RDG Valley Forge Siding?

we called them"ZITS" maps when i was on the railroad.............

Zone Track Spot maps are individual page sketches about the size of an Employees' Timetable. The oversize fold out atlas sized maps excerpted in a previous post are drawn to a large scale. The track maps might better be called track charts, as they are not to scale, but show more technical information than the ZTS maps. And then there are the valuation maps or blueprints, about 1/4 mile of railroad on an individual 3' by 4' page.

To add to what JimBoylan said, the ZTS maps showed and identified all tracks (including sidings and spurs) across the Conrail system in a schematic format, as well as indicating ownership and maintenance of the tracks. They're excellent for identifying specific tracks in tangled areas such as cities (or almost anywhere in northern New Jersey).

The valuation maps (val maps for short) primarily show the right of way / property limits, as well as buildings, bridges, and other structures owned by the railroad, and most date back to around World War I (although new ones are still made when the railroad acquires new property to build tracks). While the ZTS maps and Jerry maps were AFAIK unique to Conrail, every railroad drew up valuation maps, but each had their own style for drawing them. For instance, the Reading usually drew their maps with lots of detail (often including local features not directly related to the railway) at a large scale (1" = 50') and with north almost always down (I assume to confuse other railroaders). The Pennsylvania Railroad drew less detailed maps (generally at a 1" to 100' scale) that generally only showed the tracks, property lines, and significant railroad structures such as stations and bridges (with north usually up). Other railroads include curve data, adjacent property owners, deed information, and a few even included track profiles.

On the Reading, and possibly on the PRR, there were 2 versions or series of revisions of Valuation maps. Both apparently started from the same original about 1919, but one seemed to be maintained and revised by the Real Estate Department. It included and tracked deed information, as well as purchases and sales of property. The other version of revisions didn't include the deed information, but paid much more attention to minor track and facility changes.

Stephen,

Sorry it took so long to reply. I found those Conrail Maps here:

http://www.multimodalways.org/archives/ ... 0Maps.html

Specifically, that image was from the "Norristown Vicinity Map 3-1982" linked here:

http://www.multimodalways.org/docs/rail ... 201982.pdf

I would suggest saving it to your desktop first, and viewing it from there.

Enjoy!

This branch was known as the King of Prussia Industrial Spur, It left the main line at North Abrams and followed the creek valley up grade to it crosses Rt. 23 (Valley Forge Road) it gose out through the Ind Complex till it crosses First Ave. it follows along American Ave. to a point where it has a switch and spurs off and the crosses American Ave. where it travels for about a 900 yards and has another switch where it crosses First Ave again to service a Company.

Back in 1976 the American Freedom train was parked up in there on display . The cars were spotted between the Today's Post Newspaper and The Sears Warehouse. Cars 30, 31, 32, 20, 33, 40, 41, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204 and 205 were spotted behind the Sears warehouse. The T1 locomotive, Aux Tender and the PNWC76 tool car were sitting on the industrial main and had to be moved when the Reading was switching cars into the industrial park. To provide for this, the T1 had to be kept under steam and ready for movement at all times.



Hope that helps,
Len.