After mucho frustration, I finally just figured it out. I am building yet another orchestral template and this time I created track folders first, with the intent to place midi tracks in them...as I create the midi tracks. Well, it appears to me that if you place a midi track in a folder that is down the track view, and leave blank folders higher up the track view, when you close the project and reopen it, the folder with tracks in it will move higher in the view than a blank folder.
The solution for me, as I build the template, is to put tracks in each folder and then assign and route them later.
Thanks for the suggestion Chuck.....and sorry to bother everyone.
Roger