Track Number Question

[OlympianHiawatha]

I know this is a basic question but coming from where everything is single track, has me a bit confused. How is the "track number" (Track 1, Track 2, etc) determined? Is it a set system or does it vary by company?

 

[jis]

I know this is a basic question but coming from where everything is single track, has me a bit confused. How is the "track number" (Track 1, Track 2, etc) determined? Is it a set system or does it vary by company?

It depends on the original company that built the tracks usually.

There are two predominant ways of numbering. One is to number them in order east to west, or north to south. PRR used that technique on its portion of the NEC. So the original 2 normally eastbound tracks are 1 and 2 and the two normally westbounds are 3 and 4. Additional easbound track appears to be named A. Additional westbounds are 5 etc.

The other way is to number tracks in one direction odd and the other direction even. So for example westbound tracks would be numbered 1, 3, 5 etc, and eastbounds 2, 4, 6 etc. NYC, Erie, Lackawanna etc. appear to have used this technique

 

[the_traveler]

At KIN (on the NEC), there are 2 tracks. The westbound (southbound) track is #1, and the eastbound (northbound) track is #2. It gets confusing when they announce the train is on track #2 - and it's the station side track!