CSX train numbering

[firemedic2150]

I am getting back into listening to trains after a few years away and there is something new I am hearing. I am used to hearing the Y150 or Q28 and the lead engine number, but I am hearing the crews and dispatchers adding a suffix number to the train number like Y150-18.

 

[Floridarailfanning]

That is the date that the train originated on. The reason they add the date is to eliminate confusion when multiple instances of the same train are operating simultaneously.

So Y150-18 would be from the 18th of the month. A Y150-04 would be from the 4th day of the month.

 

[firemedic2150]

That is the date that the train originated on. The reason they add the date is to eliminate confusion when multiple instances of the same train are operating simultaneously.

So Y150-18 would be from the 18th of the month. A Y150-04 would be from the 4th day of the month.

Well that makes sense with the new precision scheduling of trains.

 

[Floridarailfanning]

Well that makes sense with the new precision scheduling of trains.

It's not new though. CSX has been using this formatting of train IDs for years. When I got into the hobby in 2007 they were already doing it this way.

 

[firemedic2150]

It's not new though. CSX has been using this formatting of train IDs for years. When I got into the hobby in 2007 they were already doing it this way.

Yes but if you have been out of the hobby since 2001 then it is new!!

 

[RRR]

Basically, Class 1's are trying to run longer trains, using fewer crews. Unfortunately, it slows things down. There could be two Y150's on the tracks at the same time, even if in different states. The addition of the originating day date distinguishes the two (or three) trains.

 

[AK9R]

It's not new though. CSX has been using this formatting of train IDs for years.

When Conrail switched to their "new" train symbols in the late 1970s, the format was AABB-N where AA was the abbreviation for the originating yard or city, BB was the abbreviation for the destination, and N was the 1's digit of the day of the month. So, a train from Indianapolis to Selkirk (big yard near Albany, New York) on the 10th day of the month was INSE-0, and so on. They later changed the format to AABB-NN so that the entire day of the month could be used thus avoiding the confusion between a train on the 31st of one month and a train on the 1st of the next month.

Point being, including day of the month in train symbols has been used on some of the Class 1s for years.

The thing about CSX yard crew symbols that I have never understood is that they are duplicated from terminal to terminal. You can very easily have a Y101-23 in one terminal and another Y101-23 in another terminal. Granted, the two trains probably won't cross paths, but it just seems like a potential source of confusion.

 

[WX4JCW]

Y Trains are Locals or yard jobs usually

CSX Train Symbols - RailroadfanWiki

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[Floridarailfanning]

You can very easily have a Y101-23 in one terminal and another Y101-23 in another terminal. Granted, the two trains probably won't cross paths, but it just seems like a potential source of confusion.

I would assume since the Y jobs mainly work in the limits of a yard it isn't as much of an issue, and when they do get out on the mainline the lead engine number becomes an important differentiator.

Another issue is the number of different terminals. To address all of them with something other than just Y, they would need some kind of multi-letter abbreviation. Like AAXXX-XX to ZZXXX-XX.

 

[AK9R]

Under Conrail, yard jobs at Avon Yard were YSAV-1, YSAV-2, etc. while yard jobs at Hawthorne Yard (both yards in the Indianapolis terminal) were YSHA-1, YSHA2, etc. "Y" for yard assignment, "S" for Southern Region, "AV" or "HA" for Avon or Hawthorne, etc. But, that all went away when CSX took over. There's no looking back.

 

[wa8pyr]

When Conrail switched to their "new" train symbols in the late 1970s, the format was AABB-N where AA was the abbreviation for the originating yard or city, BB was the abbreviation for the destination, and N was the 1's digit of the day of the month. So, a train from Indianapolis to Selkirk (big yard near Albany, New York) on the 10th day of the month was INSE-0, and so on. They later changed the format to AABB-NN so that the entire day of the month could be used thus avoiding the confusion between a train on the 31st of one month and a train on the 1st of the next month.

That was a train symbol system that made vast amounts of sense. I didn't even have to think about it; if I heard SRCO I knew right away it was Southern Railway (Cincinnati) to Columbus (Buckeye Yard) . . . likewise INCO, COSE, COPI, CODI and so on. If I didn't know what it was I could generally puzzle it out using my knowledge of the railroad.

Even though I know the ones that go through here, the symbols in use today on CSX and NS still throw me. I miss the good old days of NC01 and CN02 (the N&W predecessors of today's 233/234) or the Queen City Flyer on the former B&O. Much classier sounding names.

When I was at OU in Athens I could look forward to the Cumberland 96, Gateway 97 and the St Louis Trailer Train, among others. Now it's a bike path (except where the state laid a freeway over top of it).

Y Trains are Locals or yard jobs usually

Y trains are strictly yard jobs based out of a specific terminal, although anymore CSX stretches their limits such that they're a pretty far piece from the yard in territory a local once traversed. Y numbers can also be duplicated at many terminals within a particular division (for example, you might see a Y105 based at Collinwood and another Y105 based at Willard, even though both are in the Great Lakes Division.

Locals on CSX use a letter code denoting the division and typically run from one terminal to another doing local switching along the way.

 

[wa8pyr]

Under Conrail, yard jobs at Avon Yard were YSAV-1, YSAV-2, etc. while yard jobs at Hawthorne Yard (both yards in the Indianapolis terminal) were YSHA-1, YSHA2, etc. "Y" for yard assignment, "S" for Southern Region, "AV" or "HA" for Avon or Hawthorne, etc. But, that all went away when CSX took over. There's no looking back.

At Buckeye we had the YOCO crowd, and YSCO after it became part of the Indianapolis Division. I still fondly remember a couple of guys who would bellow on the radio "YOCO, BUCKEYE!!!!" when calling the Buckeye Block Operator to get a lineup in or out of the yard. After the Buckeye Block Operator position was abolished and control shifted to the dispatchers in Indianapolis, control of the 6 Lead switch (north end of the receiving yard) was handed over to the hump yardmaster; the same guys would bellow out a call for the "Humping Yardperson" when they needed a lineup in or out of the north end of the receiving yard.

 

[cbehr91]

CSX has had basically the same symbol system since 1987, itself based on the Seaboard symbol system. I actually have the first CSX schedule book with conversions from Chessie/Seaboard to CSX for trains. The only minor change to CSX symbols was around 1990 regularly scheduled trains went from an "R" prefix to the current "Q" (I guess for quality?) Like Tom, I heard years ago that yard job symbols are divisional (i.e. one Y101, Y130, etc. per division), but these days who knows.

 

[INDY72]

"Humping Yard Person..." I love it LOL!

 

[jbhunt04]

CSX also has several J trains that are locals.

 

[N8YX]

Locals on CSX use a letter code denoting the division and typically run from one terminal to another doing local switching along the way.

In my area there's one - D750 - which operates from Warwick Yard (Clinton) into Akron Yard to interchange with the W&LE. Motive power is usually a pair of GP38s and there are a couple of industrial sites along the route which may see car spotting when the job is running.

Warwick interchanges with RJ Corman, which comes from the Massillon area on the old PRR/B&O shared right-of-way. The PRR section was abandoned in '87 and part of it is now a bike trail. If you time your rides just right, you can get some nice RJC action shots. I carry a VX-7R aboard my bike when I'm out, so I can hear D750 or Corman's local a ways before they get to me.