On a prior shift, the Downtown Spur job, Y120, rolled down the line heading eastward. In the train was a red boxcar designated to be spotted at Family & Son. The problem was that when they arrived, they discovered not all of the cars at said F&S had been unloaded. There wasn’t room for the red boxcar. Rather than take it back to the yard, they just dropped it nearby for positioning the next shift. It becomes what is called an “offspot”. I’ve staged this scenario for an upcoming op session. What the crew will do is pull all four cars, put the three empties on the train, and then place the red boxcar in position.
While the scenario in the caption above doesn’t happen every day, it’s not that unusual. The crew arrives at an industry, and the work order calls for them to pick up the empties and replace them with incoming loads. However, sometimes not all of the empties have been unloaded, creating a situation where there isn’t room for all of the incoming loads. In these cases, they don’t take the load back to the yard. They’ll park it “offspot” meaning they’ll just place it nearby. The next trip out, when all of the cars in the way have been unloaded, they’ll move the “offspot” into place. It makes for an interesting and realistic scenario for a model op. session (as long as you don’t overdo it) and another example of how even a simple one-turnout industry can take time to switch.
Here’s an aerial of Family and Son facing north on a quiet day. The green building on the right is Northwestern Meat, which is no longer rail-served.
Here’s the same location facing south on a busy day. When the local came by with orders to drop the red boxcar at Family and Son, they found there wasn’t room for it. Rather than take it back to the yard, they parked it in front of Northwestern Meat temporarily. When space frees up, it will be spotted in its final location.