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Almost on topic... When we were kids, my brother studied a railroad atlas any time he wasn't in school or church. This thing was a monster, large book with hun
by 11thEarlOfMar 5y ago
Almost on topic...
When we were kids, my brother studied a railroad atlas any time he wasn't in school or church. This thing was a monster, large book with hundreds of pages of maps. Literally county by county across the Unites States, all railroad lines and yards. I'd go to sleep Friday night while he sat in an overstuffed chair, studying. I'd wake up at 7:30 AM Saturday... he hadn't moved. Still there, a few pages further into the atlas.
As an adult, he worked for the Illinois Central as a hump yard operator. Later the Iowa Pacific, and ultimately found himself doing customer service for a small line in Texas, mainly shipping sand. His job frequently included finding 'lost' cars somewhere in the US, on any line that happened to be in that car's route. He was really good at it.
One notable call had him searching railroad yards in Missouri. He had a strong hunch that the misplaced car was on a spur where that yard stored cars that had lost their way. But he needed to confirm. He could have called that yard, but getting the right person to check logs or go hunt was always a hassle. So... He Googled up the yard, zoomed in on the spur and noted that Google helpfully displayed several businesses in a strip mall backed up to the spur. Mike dialed up 'Patty's Nail Salon' and the call went something like: "Hi Patty, this is Craig with the Iowa Pacific. I'm tracking down a misplaced car and I have reason to believe it is sitting on the spur outside your back window. Would you mind checking for a car with ID 123876?"
Extended pause....
"I'll be right back!"
Sure enough, there is was.
- mapmap 5y agoThis is a great story, thank you for sharing. Do railroad atlases still exist?
- cardiffspaceman 5y agoYou can get a somewhat expensive set of maps from Kalmbach media. When I was a teenager we had one book of maps from the same publisher, and it covered all of the USA. Now it seems like it takes multiple books and I can't find the one for California in their catalog. The intended market is rail fans and people who build model railroads. For reference: https://kalmbachhobbystore.com/ https://kalmbachhobbystore.com/
- pmyteh 5y agoI don't know about the US, but S.K. Baker’s 'Rail Atlas: Great Britain & Ireland' is excellent and regularly updated for this side of the pond.