Railroaders' Nostalgia > Tally that train!

At Selkirk (NY) until ACI eliminated the manual writing down of car numbers, the "Car Distributor" (by the Conrail days, it was merely a report clerk on the hump) or a messenger (jitney driver) would go out with a clipboard and write down the car numbers of inbound trains as they passed the hump from the east on the inbound track or through the tunnel, or on the camera from the west. The yardmasters used to refer to this duty as "taking a tally" and called the pre-printed forms "tally sheets."
Was the term "tally" used anywhere else when it referred to taking down car numbers?
Andy

twropr Wrote:
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> At Selkirk (NY) until ACI eliminated the manual
> writing down of car numbers, the "Car Distributor"
> (by the Conrail days, it was merely a report clerk
> on the hump) or a messenger (jitney driver) would
> go out with a clipboard and write down the car
> numbers of inbound trains as they passed the hump
> from the east on the inbound track or through the
> tunnel, or on the camera from the west. The
> yardmasters used to refer to this duty as "taking
> a tally" and called the pre-printed forms "tally
> sheets."
> Was the term "tally" used anywhere else when it
> referred to taking down car numbers?


B&OCT, MILW, BN it was listing up a train or a track.

TAW

When we would come into WJ, Salinas or BI, they would tell you to take it slow, the "Pickle Clerk" had to check the train. A lot of them would have their own mini voice recorders to make it easier.

A lot of the old heads used to refer to the sugar beets as Potegee Pickles.


Nudge

The most challenging I ever did was the Ferndale Turn arriving Bellingham from Seattle. In addition to just listing up the train (actually, checking the train against the list out of Mt Vernon that was generated by COMPASS unless COMPASS was down, as was often the case) the operator had to check for which end of the wood chip cars had the hinged end doors and for unload one side placards. The end doors were a challenge because unlike the rotary coupler end of a dump hopper that was painted white or had a white stripe, there was no painted designation for the door end of a wood chip car. You had to look at the top edge of the car end for hinges as it was coming up to you. Some of the cars had a door at both ends, so you also had to look at the trailing end of the car just by. It helped to watch the numbers on the car ends instead of the car sides, but they were a lot smaller and susceptible to being covered with dirt, scratched off, or otherwise illegible. You might need to watch the side of a car for the number then immediately look up at the end of the next car. To add to the challenge - the Fern Turn arrived at night and the couple of lights on the platform were useless for looking between cars.

The operator also had to check the Ferndale part of the train, behind the Bellingham setout, to be sure that the list was right because the next chore was to list up the Intalco and day New Westminster locals out of Ferndale.

How did we ever work without cameras, recorders, and AEI? I've heard that it can't be done.

TAW

At Rochester NY on the NYC, the local that worked on the Charlotte branch always had what the conductor called talley sheets listing the cars handled.

Posted from iPhone

spnudge Wrote:
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> When we would come into WJ, Salinas or BI, they
> would tell you to take it slow, the "Pickle Clerk"
...That should be PICL (Perpetual Inventory Car Locator)
zr190

To this day one of my railroad's customers provides a "tally sheet" showing where cars they have released that day are going. More for the switch crew's benefit as the billing itself comes via EDI.

And as lists go, a Class 1 used to deliver to a yard adjacent to my office. Their clerks would often take hours to transmit interchange reports and even then the list wouldn't show cars in proper order. So I made my own. However, my handwriting is terrible and sometimes I might be busy on the phone when the interchange job showed up. So I solved that problem with technology: When the train was getting near I just set up my phone camera in the window and record video of its passage! This way I could take down car numbers at my leisure.

PatternOfFailure Wrote:
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> To this day one of my railroad's customers
> provides a "tally sheet" showing where cars they
> have released that day are going. More for the
> switch crew's benefit as the billing itself comes
> via EDI.
>
> And as lists go, a Class 1 used to deliver to a
> yard adjacent to my office. Their clerks would
> often take hours to transmit interchange reports
> and even then the list wouldn't show cars in
> proper order. So I made my own. However, my
> handwriting is terrible and sometimes I might be
> busy on the phone when the interchange job showed
> up. So I solved that problem with technology:
> When the train was getting near I just set up my
> phone camera in the window and record video of its
> passage! This way I could take down car numbers
> at my leisure.

I worked for Alameda Belt Line for a short time. One of the problems they were having was that SP would show up by surprise and land the train...somewhere. The yard was run by the ABL footboard yardmaster. The clerk wasn't always around, maybe out listing up tracks that the yard engine had switched or listing up industry tracks. I suggested that since the yard job got a list of the train that was generated by TOPS (the SP Information System), SP just have the conductor leave a list in the mailbox next to the yard office. The SP yardmaster objected. We can't let you see the list; it has proprietary information. We talked about what secrets could be discerned from the list. Finally, I reached in the trash, pulled out a switch list, laid it on the desk with the edge of the desk just to the right of the L/E column, and tore off the right side of the sheet, which I threw away. The remaining part was a list of initial. number, L/E - no super secret info for forensic spying. What a revelation! A real technological advance. ABL started getting a list of every SP transfer. It was too much work for the foreman to write on the list where he put the train, but that was a lot less time consuming to figure out than to wander around in the yard looking for a stranger then listing up what was hooked to it.

TAW