Stations

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

Jim,

Good listing.

There were also surveyor's "stations" which were carefully sited locations
on a railroad such as a bridge, siding, structure, etc.

These were used during (among other times) the valuations of the railways in
the US. They are very useful in accurately determining the length of a
bridge, station platform, etc. and its distance from another fixed location
such as a milepost, state line, curve marker, etc.

Regards,

Dave Lambert

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[mailto:nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org] On Behalf Of
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Sent: Monday, January 17, 2005 9:21 PM
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Subject: Re: Stations

Leslie

You have asked a rather difficult question.  It is sort of like asking for 
a average. There are at least three ways to figure railroad stations and 
averages.

Basically, a railroad station is a location where a common carrier holds 
its self out to receive or deliver freight, passengers etc. under rules on 
file with the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC).  There may have been 
station building with or without an agent but this had no bearing in being 
a station designation.  To be a actual station it had to be published as 
such in the Open and Prepay Station list that was on file with the ICC. The 
Open and Prepay Station list was reissued every year and supplemented from 
time to time to add or eliminate a published station. All common carriers 
published their stations in this list including any restrictions such as 
carload freight only etc. By being a station the carrier maintained a full 
line of rates to and from this location on all commodities even though the 
published rate may have been only a class rate.  Guess the one thing common 
to most stations is a track or industrial siding off the main line where 
freight could be unloaded/loaded. Think you will find that some passenger 
only stations had a small shed  next to the main line where one would wait 
for the train and flag it down. So I would define a Station as a location 
published and on file with the ICC where a carrier is required to provide 
some level of common carrier service.

The second type of station is an operating station found in employee 
timetables etc.  They were used by operating departments and generally 
designated by mile post.  These post may or may not have reflected the 
actual miles to or from the location posted on the marker. Some of these 
points were legal stations covered above and others listed were only 
towers, passing tracks and sidings with no official standing beyond the 
department of the carrier.

The third type of station were accounting department stations. I recall on 
the N&W they used different station numbers and did not reflect the 
official station number published in the Open and Prepay station list. 
These list were only for use by the accounting department and no official 
standing beyond the department of that carrier.

Jim Blackstock



At 11:20 PM 1/16/05, you wrote:

>According to the timetable, when a location was listed as a
>station, what exactly does that mean? There are places listed
>as stations that I don't know if there was a phsyical
>building or not? What was the minimum criteria to be listed
>as a station? Places like Ritter-WVa, or Carlos-WVa, or Bartley-WVa.
>There were tipples in all of these places, but what qualifies
>as a station? A lean-to where passengers waited? A full fledged
>station with an agent?
>
>Thanks
>Leslie Eversole
>
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