In the early days of the railroad a single track was laid from one point to the other until it finally reached across the United States linking the North, South, East and West together. In case two trains happened to be heading in opposite directions on the same track the problem was alleviated by creating short pieces of railroad track called sidings. The sidings allowed one train to ‘pull over’ onto the siding or side track to wait for the other train to pass. So one train was side tracked to let the other pass.
Today we use the term Sidetracked to imply that we have deviated from a main issue or course or have been delayed.
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