What's the Difference Between a Siding and Spur? - Model Railroader Magazine
Spur...... A Track serving a business or something. The train working it still holds the warrant for the main line while working unless the warrant requires the train to be entirely clear of the mainline at so and such a time for another train to pass.
SIDING... is a place where trains meet or pass each other. It is under the control of CTC, and it frequently the end point of a track warrant, with a new warrant to be issued upon departure, unless of course the original warrant specifies continuing after the meet. A train would not work a siding as it would a spur, but even that is up for depage as a train may set out a defective car on a siding to be picked up later. The siding in Taylor ND has a built in spur for just this, since it clearly has no industry there.
In Richardton, there is a sput that leads into the team track, customers such as Stone Mill use it for shipping bagged grain products in box cars or containers. Equipment and particularly work trains can be laid up there.
The Ethanol Plant connects to the main line at both ends, and has several tracks that pass through the corn tower and tank filling station. There are several spurs that are east of the plant and loop back west again, because that is the land that they own and could not build longer straight spurs since they did not own that land. Looks like something a model railroader might build. These spurs were used for unloading hundreds of miles of oil pipe (the Dakota Pipeline project), but that pipe is all gone now. The ethanol plant does use the sidings for storing ethanol cars. Corn cars are returned right away lest drayage be paid. The GATX company Ethanol cars are leased to a consortium of ethanol plants and so they need a place to park them when not in use.
West of Town is the Halliburton plant. This too accesses the main line from both ends of the plant, but here the access switches are remotely contorlled by CTC, and the yard switiches by Halliburton. There is a complete wye at each access to the main, two loops that pass through the unolading terminal and eight spur tracks holding more than 10 cars each used for whatever, but originally intended for additives to be brought out and mixed with sand for particular customer specifications.
Taylor is the next town west of us and it has a 2+ mile siding the longest between Mandan and Glendive. Beyond that is the Grain Cooperative with a single sidding connected to the main at both ends, manually contorlled, and requiring a track warrant to work the plant. BNSF does the movement of grain cars for the plant, were as the Ethanol plant has two locomotives, and the Halliburton plant has two new goats for this purpose.
Are they sidings or spurs? ONLY the timetable knows for sure.
POCKETS... Found on subways. I place to park a bad order train en route, or a place to stash the "gap" train. The gap train is called out if the next train is so far behind that it is need to collect passengers before the next road train can get there. Pocket tracks can be single ended or double ended. Non my layout the are all double ended since they must leave in the same direction as they entered.
ROAR
