posted
Again, my timetable mileage dilemma -- I recently redid my St. Louis-San Antonio route maps with DeLorme 3-D Topo Quads (for Texas Eagle route) -- I began at St. Louis, my mile 0 (timetable mileage is 284 -- that is miles from Chicago -- 284-284=0, so I start at 0). The correct mileage for the next stop, Poplar Bluff, should be 169 (timetable 453-284 = 169, etc., etc.), but I got 164 (5 miles off in only 169 miles). Following are timetable mileages vs. "my" mileages for the rest of the route:
.................timetable.......my mileage Poplar Bluff......169............164 Walnut Ridge......229............224 Little Rock.......350............345 Malvern...........393............388 Arkadelphia.......410............410 Texarkana.........490............489 Marshall..........556............554 Longview..........580............577 Mineola...........628............623 Dallas............707............704 Ft. Worth.........738............736 Cleburne..........767............764 McGregor..........841............838 Temple............866............863 Taylor............904............903 Austin............939............938 San Marcos........969............968 San Antonio.......1022...........1022
As you see, "my" mileages ranged from "correct" to 5 miles off. I am pretty sure I have followed the correct route, as I have ridden the train and verified the route I have mapped. And the measuring tools in DeLorme's 3-D Topo Quads are pretty accurate
So, are the timetable mileages REALLY that wrong? This is NOT the only route where I have had these problems -- just about every other route I have mapped is the same situation......... Comments?
Posts: 2428 | From: Grayling, MI | Registered: Mar 2002
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posted
Yes, there are "short miles' of railroad when there has been a line change since the road was first placed in service.
Funny how prior to the present day array of consumer electronics products, no layman would be equipped to question the point as has Mr. Rich.
Posts: 9975 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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I have the UP employee timetable sheets from a few years back when they were availabile on the web, but not on this computer, plus also a MoPac ETT packed awasy. I can tell you from memory that the St. Louis to Poplar Bluff "my milage" that you got sounds about right. The public TT milage is about the milepost difference, but thsi is a vary crooked piece of railroad that has had several line changes over the years. What I do not under stand is how you caught back up to the mileposts just about at Texarkana.
When you get to Dallas, the actual distance between Texarkana and Dallas is longer than the milepost distance, and the difference is all in within the city of Dallas. Pacific Avenue gat the name because that was the line of the Texas and Pacific tracks. Sometime in the early 1900's the line was detoured by rights over the SP and rejoins the original at about the east end of the Trinity River bridge. The difference is about 3 miles additional if I recall correctly. Why Mineola is so far off, I have no idea. There has been little in the way of line changes in the T&P.
Posts: 2808 | From: Olive Branch MS | Registered: Nov 2002
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posted
Thanks for the info -- what gets me even more is that some of these mileages even change from timetable to timetable!!!! I know some trains are slightly rerouted now and then, but some (like the route of the Vermonter I posted about a few weeke as ago) changed by about 5 miles between the current timetable (the winter one -- I haven't gotten the new spring one yet) and the last one (last summer's)
Posts: 2428 | From: Grayling, MI | Registered: Mar 2002
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posted
You know, when you start looking into stuff like this, you'll find more and more discrepancies.
As noted in an earlier post, railroad distances do change. Many "miles" on railroads are less than (or more than) 5280 feet due to curve realignments or outright line changes. However, since many other pieces of information are keyed to the mileposts, railroads don't change those. The biggest line change I've ever seen was west of Bismarck, ND on the former NP, where a major line change involving a large trestle shortened the distance by more than 9 miles! However, the mileposts didn't change.
Other differences could be due to minor changes in routes within terminal areas, or in station locations. While most of us think as railroads (and roads) as fixed objects, in fact the rail network is pretty dynamic. I'd advise just using the RR mileposts for reference and not trying to calculate distance using a GPS. You'll cause more problems than you'll solve.
Posts: 614 | From: Merchantville, NJ. USA | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Thanks, rresor, but I do not use GPS, and I have no idea where the actual physical mileposts are -- I use the AMTRAK timetable mileages only, and the built-in measuring tools in the software. But I appreciate your insights.
Posts: 2428 | From: Grayling, MI | Registered: Mar 2002
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