Question on Large Steamers Access to Yards...........

[mobilman44]

Hi,

I model postwar Santa Fe (with a touch of the IC) and have a question on the handling of trains (particularly steam) as they came into a sorting yard.........

In example, if an ATSF double header 2-10-2 consist brought in a freight train to a yard, would it typically uncouple and move on to servicing, etc., allowing switchers to do the car sorting?   What would be a reasonable protocol for a large or small yard?

Also, would a long solid driver loco like a 2-10-2 be restricted from yard trackage (due to derailment potential)?  

I believe I know the answers to the above, but I want to hear it from you guys.   In my "old age" I really don't like to assume ..............

Thank you!

[henry6]

Each railroad, each division, each yard would probably have its own procedures based on geography, yard size, purpose of yard, the train or trains involved, and the locale.  Standard would be the power would leave its train on a given yard track or tracks and then head for the roundhouse (steam days) and a switcher or switchers would break up and sort the train.  Smaller locomotives were used as much for lighter weight as for tractive effort at low speed...larger locomotives were good for higher, road speeds,  Diesel era yarding was often the same. 

[wjstix]

In general, a freight train reaching it's destination would be routed into an "arrival track". If the track was long enough, the entire train could go on that track. The engines would be cut off and sent to the roundhouse, and the caboose would be moved to the caboose track. (In some yards, the caboose would uncouple from the train when entering the yard, before the train entered the arrival track, to make it easier for a switcher to spot it on the caboose track.) At some point after that, one or more switcher would begin moving the cars in the train to the classification tracks or wherever they needed to be moved to be delivered to the customer.

For those of us who are model railroaders, it's important to remember that the sharpest curves and turnouts in a real yard would be considered "super broad" on a model railroad. Or to put it another way, most model railroads use curves that are much, much sharper than real railroads use. This means real railroads - except in rare instances - don't have the problems we do of not being able to run an engine because the curves or turnouts are too sharp. (However, they did sometimes have to restrict certain steam engines to certain lines because of weight restrictions, a problem we don't usually face as modelers!)

[richhotrain]

Here in Chicago, Santa Fe couldn't use its 4-8-4 locos to haul passenger trains because the locos couldn't negotiate the tight turns into the coach yard / engine servicing facility.

Rich