Numbering the tracks!

The layout of my Tallulah Falls railroad tracks thus far has been based on the 1922 Sanborn fire maps of Cornelia, bits of which have been previously discussed.  These provided mostly correct track orientations and many details about the area.

One amazing detail revealed in the 1927 TFRR track plans is the numbers that the railroad assigned to every single track on the line - the sidings, the spurs, the passing tracks all numbered and length noted.  For example, here is a screenshot of the part of the yard around the two-stall engine house with track numbers revealed in the small print around each track.

This means that I have been able to correctly number/label nearly all the tracks I have built using the actual TFRR numbers and with only a minimal amount of fudging.

The plans have also revealed new details about the whole area, such as the fact that the planing mill that was located on the same siding as the railroad's coal chute ALSO had a coal chute!  Out of the blue - a new destination for TFRR traffic appears on my garden route. Other brand new delivery points on existing trackage include a spot to deliver gondolas of sand for the sand tower, a track scale, and which was the pit track in the engine house.

So here they are - the new photo track plans!

Having the new numbers also allowed a scheme to be set up for designating industry and the other car destinations on the line, which are shown in blue text and rectangular boxes on the photos.   When running trains, these destinations will be referenced when a waybill is drawn with instructions that a car needs to be moved to or from any of these spots. For a new member on a train crew, the photos will make it easy to figure out where a car can be found or is expected to go.

The implications are even more huge moving forward!   I had only found scraps of information about the tracks north of Demorest, which was the last town drawn by Sanborn in the UGA archive.  Now every detail of every stop is there for use in the railroad planning and choices ahead.  Here is a closeup of the line around the Clarksville depot, which reveals two coal bins, two seed houses, and a warehouse.   The only elements I knew about previously were the planing mill and the depot, as well as the Texaco dealership a little to the south and a few years later in history.

  
So exciting!