Engineer Roberts, that is all correct, over.
In the above example, the dispatcher needed to know where the train was, and needed whatever track was available behind them.  He did not specify a location, either because he already knew they were beyond the area he needed, or he knew that they could roll up enough track for him to give authority to someone else in that area.  Now, let's look at the other possibility.
Dispatcher: BNSF 6268 East, please roll up West Blatchford, over.
Conductor: Roger, BNSF 6268 East to roll up West Blatchford, over.
Upon passing West Blatchford, the crew gets in touch with the dispatcher again:
Conductor: BNSF 6268 East to the Forsyth dispatcher, for West Blatchford, over.
Dispatcher: Forsyth dispatcher, over.
Conductor: BNSF 6268 East, Conductor Ogden verifies entire train is clear of West Blatchford.
Dispatcher: BNSF 6268 East, on track warrant 612-21, entire train is clear of West Blatchford at 11:32, 1-1-3-2, is that correct?  Over.
Engineer: BNSF 6268 East, Engineer Roberts, that is correct, over.

In both situations, the track has been made available behind the train for the dispatcher to use.  He may use it for another train, but more likely he needs to get maintenance personnel out on the tracks behind the train.  They could be a track inspector, a welder, signal maintainer, surfacing crew, or just about anyone else.  In both examples, a marked and known location was used.  Mileposts are the most commonly used for a roll up, but stations and switches, like in the second example, can also be used to roll up track.

As it turns out, it is not nearly as physically challenging to "roll up track" as one might be led to believe!