Introduction to the puzzle of switching by Greg Baker Can you solve it? ... One thing that always fascinated me about railroading was figuring out why railroads did what they did. Before I worked for the railroad it seemed like a big puzzle that had no real answer to explain it all. I could assume things were done because of this or that, but not until I started my career as a railroader did things really start to make sense. Once working for the railroad I learned who makes the decisions to spot cars, what order they are spotted, why some locations are switched daily and some may see a car a couple of times a year. Now I cannot speak to every situation or to every railroad practice, but there are some basic operations that occur on all railroads that can help the modeler make more realistic moves when switching on their layouts. • INDEX • TABLE OF CONTENTS