Railroaders' Nostalgia > SP tidbits from 9/21/91

Outbound power plan, per train symbol listed, for ICTF Long Beach:

1RXCXF-21 8pm 9696-8389-9683
1SXCHT-21 10pm 9624-EMD6346-8032-9626

1AXDAT-22 1am 8092-6777-8039
1AXMFT-22 3am 7399-8355-9610
1LXCXF-22 6am 9748-7106-7345
1AXHOT-22 10am 6844-7672-7655-9213 (off 1CXLAF-19)

1NXNST-22 12:01pm not listed

RX-Evergreen Marine
SX-Sealand
AX-APL
LX-ICTF
NX-NYK


East Program

1RXCRF-21 No work
2SXCHT-21 Set out 1 stack at City of Industry, pick up 14 Kansas City autos. Pick up 628/640 tags at West Colton.

1SXCHT-21 Pick up 1 stack at COI off 2SXCHT-21.

1AXDAT1-22 Pick up 311/486 tags at West Colton.

1AXMFT-22 Pick up 496 tags at West Colton.

1LXCXF-22 Pick up 943/926 tags at West Colton.

1AXHOT-22 Pick up 350 tags at West Colton.

(SP ran both a RXCRF-21 and a RXCXF-21 that day. "CR"=Conrail and "CX"=CSXT).

This is SP's (sort of) version of PSR.

Who wants to help explain what "tags" are and the tag codes. WAF??

Allen

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Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/20 21:21 by bradleymckay.

"Tags" was just SP's way of saying "blocks" - cars going to a similar destination. Have no clue what the specific "tags" were in this case.

Allen, the tags are different now from 45 years ago. The tags are the station codes. Portland BN were 005 tags, Rosevilles were 230. Bay Area were in the low 300s. LA A yard was 420. 460 was COI and 480 was WC. El Paso was 550, Dallas 720, Houston 760, PB 820, ESTL 840. The tags were broken down quite a bit, but you get the drift. So if you got a pink message at Oakland, telling you to pick up 820s and 840s tags at San Jose, you were picking up PB and ESTL cars. I have most of the tag list.

So in 1974, the blocking of the LAOAF was from the caboose BSM cars, 311 tags (SF), 322 ( Redwood City), 333 (Sunnyvale), 314( Mulford) and 325 (Newark). In reality when the LAOAF hit San Jose, everything but the BSM block cames off and a Bayshore Drag takes the Peninsula cars and SF cars and a SJOAY takes the Newarks and Mulfords

Hey, I remember this.

When I was working as a brakeman on the PE,  (spent just enough time
to drink a cup of coffee and move on), they were using a tag system of
numbers that had 100, 200, 300 and so fourth up to 900. Recall that 700's
were destined to their former Western district, 900's were Northern district cars.
How specific did these numbered cards that were stapled to the boards get?
Did it get down to a specific shipper such as, say a 703 went to Copeland Lumber etc?
The yard clerks at Butte St. yard, where I spent most of my time, would do the 'nailing'.

Thanks Allen and Wes.

Charlie  

Didn't get you to an exact location, Charlie. Your SPINS did that for you. The tag just got it to the right town, lol, hopefully.

WAF Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Didn't get you to an exact location, Charlie. Your
> SPINS did that for you. The tag just got it to the
> right town, lol, hopefully.

When did SPINS start and was PE part of that?
My PE time was in 1962.

C

Late 60s?

All the info above on the tags is correct, they were essentially the first three numbers of the station number.

Once the car arrived at the yard, the spins (Southern Pacific Industrial Numbering System) took over, and the car received a new six digit tag number.  The first two numbers were the zone number, the second two were the track number, and the last two were the spot number in the track.  The first spot number was the first place a car could be unloaded from the switch, and they actually nailed reflectorized numbers on ties in some open areas.  Needless to say, reflectorized numbers were applied below warehouse doors.
00  in the spot number meant the industry would supply their own list, 90 was a team track, 95 was an open dock, etc.

In 1971 with the advent of computers in all of the yard offices, the tagger's job on the LA Hump was abolished, and the crews were given a track list with all of the cars and their tag numbers.

The LA Yard Office sent the hump yardmarter's clerk a 'deck' of IBM cards through the zip tube for each track to be humped which had the car and tag number on one little line across the top.  Then one of the clerks at the hump had to read that little number and write it in BIG letters on the card with a marking pen.
G