A switch list gives each car's reporting marks and number, its position in a track or train, and where it must be placed: which track, which industry door, which block of the outbound train. Yard clerks and yardmasters build them from the computer inventory, and crews work from paper copies or tablets. A wrong number on the switch list means a car spotted at the wrong customer or missing its connection, and both cost money.
Switch list says the second and fifth cars go to the mill, the rest stay with us for the plant at Delta.
Also heard as
- work list
- the list
Related terms
Spot
To place a car at an exact location, such as an industry's loading door, pit or rack.
Cut
A group of cars coupled together and handled as one piece; as a verb, to uncouple them.
Block
A group of cars bound for the same destination, kept together so they can be handled as one unit.
Local
A freight train that works the industries along a line, setting out and picking up cars at each customer.