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CSX Dispatcher Codes

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Appendix - Railroad Line Prefix Codes

ATTENTION!

Baltimore Division — where it all began in the U.S. of A. with the B&O

Florence Division

Huntington Division

Jacksonville Division

Nashville Division

This table seeks to provide a handy cross-reference in the field. If your scanner stops on A.A.R. channel 54, which is 160.92 MHz, you hear the “JA” dispatcher answering a train's tone signal, and you stumble across CSX tracks with “A” as the milepost prefix, it's a pretty good bet that you are in the Sanford subdivision of the Jacksonville division. You can also do a text search for the subdivision name to find the dispatcher code serving that subdivision. The table is ordered by Dispatcher Desk, the left-hand column, although it is a mess while CSX changes divisions and dispatcher territories around. I will patch it back together once the dust settles.

Entries that do not conform to standard CSX notation are usually former Conrail territory. Otherwise, it's probably an error. Please send any corrections to bote.prodigy@gmail.com. There is not enough room for thanks to all those who have contributed to this work. It turns out that there were a number of outdated entries and you folks made sure that this list is accurate and up to date. THANK YOU!

Bote
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S.A.

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Updated 2009.01.04 — Changed dispatcher channel to 74 for Birmingham Mineral, Nashville, S&NA north, and S&NA south subdivisions.

Updated 2009.01.02 — Huntington div.: changed AM to HK desk.

Updated 2009.01.01 — more BIG updates to the Huntington division dispatcher desks. Happy New Year!

Updated 2008.12.30 — moved Gainesville Midland subd from FB to AF desk; Nashville div: changed AH to SE desk.

Updated 2008.12.21 — extensive updates to Huntington division (mostly revising outdated C&O and Allegheny entries); Nashville div. AJ to SC, AY to SD desks; Louisville div. AR to LA, CF to LB, CK to LC, CL to LD; I also grouped together the Baltimore, Florence, Huntington, and Jacksonville divisions.

Updated 2008.12.10 — extensive updates to Florence division dispatcher territories, please check and correct me; Atlanta division changes as well. There still exist inconsistencies that need attention, please advise me.

Updated 2008.10.10 — corrected C&O division to Huntington West in HD desk only; I still need to know the new division names for old C&O territories. Thanks! Updated Athens subd to Athens Industrial Track.

Updated 2008.09.01 — updated AL desk to HG desk designator, CI desk to HH desk, CR desk to HD desk; dispatchers now in Huntington, WVa.

Updated 2008.08.18 — updated AQ desk to HI desk designator, dispatcher still in Jax.

Updated 2008.06.25 — moved AO and AP desks to Huntington Division HB desk to control the Clinchfield subdivisions of Blue Ridge and Kingsport.

Updated 2008.06.24 — updated Baltimore Division desks to new prefixes used in Halethorpe office; PLEASE verify frequencies and other notations for accuracy, especially the old NI desk, thanks.

Updated 2008.06.08 — updated most Florence Division desks to new divisional prefixes; CU desk eliminated, its territories merged back into FF (former CE) desk

Updated 2008.06.07 — updated most Jacksonville desks to new divisional prefixes; corrected IB & IC desks' territories; moved Richmond Terminal sub to AE desk; CN dispatcher channel

Updated 2008.02.16 — dispatcher channel moved from 94 to 59 in the Charlotte sub; dispatcher channel moved from 94 to 39 in the CN&L sub.

Updated 2007.05.06 — extensive re-alignment of dispatcher desks and frequencies: AR, AT, BD, RL, RM, IB-IF desks; many thanks to Greg Zoll.

Updated 2007.04.28 — moved Brunswick sub from AZ desk to AC desk; updated dispatcher channel for AE desk subdivisions.

Updated 2007.03.04 — changed dispatcher talkback frequencies for NA-NI desks in Albany division; a work-in-progress by CSX.

Updated 2006.06.02 — added new CU desk that handles CN&L sub on 1st & 2nd tricks; 3rd trick still handled by CE desk; changed dispatcher channel for CN&L sub to AAR94.

Updated 2006.04.10 — musical dispatcher desks in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan; God bless if you can figure out all the changes--corrections most welcome

Updated 2005.05.04 — major format overhaul; update Cowen, Kingsland, Fernandina, Piedmont subs

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Appendix

Railroad Line Prefix Codes

Here is Steve Miller's summation of how these line prefix codes came to be, with a few additions by me:

CSX adopted the former Seaboard Coast Line system of assigning prefixes to track segments. On the SCL all Seaboard Air Line track was prefixed “S” and all Atlantic Coast Line track was prefixed “A”. For instance, the ex SAL main from Richmond, Virginia to Hamlet, North Carolina and on south is the “S” line. Each branch would then pick up an additional character such “SA”, “SB”, “SAA”, etc.

Former Chessie territories were assigned prefixes similar to the Seaboard method above. “C” prefixes are used for all C&O lines including Hocking Valley, Pere Marquette, NF&G, etc. “B” prefixes are used for all B&O and Western Maryland lines.

All Conrail prefixes begin with “Q” and in most cases the second letter has some relation to the lines previous name. For example the Rochester Subdivision, part of the Conrail Chicago Line, has the “QC” prefix.

The one major difference in this system is the former L&N territory. For some reason the policy of putting an “L” in front of the former L&N prefixes wasn't enacted, instead zeros are used to fill the leading blank spaces. For instance the former Monon trackage has the “Q” prefix on the timetables but in reality the prefix is “00Q”, the LCL Subdivision is “00T”, the Bruceton Subdivision is “00N” etc.

The “Z” prefixes denote former C&EI territory.

On original L&N territory all mileposts are measured from the former headquarters of Louisville, Kentucky. For instance the Main Line Subdivision starts at Louisville and goes south to Nashville, Tennessee. At Park City, Kentucky (MP 90.7) a branch goes east to Glasgow, Kentucky. On most other CSX predecessors the junction switch would be milepost 0 for the branch and would increase to the end of the line. Instead, on the L&N, the milepost continues increasing from 90.7 to the end of the track, with the only change being a different prefix.

Zero-Prefix Lines

The following lines have an “invisible” string of zeroes preceding the alphabetic codes. The zeroes are replaced from right to left, so the PD subdivision, for example, will be properly coded 00K, with K replacing the rightmost zero. The St. Louis line is coded 0ZJ, with two alphabetic characters replacing two rightmost zeros, and so forth. Many of these lines are in former L&N (Louisville & Nashville) territory, others came from C&EI.

000 LOUISVILLE TERMINAL
000 MAIN LINE
000 RADNOR TERMINAL
000 NASHVILLE
000 S&NA NORTH
000 BIRMINGHAM TERMINAL
000 S&NA SOUTH
000 M&M
000 NO&M
00C CC
00C KD
00C ETOWAH
00D O&N
00E MAIN LINE
00F MEMPHIS
00H HENDERSON
00H EVANSVILLE TERMINAL
00H ST LOUIS
00J RADNOR TERMINAL
00J CHATTANOOGA
00K PD
00K PA
00L BIRMINGHAM MINERAL
00N BRUCETON
00N MEMPHIS
00Q MONON
00Q LAFAYETTE
00Q LAFAYETTE
00Q HOOSIER
00R SOUTHERN ALABAMA
00T LCL
00T CINCINNATI TERMINAL
00W OLD ROAD
0AE KD
0AG ALABAMA MINERAL
0AM ALABAMA MINERAL
0BA RADNOR TERMINAL
0BA S&NA NORTH
0CC LCL
0CN MAIN LINE
0CO KD
0CQ CV
0CR LCL
0CV CV
0GE LOUISVILLE TERMINAL
0HC HENDERSON
0HE HENDERSON
0HR LH&STL
0HT EVANSVILLE TERMINAL
0JG CARTERSVILLE
0KA ETOWAH
0KC CINCINNATI TERMINAL
0KC CC
0KW KD
0KX
0LB BIRMINGHAM MINERAL
0LC BIRMINGHAM MINERAL
0LE ALABAMA MINERAL
0LF ROCKHOUSE
0LK BIRMINGHAM MINERAL
0MB HENDERSON
0MF HENDERSON
0NC BIRMINGHAM MINERAL
0ND MEMPHIS
0NG MEMPHIS
0NI MEMPHIS TERMINAL
0NK BIRMINGHAM MINERAL
0QA MONON
0QB MONON
0RS SOUTHERN ALABAMA
0SC CV
0SF CV
0TR LOUISVILLE TERMINAL
0TY W&A
0VB OLD ROAD
0VB EK
0VB ROCKHOUSE
0VD EK
0VE EK
0VG ROCKHOUSE
0VI ROCKHOUSE
0VL ROCKHOUSE
0VM ROCKHOUSE
0WA ATLANTA TERMINAL
0WA W&A
0WB CV
0WC CV
0WD CV
0WH CV
0WI EK
0WM CV
0WN ROCKHOUSE
0WV EK
0ZA WOODLAND
0ZA CE&D
0ZA EVANSVILLE TERMINAL
0ZC EVANSVILLE TERMINAL
0ZG EVANSVILLE TERMINAL
0ZJ ST LOUIS

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