TomlinsonRunRR posted:Big Jim's link sure shows some major diversity. Some list formats seem easier to read than others. Rob, I'm particularly intrigued by your mention of IBM punch cards (been there, done that). Who would typically be the one to generate those? The station agent? The end result, as you say, must have been nice but the effort to get there may have been an entirely different story. One wrong punch and it's start all over. Of course, a good conductor would have lots of experience punching holes in paper
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Interesting additions to the initial puzzle.
Tomlinson Run Railroad
In my experience, punch card lists/consists, et. al., only happened at major terminals. Clerks might make a list tracks if the on line yard was big enough to have a clerk. Otherwise, the agent did that if on duty and if not, the conductor made his list of tracks. Agents wrote out instructions as to what work needed to be done. Some were better at it than others.
Switch lists like many of those shown in the link were written by the conductor and turned in to the yardmaster with the other paperwork and should have contained the proper order of the cars in the train as they were brought into the terminal and marked if they were loaded (unmarked if they were mty).
CR10 reports did not need to have cars listed in proper order (although most conductors did), but, needed to show where the cars were picked up, their content and approx. tonnage.
