What is a railroad siding or switch when its named?

[A#1]

I can't really find an appropriate railroad forum, so I thought I'd ask here.

Now, I know what a siding or a swtich is "mechalically" , and what it's there for. That's pretty obvious, and there's lots of reasons for them.

I'm looking at a county map from the logging era, and it has probably 200 miles of rail crisscrossing it, a dozen sidings, and maybe 50 or so switches. But three places named Butler Switch, Hanson Siding, and Porcupine siding. I can assume where their names were derived. But what I dont get yet, is what makes something like that significant enough to get a name?

Is it simply because a dude named Butler or Hanson lived nearby? Or they had porcupine stew for dinner? Or was it special for some reason? Would it have been a somewhat more significant switch or siding?

Anyone a railroad nerd?

 

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[Ditch_Doc]

Be interested to know as well... We have a siding here called Amanda that sits just across from AJ Foyt's ranch...

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Not sure about "switches" and "sidings", but I've learned not to be fooled by "stations", if you see one marked on a map. Those could just be freight sites. (Agriculture, etc...) . And have nothing to do with passengers. Or mail drop sites (where mail bundle thrown out the window) . Or a "flag stop" where someone could tell the conductor "let me off here".

Contrast to the image someone has of "railroad station", is "Passengers milling about" (like a "train station"). But most of them were just for industrial siding purposes, and just got called "stations".

 

[old digger]

Sidings were usually put in place where the railroad erected a stop to provide water or fuel for the engines and a good spot where one train could enter the siding so a train going in the opposite direction could pass . And a lot of times small towns built up along these sites. Sometimes these sidings may not have had a water tower, but may have been a convenience for a mail delivery site for a remote area of widely dispersed families in that area. As an example, there is a siding south of where I live that is named Wade. There is nothing there but the siding, the cabin or shack that used to be there is long gone and the families that live around the area either get their mail by rural delivery or have to drive to their nearest town to get there mail. You have to understand, for example that out west there are sometimes many miles between towns. Hope this helps. Also many of the names were established and named by the railroad.

 

[sprailroad]

old digger pretty much has it. Many siding's were in fact a place to pull into to let another train pass. They most often had water towers to add to the "steam" engine. Many of the siding's also had a "spur" track, (off the side track). In the day, most all side tracks had SOMEONE living there, and supplies were dropped of to them. When I refer to "someone", it might be a fella to keep switches clear of snow (shovel) or a "section" crew with family's, along with there housing, and perhaps a "crew" shack. On main line tracks, in many areas there would be a section crew about every ten miles or so, and they would matain there 10 miles of track. As far as the name of siding's? Could come from anywhere, just like any town etc. At times if a person wanted to go into the nearest town, they would board when a train would pull in, siding/spur track, and catch the next train back. If they were freights, they always had a caboose back then. Not any longer, (except perhaps on a work train), just as the train crew had an engineer, fireman, and brakeman(dangerous job, before air brakes), today it's a engineer and conductor. I could go on but the point is somewhere around these siding's, "at least many of them" hiking around you may find evidence of a switch where trains entered, and where some people may have lived. I have over the years, and at times came up with some good stuff.