With train orders, the devil is in the details, and in times of heavy traffic, the sheer quantity of details can sometimes overwhelm mere human beings. Such seems to be the case for the dispatcher who dictated the following set of orders.

If you've read Wx4's missive on Southern Pacific's Carrizozo Subdivision, you already know that, in 1984, the line was a congested mess of a railroad, and that the train order system could not cope with the situation: too many trains, weary locomotives, extensive track work and all of the rest. All of this seemed to have borne down upon the dispatcher this day in June, twelve days short of D (TC) Day, when movements directed by train order would come to an end.

We received this smaller-than-average (for work extras, anyway) onionskin pile from the operator as we mulled over our intended work for the day: we would take the work train up to the vicinity of Newkirk and dump ties (see our Santa Rosa Work Train page). It didn't take much study of the dispatcher's directions for us to realize that something was amiss.

In the following, the events are history, but my thoughts about the train orders are today's contrivance, a best guess of what I was thinking at the time.

Now, if you are unfamiliar with the ins and outs of train orders, much of this may not make sense. In that case, we suggest that you begin with our Train Order Primer...if you have a couple of hours of spare time to become grounded. If you choose to plow ahead in ignorance, these orders still should give you a sense of the considerable skills that dispatchers, operators and operating crews needed to comprehend and implement the train order system. Further if you are familiar with present-day dispatching setups, such as DTC, TWC and CTC, you quickly realize how simple these arrangements are in comparison to movement by train orders.