About the Author J. D. Santucci (a.k.a. "Tuch") began his railroading career in 1978 as a trainman on the Missouri Pacific. After a round of lay-offs in 1985, Tuch embarked on a railroad odyssey, working in many different situations for different roads. This column tries to explain some of the nuts and bolts of the job and also demonstrates what we have to deal with on a regular basis within and without the industry. Tuch currently works through freights out of Chicago for Canadian National/Illinois Central. ©1999, 2003-2007 JD Santucci. Logo ©2002 The Railroad Network. By J.D. Santucci

January 22, 2004
Welcome to the New Year and (finally) more fun and games on the high iron. The holidays were busy and full of good times for the beautiful bride and I while simultaneously being chaotic and hectic. Despite it all though, a good time was had. Here's hoping that yours were full of the good times and lacking that of the aggravation.

The changing of the calendar has also brought about yet another change in job assignments for me as well. I have returned to the road working train 336 between Glenn Yard and Champaign, laying over and then coming back the next day on train 331. So once again I am back to being gone a lot.

I know I am really tardy in getting this one out, but I have been extremely busy as of late. Hopefully we will be getting on track again and producing these little columns again on a regular basis. I would like to thank all of you that took the time to inquire though. Some of you were concerned that I tossed you off the list or that perhaps I had taken ill. Fortunately it was neither, just too much to do in too little time. And now, on with the show.

The theme of today's topic sounds like the title to an old Chambers Brothers song from some thirty-five or so years ago. Trust me though while dealing with time, this lesson won't be of a musical nature. Instead, we will deal with the timetable. And as a special bonus visual aids are being included to assist us with today's lesson. The fine folks at RAILROAD.NET have again offered their outstanding website to assist me with today's presentation. Be sure to take a look around their site when you get a chance as they have done quite a fine job with it.

Throughout the years there have been two types of timetables used by the rail industry, employee and public. Public timetables are the ones published for the general public that advertise the schedules for passenger trains. From this comes the term "On the advertised" when making a note of actual arrival times of trains at scheduled stops. If the train is on time according to its timetable schedule, it is on the time advertised. Public timetables might also include a list of services offered on the trains, at the stations and oftentimes, a summary of fares. Today in North America, most public timetables are those showing the services provided by Amtrak, VIA and commuter railroads. There are still a handful of private sector inter-city passenger railroads in operation and you can find their timeta bles out there. Ontario Northland and Algoma Central are two railroads that still operate independently of a federal railroad passenger corporation. You can view their timetables at http://www.agawacanyontourtrain.com/fs_passengerservice.html for the Algoma Central or http://www.northlander.ca/ for Ontario Northland services. And of course, you may go to www.Amtrak.com or www.viarail.com to view schedules and gather information of North America's two passenger major passenger carriers.

In today's high tech world, public timetables can easily be downloaded and printed out using a computer. Hard copies are still printed up and made available at train stations and also through travel agencies. On some railroads timetables were called timecards as opposed to timetables. This could possibly be the result of them being printed on a card stock type of paper. Hence the phrase "carded X number of passenger trains" was derived from either the paper used to make the timetables or the name timecard, or perhaps both.

Now the employee timetable is a totally different creature altogether. These are published "For the government of railroad employees only" to borrow a quote from the industry. The employee timetable would be the instruction manual that supports the rulebook. It contains vital information and instructions used to govern the operation of trains and engines on a specific portion of track, across a railroad division or even across an entire railroad system.

The employee timetable governs various aspects of the operation of trains and engines. Included in the employee timetable (ETT) are speed limits and restrictions for trains and engines, train schedules, special instructions and changes or amendments to any operating rules. They also include instructions peculiar to specific portions of a railroad. For many years, a timetable schedule of a train was its authority to occupy and proceed on a main track. In the past twenty years or so, most railroads have departed from this method. Timetable schedules are merely for information to the train crews. More often than not in today's timetables, a disclaimer is included on the page that shows schedule times stating "Time shown is for information only and does not convey any authority."

There is a varying array of philosophies when it comes to the employee timetable. Some railroads use multiple timetables to govern their property. In the first thirteen years of their existence, Conrail subscribed to a regional format. Conrail divided their railroad into regions such as the Northern, Northeastern Atlantic, Western and Southern. Within these regions were divisions. As an example, in 1980 the Western Region of Conrail was comprised of four divisions; Chicago, Cleveland, Toledo and Fort Wayne. As Conrail evolved, the divisions within each region were modified and in some cases, eliminated through reorganization within the company. Mergers of divisions and regions within the system occurred as Conrail downsized itself over the years. Eventually, Conrail reorganized its structure completely and eliminated regions altogether. Newly created divisions consolidated smaller divisions within a region into the new structure. This reorganization reduced some of the management employees required to operate the company. That seemingly age old quote of "Reducing the layers of management" was stated as a reason for the restructuring.

So Conrail in their region days used regional timetables. After the reorganization they went to a divisional format. Many other roads have used a divisional format as well. Norfolk Southern predecessors Southern and Norfolk & Western used the divisional format and NS has kept that philosophy since the two roads were merged. With the inclusion of the 58% of Conrail they obtained in 1999, NS has continued with the divisional format. The division timetable contains all the information relevant to that particular division with regards to all the previously mentioned aspects. They will also include any special instructions that apply system wide as well.

Being that some railroads have a great deal of special instructions peculiar only to a specific portion of the railroad, their philosophy is to only keep that information readily available to the employees that operate on that particular division. The theory is that a division timetable keeps the total size of the timetable down to one that is manageable, one that makes it easier to carry in your grip. Now just remember though, this is a theory.

Another ETT format is the system variety. Some railroads like MoPac and Union Pacific, (prior into their merging into the mega-goliath they are today) used a system format. Both railroads used regional, district or division formats prior to their adopting a system format. The Santa Fe also went to a system format after years of using a divisional format. Since merging into the monsters they are today, BNSF and UP have returned to the division type format. UP goes by the name of service units for their divisions though. Obviously somebody took the education their diploma indicates they received and put it to good use by coining this new millennium type term to replace the division name. However, a division by any other name though would still be a division.

And there have been different philosophies regarding the overall format of the employee timetable with regard to how it is assembled. For years railroads used a booklet type of format with a card stock type of cover. These were usually staple or perfect bound and came in two popular sizes; pocket or magazine. The pocket style is narrow in width and fits quite easily into your back pocket. The magazine style is usually an 8x11 size that can only fit into your pocket if you fold it in half.

In the 1970's a new format of ETT was created, the binder style. There were a couple of varieties of this with one being the ring binder and the other a post binder. Several eastern began using the binder format including Penn Central and Erie Lackawanna. With the binder format, the philosophy was that instead of printing an entire new timetable, just the pages that required revisions could be changed. Any and all revisions and changes were printed on new pages and the now obsolete pages were simply removed being replaced with the revision pages. While the initial cost of implementing the binder format was a little more costly, the overall cost was reduced as only what needed to be changed was changed.

Penn Central was probably one of the first to make extensive use of the revision pages. Being that PC was essentially falling apart in the early 70's, numerous speed restrictions were being placed into effect. Yellow revision pages that carried all of the speed restrictions and any other type of restrictions were used and added to the timetable.

Today, most railroads have embraced the binder format. In addition to the timetable and special instructions, operating, air brake and train handling and safety rulebooks have been added to the binder so you now have a one stop operating manual. Exceptions to this are CSX and UP. While they have the various rulebooks in a binder, the timetable and special instructions are in separate magazine style books that do not fit into any kind of binder.

Some roads though, use a spiral bound timetable. Kansas City Southern and Canadian Pacific have such ETT's. They have card stock covers with spiral bindings. The pages in such timetables cannot be changed out.

And since merging into the massive beast it has become, UP seems to have taken a step backwards with their timetables. Today's UP ETT's appear as if they were created by a junior high school kid working at his PC after completing his homework. Yes, it looks cheap and quickly done. Quite the dummying down of what once was one of the better ETT's.

So now let us begin our tour of the employee timetable and how it works. My plan is to eventually do several columns dealing with the timetable. This one will describe a very user friendly timetable. It is my intention to look at a couple of others in future columns to compare several philosophies on timetable structure. There is far too much information to present it all in one column.

You can follow along by clicking onto the first link http://www.railroad.net/santucci/tt13.jpg.

This photo shows us the cover of Missouri Pacific system employee timetable number 13, dated June 15, 1979. Every ETT contains a timetable number. Whenever a new timetable is issued, it will have a new number. This number may be either the next number in sequence or a new series of numbers, usually beginning with the number 1. In this case, timetable number 13 succeeded number 12. The date on each timetable also includes an effective time, in this case 1201 a.m. It is of extreme importance that a date and time effective are included with a timetable. The rules state "A timetable is in effect from the moment it takes effect." While this statement may sound redundant, it means exactly what it says. In this case, timetable 13 takes effect at 1201 a.m. on the morning of June 15, 1979. Until that moment, timetable number 12 is in effect. Once timetable 13 takes effect, timetable 12 immediately becomes useless and cannot be used under any circumstances.

You'll observe the term "Central Standard Time except Mountain Standard Time on Horace Subdivision." While most of the MoPac was operated in the Central Time Zone, the Horace Sub, of which all but sixteen miles were operated in Colorado, was located in and operated under the Mountain Time zone. To compensate for this one hour difference and have the timetable take effect system wide at the same hour, the notation about Mountain Time was required. This means it went into effect at 1201 am everywhere on the system, but just not at the exact same moment system wide.

With the moment the new timetable takes effect, any and all scheduled trains must now assume the schedule of the new timetable. In some cases, their schedule may be changed or even eliminated with the new timetable. Under such circumstances, train orders would be issued to such trains in the hours in advance of the new timetable actually taking effect to authorize them to operate as an extra train. If an order was not issued and there was no schedule for them in the new timetable, that train would be required to be in the clear of the main track by the moment the new timetable took effect or provide flag protection as they no longer carried any authority to occupy the main track.

Notice the word "System" above the timetable number. This tells the employees that this timetable covers the entire MoPac system and not just a division. Had it been issued for only a specific portion of the system, there would be the name of a division or region (or both) instead of the word system. Before MoPac adopted the system format for timetables, they would state what region and then the divisions and subsidiary companies within that region were governed by the new timetable.

Then there is the notations of "For the government of employees concerned" and also "The Railroad Company Reserves the Right to Vary Therefrom as Circumstances May Require." The first quote is pretty obvious and for those of us veterans of the industry, we fully understand that second quote as meaning, "Do as I say, not as I tell you."

At the bottom is a list of some of the senior officers of the carrier.

MoPac, when adopting the system format for their ETT's in 1969, opted to go with a plastic coated paper cover instead of the more common card stock cover. The plastic coated cover tended to hold up much better. This format and numbering system lasted for twenty-three timetables and into the MoPac/UP merger in December 1982. With the initial issue of system timetable #1, the MoPac buzz saw emblem adorned the cover. When the screaming eagle emblem was adopted, it was then used. After the UP took over, the MoPac name was retained but the UP shield replaced the screaming eagle.

Also, the names of subsidiary companies owned by MoPac were included on the cover. Names like Chicago & Eastern Illinois, Texas & Pacific, Kansas, Oklahoma & Gulf and Missouri & Illinois appeared under the "Mi ssouri Pacific Railroad Co." name. As these components were fully merged into MoPac over the years, their names disappeared from the timetable cover.

Clicking onto http://www.railroad.net/santucci/tt13-9.jpg brings us to the division officer page and also the table of contents. The divisions are listed as part of the different regions and the officers that headed up those regions and divisions are listed. On the table of contents page, you can see the organization of the divisions within each region, then the alphabetical listing of each subdivision. You'll notice that some subdivisions retain the name of their original railroad. The Midland Valley, NO&LC (New Orleans & Lowe r Coast) and TNM (Texas & New Mexico) were just three individual railroads or parts of railroads that the MoPac took control of over the years and eventually fully merged into the system.

Click http://www.railroad.net/santucci/tt13-2.jpg.

These pages are the station and special instruction pages for the Chicago and Pana Subdivisions. You'll notice the subdivision names as well as the Chicago and Illinois Division names. MoPac arranged their timetables in division order. All of the subdivisions of each division were grouped together with the higher priority lines listed first followed by the branch and secondary lines. The Chicago Division was unique in that it was comprised of only one subdivision, the Chicago Sub. All other divisions on the MoPac had multiple subdivisions.

On page 2 in the subdivision special instructions are the listing of speed limits and restrictions for the Chicago Sub and a portion of the Pana Sub. The speed limits and restrictions are indicated by two sets of numbers separated by a dash. For example, MP 153-17.This indicates milepost 153, pole 17. At one time most railroads had a pole line parallel to their right of ways. These were telephone poles that carried communication lines. The pole line included signal, telephone, block or track phone, yard phone lines and back in the day, telegraph lines. Those phones known as the block or track phone was the Dispatcher line. You picked up the phone and listened to make certain nobody was talking, pressed the button on the handset and stated your location. If you were at Glover (GLUH-vur), you would just say "Glover" and then wait. When the Dispatcher was free to speak with you he would respond "Glov er" and you then proceeded to identify yourself, your train and then state your business. The yard line was a similar communication system but this line only connected the towers and freight agencies. The Dispatcher had no link to this line. And being that as the case, some interesting conversations were had pertaining to some of the Dispatchers.

The amount of poles per mile varied, usually between 40 and 50. A few miles might have 52 while others might only have 48. In same cases, the line was only around 40 poles, stretching to 42 or 43 in some miles. These poles were used in designating the exact geographic location of switches, the beginning and end of speed restrictions or speed limits, the beginning and end of train order protection for on track workers and also stations. To make it easier on train crews, every tenth pole had a stripe on it that corresponded to its count. The tenth pole in the mile had a single stripe; the twentieth pole had two stripes, the thirtieth three and so on. This was so we didn't have to count every single pole per mile when it came to dealing with speed restrictions and the like. Today most of the pole lines are long gone and tenths of miles are used in their place as location designators. Some railroads g o all out and give you quarter and half mile markers as well as the mileposts in each mile; some, but not all.

Included on the subdivision special instruction page are locations of yard limits, the number of main tracks and their designations, signal systems in service as well as other operating requirements that may be in effect. There is also a list of locations not listed on the station page that are significant. MoPac showed these as "Business Tracks." These would normally be locations of industries, team tracks and the like. You'll also notice the Cissna Park Industrial Track and information about it. While not a main track, it was necessary to mention this track as it was more than just a spur or business track.

Hot Box and Dragging Equipment detector locations are noted. It was very important to know the exact location of the detectors for braking purposes. It was always recommended to avoid excessive or prolonged air braking when operating over the detectors. You also wanted to avoid stopping on the detectors whenever possible. Detectors are covered quite extensively as to the signals displayed on them and what was required when a train was stopped by them.

The MoPac used route signals that informed you of what you're routing would be as opposed to speed signals that tell you exactly how fast or slow to proceed. Information about the speed through switches and what type of switches were in service such as remote controlled power switches or spring switches was placed on the subdivision special instructions. The number of the switch or turnout indicates what speed is allowed when turning out through it. More information about the types of turnouts and their corresponding speeds is provided in the system special instructions at the back of the timetable.

The subdivision special instruction page states the type of signal system in service. The exact location of such signal systems is also listed.

We move on to the station page now. The lines drawn next to the stations on the station page are track diagrams. While not all roads use them, MoPac made great use of such diagrams. These diagrams indicated single and multiple main tracks, locations of sidings and what side of the track they were located, lines that branched off the main track and/or sidings and also the crossing at grade of other rail lines. Solid lines breaking off from the main tracks indicated another route that connected to the subdivision. The dotted lines indicate the crossing of another railroad at grade. The initials of the railroad or railroads that crossed at each particular location are listed next to the station name. On the double track portion of the subdivision, the solid lines that connect the two tracks at various locations designate the location of crossover switches between the main tracks. The angle of them in dicates the direction of the crossovers.

The color highlighted areas on some of the track diagrams are used to indicate the type of signal system in service on that particular track segment. Orange was used to designate CTC (Centralized Traffic Control) while green was used to indicate ABS (Automatic Block Signal). Areas with no color at all were non-signaled track that was controlled by train order, yard limits or some other method of operation that did not use signals controlled by track circuits. This territory is referred to as "dark territory," a name derived from the lack of illuminated signals.

The portion of the route between Chicago and Dolton Junction is shown with no color. While this segment had automatic block signal rules in effect, it was actually owned and operated by the Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad. This information appears on the subdivision special instruction page. CWI rules, timetable and special instructions were in effect on this portion, hence the lack of color, just as in the portion of the Pana Sub on page 2 that is not colored.

If you look at the far left side of the station page on page 2, you'll notice a bracket with the words "Joint MP-L&N." This segment of track is jointly owned by the both MoPac and Louisville & Nashville and was pointed out here. The MoPac was the "senior" owner of the two roads and pretty much called the shots. The Uniform Code of Operating Rules used by the MoPac and various other southwestern roads was in effect as was the MoPac timetable and special instructions. At one time there was a separate MoPac/L&N Joint Chicago Subdivision timetable in effect that covered this portion of the railroad. Between 1969 and 1976 they were joint C&EI/ L&N timetables before the C&EI flag was lowered permanently by parent MoPac. L&N employees were only required to carry the joint timetable during these days, but MoPac employees were required to carry both the system and Chicago Division timetables. During the days of the joint timetable a notation on the station page mentioned the joint timetable being in effect. The use of the joint timetable ended in 1979 with system timetable #13. All the information was placed into the system timetable negating the requirement for the joint timetable.

Direction for the subdivision is indicated at the top of the page. In the case of the Chicago Sub moving from top to bottom is timetable direction south while coming up from the bottom of the page is north. Each subdivision is assigned a north-south or east-west direction. The assignment of direction generally directly correlates with the actual configuration of the route. While some lines will meander into all directions, specific direction has to be assigned. If the route is generally north-south or east-west in overall configuration, one of those designations will be used.

Some roads have designated their entire railroad as either east-west or north-south. It didn't matter if some lines operated contrary to the compass direction. Wisconsin Central was one such road. The entire railroad was an east-west route in my days there even though some subdivisions were actually more of a north south configuration. As a result, some trains actually changed timetable directions during their journey going from being a westbound to an eastbound train. T011 and T012, the trains operating between Fond du Lac, WI and Gladstone, MI were a prime example of that. T011 was a westbound departing Fond du Lac but when it entered the Shawano Sub at Neenah, WI, it became an eastbound train. The timetable direction from Neenah to Argonne, WI, where the Shawano Sub ended was eastward. So a westbound train out of FDL became an eastbound train from Neenah to Gladstone. And likewise the westbound T012 became an eastbound train when entering the Neenah Sub at its namesake city en route to Fond du Lac.

Observe the column on the left that shows miles. Every subdivision has mileage calculated from a specific point. In the case of the Chicago Sub as shown here, it is from Dearborn Station in Chicago. While Dearborn Station had long since closed and the trackage used to access it had been removed, it was shown as a matter of reference.

In between the station names (just under and above each name) you'll see a set of numbers. For an example we'll use Villa Grove and Block. Just below Block and above Villa Grove is the number 9.5. This number indicates the distance between the two stations, in this case being 9.5 miles.

On the right middle of the page is a column with alpha-numeric numbers. MoPac assigned a number peculiar to each location on a subdivision. There were no two stations anywhere on the system that had the same designations. Each alpha-numeric code, known as its "CIRC-7" code, was unique. Yard Center is ZA-18. If there was another location designated at milepost 18 on any other subdivision, it used an alpha code that was different. For example, Percy, IL on the Pinckneyville Sub was also located at milepost 18 on that subdivision. However, it was designated as C-18. On the Chicago Sub, milepost 18 was located right at Sibley Boulevard, Illinois Rt. 83. Sibley was the location of the main office building at Yard Center at also the sight of a major interlocking also known as a control point. As it worked out, it was also the operating center of the yard, even if it wasn't exactly the geographic center.

The CIRC-7 was used as part of the TCS computer system designed and used by MoPac. This system was created in part, to eliminate the potential for confusion with regards to station names. Being that the MoPac was a rather large railroad, over 11,000 miles, there was the distinct possibility of two or stations having the same name, only in different states and on different subdivisions. The CIRC-7 designation eliminated the possibility of misrouted cars. Unfortunately, I cannot recall what the individual letters in CIRC represented.

Siding designation and length is indicated in the last two columns on the station page. Other auxiliary tracks that were designated sidings were indicated in this column. Being that there were multiple auxiliary tracks adjacent to the main tracks at both Yard Center and Chicago Heights, they didn't use siding designations but rather called them yards. The notation "Cars" was the car count each siding held. This car count was based on fifty foot car lengths, the average size of a freight car back then. There was also a designation in fe et which was actually quite important. When setting up meets, the Dispatcher did not want to try to meet two trains at a location where neither train would fit, although it has been attempted many times over the years.

At the two sidings in Momence you'll notice the letter "n" and "s" preceding the car counts. There were sidings along side of each main track. To differentiate between the two, the one along the northbound main was called the northward siding and the one along side the southbound main was the southward siding.

At the bottom of the station page you'll notice the number 339.0. This number indicates the total mileage of the subdivision in miles and tenths of miles.

You'll notice a wide array of symbols or characters located next to the station names as well. Clicking onto http://www.railroad.net/santucci/tt13-8.jpg explains all of these characters. The use of these characters helped to simplify the station page keeping it less congested. It also saved space in the timetable so that they didn't have to use full descriptions on every station page throughout the entire timetable. At a glance, we'll take JAY as an example. Based on the characters listed and the track diagram, we see a crossing with the EJ&E Railway at Jay. Based on the characters listed, we can see there are yard limits in effect here, a manual railroad crossing at grade, a wayside base radio and also an open train order office.

The manual crossing at grade was with the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern, which was controlled on sight manually by the Operator assigned there. The wayside radio base was that of the one located inside the tower located at the crossing known as "Jay Tower." The Operator at Jay Tower also copied tr ain orders and delivered them to MoPac and L&N trains here. Now if you had to write this information out on the subdivision special instructions for every location, it could quickly become quite cumbersome.

A list of roadside signs used in conjunction with everyday operation is included on the character explanation page.

At the point in time this timetable was in effect, the Pana Sub between Pana Jct. (pronounced PAY-nuh) and Mitchell Yard was owned and operated by Conrail. Their timetable and rulebook were in effect, so any special instructions, speed limits and speed restrictions were found in their timetables. MoPac employees operating over this railroad were issued and required to carry Conrail timetables and rulebooks. In the early 80's MoPac purchased this segment of track from Conrail and subsequent timetables carried all of the information required. The portion between Mitchell Yard and Granite City, IL was a jointly owned by Conrail and Illinois Central Gulf. Again, there was a separate timetable in effect for this portion. The Terminal Railroad Association of St Louis (TRRA) owned the remaining portion of the route MoPac used to access St Louis on this subdivision. The station portion of this page conveys no authority for MoPac trains, it merely provides information.

Next, click onto http://www.railroad.net/santucci/tt13-5.jpg. This brings up some additional special instructions. The map shows the Kansas City Terminal trackage. As you can see it appears to look somewhat complex. This map helps to explain the lay of the land as it were and also includes special instructions about proceeding through what appears to be quite the labyrinth. You'll also notice on page 31 there is a notation about operating on Union Pacific trackage and the requirements to have the Joint Tenant Line Rules in your possession. This book has the appearance of a timetable and includes rules and special instructions for operating on UP trackage in the Omaha Terminal area. Somewhere in my personal collection of railroad timetables and rulebooks, I have a Joint Tenant Line book.

Now click onto http://www.railroad.net/santucci/tt13-6.jpg. We see the Dallas Subdivision which hosted Amtrak. The times listed next to the stations are the scheduled times of Amtrak at those locations. The letter s next to the time indicates this is a regular scheduled station stop. The letter f next to the time designates this as a flag stop. Trains will only stop on request. If there is nobody on the train getting off at that location or nobody visible on the platform to the approaching train, they do not stop. By 1979 there were very few timetable scheduled trains operating on the MoPac system. Most of these were the first class Amtrak trains.

On either side of the station page are the designations for the scheduled trains that convey their authority. The direction, class and train number are included. As you can see, number 21 is a first class train operating its schedule in a westward direction.

If you look at the track diagram at the bottom of page 46 you'll notice an additional track in between the two main tracks at several locations. These are actually sidings located in between the mains. Such siding placement offers incredible flexibility in moving and dispatching trains. You'll also notice the station BOP. This is not an actual town, but rather the sight of a large General Motors assembly plant. In 1979 GM was building the Regal, Cutlass and Grand Prix models at this plant. It was known as "Bop" but actually just a station within the city of Arlington, TX. For what its worth, Arlington is supposed to be geographically equidistant to both Dallas and Fort Worth.

Clicking onto http://www.railroad.net/santucci/tt13-7.jpg brings us to the Brownsville Subdivision of the Kingsville Division. Here we see both CTC and dark territory operation. If you check out the subdivision special instructions, you'll notice a significant amount of information dealing with the operation over foreign railroads as part of this line. Adding such information negated the requirement for MoPac crews to have to carry Santa Fe timetables with them while on this trackage.

Being that MoPac operated via other railroads under trackage rights agreements; provisions were made to accommodate the delivery of the proper information to the crews that would be operating the trains. In some cases like above, such information was conveyed through the subdivision special instructions. In other instances, the amount of information (e.g. rules, speed restrictions and other special instructions) was too extensive to place on the subdivision special instructions pages. Instead, such information was posted in the system special instructions portion in the back of the timetable. Information for some of the Santa Fe trackage rights pertaining to rules, signals and other special instructions takes up over two pages in the system special instructions. Rules and spe cial instructions pertaining to trackage rights on the Frisco takes over a page a half and the rules and special instructions pertaining to trackage rights on the Kansas City Southern and their Louisiana & Arkansas subsidiary take up nearly two and a half pages. At one time, a joint MoPac (and subsidiary Texas & Pacific)/KCS-L&A timetable was issued for the segment of the railroad in which both railroads operated. Adding the information to the system special instructions negated the need for an additional timetable.

Now we go to the system special instructions at http://www.railroad.net/santucci/tt13-4.jpg. The system special instructions cover a wide variety of topics. As you can see from the two pages I have posted here there is a great deal of information about speed restrictions. Certain types of equipment will have speed restrictions that must be adhered to for various reasons. There are also instructions dealing with the special handling of certain types of loads as well as some types of locomotives.

Each item in the special instructions will have a number and often also a number with a letter assigned to it. If the special instructions must be superceded for any reason, a train order or Superintendent's Bulletin would be issued. Such an issue would include the specific system special instruction number and, if applicable, letter. Such a train order or bulletin would read something to the effect of "Timetable no 3 System Special Instructions item no 8 is changed to read "

There is a section in the system special instructions that explains hot box and dragging equipment detectors. The proper procedures for inspecting a car or cars and if applicable, the entire train when stopped by a detector, are clearly explained and fully covered. The detectors themselves are also explained.

Changes, deletions and any other revisions to the operating or safety rule books are also handled by the system special instructions. Being that we were using a rule book issued in 1968, by 1979 there had been significant changes and modifications issued to supercede what was originally issued in that book. In the timetable we are studying today, there were no less than six and one half pages of revisions to the Uniform Code of Operating Rules.

A section is included that deals with the operation of engines in various aspects of the job including short time load ratings, operation through water, shoving and back up movements and even restrictions in using the whistle. You probably noticed one of the characters on the page explaining them was the number 9 in a circle. This is item 9 in the special instructions that covers no whistle ordinances at specific locations. There is even an item that deals with the operation of rail testing cars and equipment.

The qualifications of Engineers is also discussed as part of item 7. While only one paragraph, it was quite comprehensive in what it had to say.

And finally, go to http://www.railroad.net/santucci/tt13-3.jpg. You'll notice the names of company doctors and their respective locations. You'll also notice a speed table at the very bottom of the page. This table converts elapsed time into speed in miles per hour. The main reason for this conversion table is to cover the possibility of having a speedometer fail en route. There are mileposts every mile and you are required to have (in the days of this timetable) a railroad approved watch. Should your speedometer not be working, you can easily check your speed just the same using this table and your watch, timing the miles.

Whenever a new timetable is issued, a notice or bulletin is posted in advance of its taking effect. We don't just show up one day and they say here is a new timetable. In the days of this timetable, we were still using train orders. A train order was issued 24 hours prior to and then six days after its taking effect. The wording was something to the effect of "Acceptance of this train order confirms that you have timetable no 13 (or whatever number the new one taking effect was) in your possession.

In those days MoPac was very generous and you had no problem getting a new one. The Operators, Trainmasters, Yardmasters and Callers all had cases of them in their offices, so there was generally no problem in getting a new one or several of them. I always took several as one went into my personal collection and the other went into my grip, after studying it of course.

Over the years, many railroads issued new timetables twice a year to correspond with the time change between standard and daylight savings time. As the freight railroads exited the passenger business, those that issued the twice a year timetables began to stray from the twice per year policy. Now it is not uncommon to see the same timetable remain in effect for a couple of years or more.

The employee timetable is required to be in your possession while on duty along with the operating rulebook, safety rulebook, air brake and train handling rules and any other required books. The other required books will vary from railroad to railroad. The books or circulars that employees are required to carry are listed where else, but in the special instructions of the timetable. Failure to carry the timetable, rulebooks and other required materials can result in disciplinary action being taken against the offending employee. If an employee is caught by the FRA not having the required books, they have the right to assess a fine against the offending employee.

It seems more and more in recent years that whenever a new timetable goes into effect, within days or hours, bulletins are issued to amend the mistakes that appear in the new timetable. It used to be that proofs were checked very closely for mistakes before they "put it to bed," but that seems to no longer be the case today.

I have publicly suggested in the past that before a new timetable is printed and distributed, proof copies should be handed out to several of the better Engineers and Conductors working each subdivision for their input, revisions and corrections. By using the people you pay to adhere to this timetable, those who use it daily, you would likely get a much more accurate timetable. There would likely be no need to be putting out bulletins correcting all the mistakes before the ink is dry on the pages. While it is possible that some mistakes do occur at the printing house, more of them come from the railroad. However, it is likely my suggestion will not ever be taken up.

In any event, the timetable is a vital component of railroad operations and all employees should take the time to study and learn it. While there is no way one can recall every item within the timetable, you should be able to know where to look to find the information you need without having to fumble through the thing. To quote a line Conrail used at the beginning of all their timetables, "Know your timetable."

And with that, we now conclude today's tour of the employee timetable. Again, I wish to thank Michael Roque, Otto Vondrak and all the fine folks at RAILROAD.NET for graciously hosting the accompanying photos.

And so it goes.

Tuch