I've recently started to listen to the scanner at
[www.railroadradio.net]

which seems to be mostly Balmer and Stacy Yard Ops, as well as some UP stuff. I'm quite new to this, and i've never worked for the railroad, so i am just learning terms such as hostler, drill track, set and centered. also slowly piecing together the locations mentioned around here, such as "the dock", and some of the track numbers in balmer (though i am still confused by this, e.g. which is track 1 and which 19 or 20, etc). i'm quite awed by the knowledge of the people on this list, so, for what its worth, i thought i would throw out some of the questions i have thus far.

what is:
- "norfolk track"
- "colorado main" vs "lander main"
- "Auto 4", i think i heard this mentioned and i thought they were referring to a track?
- terms such as job 230, switch 230, job 219, etc.
- VBC vs VBT. these are both destination symbols. i know VBC is vancouver BC, and i think VBT is as well, but dont know the difference. maybe they go different places *within* vancouver. i cant find any mention anywhere of the symbol VBT.
- "bar nine"...i thought this might be the everett to barstow train, but it seems to go through balmer around 2000-2100 hours, whereas someone told me once that the EVEBAR came through after midnight, just before morn.
- "military 1" -- i am pretty sure this is BNSF track near georgetown, but why is it called this?

this might be so elementary for some of you, you might not even want to bother! otherwise, thanks in advance. Brandon