Customers need cars at specific doors, scale pits or unloading racks, so local and yard crews spot cars to within a few feet of the target and pull the ones that have been loaded or emptied. A car placed one door off can idle a whole warehouse crew. The noun works too: a plant may have twelve spots on its track, and the customer's order for what goes where is the spot list.
Spot the two lumber loads at door 3 and pull whatever's empty off the dock, the shipper's been calling all morning.
Also heard as
- placement
- spot and pull
Related terms
Switch list
The list telling a yard or local crew which cars to move and where each one goes.
Local
A freight train that works the industries along a line, setting out and picking up cars at each customer.
Spur
A short dead-end track branching off to serve an industry or to store cars.
Shove
To push cars with the locomotive behind them, as opposed to pulling them.