What is a "wheel" printout

I was near a BNSF yard with my scanner when the dispatcher told a Z-train to stop and get a printout that listed some cars his current list did not have. I think he called it a wheel printout but not sure. What is this?

Terry

thmitch wrote:I was near a BNSF yard with my scanner when the dispatcher told a Z-train to stop and get a printout that listed some cars his current list did not have. I think he called it a wheel printout but not sure. What is this?

Terry

It's a list of the cars in your train. Contents, destination, special handling, etc. Often referred to as a "wheel".

Thanks, I figured it was something like that. I was mainly wondering if I was right about what he called it.

Terry

Every railroad calls it something different, SOO calls there's a 9-plan, and just recently changed it to something fancier, but I still call it a 9-plan. One thing about the Canucks running the joint, the L-O-V-E big fancy names for things. About every year they add about a word to each position and operating plain.

For example: The "Operations Coordinator" which is basically a position one bellow a "Train-master", oh I'm sorry, a "Yard Manager" on the CP/SOO, and one position above a "Yardmaster". The position is now called:

DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!!

"Multi-Yard Process Manager"

next year i guarantee you it will be called " Multi-Yard Terminal Operations Process Manager"

most railroads its a UTU union position and is referred to as a "Planning Yardmaster"

That sounds like the GYM, or General Yardmaster. That title worked for about 100 years or more, but if we change it and call it something new we can claim to be progressive and not locked in the ways of the past. Man, I'd give a month's pay to bring back some of the guys who were oldtimers when I was young and let them see what is going on now. It would be worth the money to watch their eyes bulge out, and hear their comments. I'll bet not much of what they would say would be suitable for this forum.

The outfit I worked for called it a wheel report.

CSX refers to it as a "Work report", but the employees all call them "wheel" or "wheel report".

roadster wrote:CSX refers to it as a "Work report", but the employees all call them "wheel" or "wheel report".

Also known as a waste of paper, not to be confused with all of the paper bulletins, which were re-issued 4/1/06, lol. Don't get me wrong there is anlot of neccessary information on the wheel, but CSXT just wastes sooo much paper, especially when someone prints you a wheel for a lite engine move which contains 15+ pages.

not to mention the 3 blanks thge printer kicks out before starting the report, and any other printed form from the print. How many trees does it take to move a train? L O L

BNSF was recycling paper at the Gillette, WY terminal...this from wheel reports and the blank stuff mentioned above. When the carrier began its computer time claim system they touted it as a "paperless system". Yea, right. Think that BNSF owned a lot of forest lands, anyway.