which can be readily understood by a relieving yardmaster; furnishing
superior officers with reports of accidents, personal injuries, and
delays to trains and making appropriate recommendations. He also has
duties relating to safety. He enforces a safety program designed to
reduce or eliminate personal injury and property damage.
b. Planning is an important part of the yardmaster's work. He
must think ahead at all times. What happens on the next shift is
just as much his concern as what happens on his own. For instance,
shop tracks in most yards are separate from main classification
yards. When shop cars, or others, cannot be switched at once to
their proper tracks, it is the policy of many yardmasters to switch
them to the hold track. Other cars, such as locals, empties, and
nonrevenue freight, are likewise switched to this track. Nonrevenue
freight is any cargo a railroad hauls for itself. Before a shift
changes, the yardmaster should make every effort to switch this track
and put back only such cars as actually belong on it. Frequently, a
yardmaster can have a crew space cars on shop tracks more
conveniently than his relief can. Because extra yard crews may
require an advance notice of 2 to 3 hours, a yardmaster must estimate
the workload of the next shift so that he can order enough crews to
be all ready when the new shift starts. Moreover, he must study the
inbound lineup and compare it with cars already switched to be in a
position to advise the dispatcher what extra freights may be ordered
on the next shift.
3.3. YARD CLERK
The number of yard clerks required depends on the type, the
degree of automation, and the volume of work to be done. If
automation is not used, up to three clerks may be required on each
shift. One clerk handles the inbound clerical work, one does all
outbound clerical tasks, and the third is assigned to the outside
work of checking cars. When there is a large number of tracks, two
or more clerks may be required for the outside work. Clerical duties
may vary considerably among railroads in different localities.
Chapter 2, paragraph 2.7b, explains the main duties of the outside
yard clerk. The following subparagraphs discuss inbound and outbound
clerical work.
a. Inbound clerical work. An important part of inbound clerical
work is entering on a form the initials and numbers of all cars
arriving in the yard. Some railroads use a car record book, the
pages of which are numbered 00 to 99. Car numbers, usually taken
from the waybills, are entered on pages corresponding to the last two
digits of the car number. For example AT&SF 35709 would be entered
on the 09 page as AT&SF 357.
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