TBat55 A. I have not decided whether to use #4 or #6 turnouts, then thought about passenger cars. B. .... Are #4's too tight for most passenger cars? C. Were cabooses (or cabeese) always oriented the same way on a train; were they turned on turntable?
A. I have not decided whether to use #4 or #6 turnouts, then thought about passenger cars.
B. .... Are #4's too tight for most passenger cars?
C. Were cabooses (or cabeese) always oriented the same way on a train; were they turned on turntable?
A. #5s are preferable unless you have very long freight cars as in modern autoracks in which case you'll want #6s. #6 is preferred with most scale-length passenger cars. (Some people believe #4s will work with most anything. That's not my experience with equipment I've operated.)
B. Yes. Use #6.
C. No, they weren't routinely turned. Cabooses were already a big enough bother for the railroads.
Mark
Thank you very much.
Terry
Passenger cars generally had a separate yard or at least a separate section of a large yard. For example in my area (St.Paul Minnesota) the Great Northern, Northern Pacific, and others kept yards for passenger cars near the St.Paul Union Depot. Passenger cars would be taken there from the depot by a yard switcher after arriving on a train. At the yard they'd be cleaned, have water coolers restocked etc.
Dining cars would be spotted next to the Commissary Building for food and other supplies to be replenished. In some cases, express (packages etc.) might be unloaded in part of the yard, or there might be a Railway Express Agency building near the yard that the baggage cars would be moved to to be unloaded (same with mail cars).
Cars would later be moved from the passenger yard to one of the depot's tracks by a switch engine, and once the train was assembled on the track the train's engine(s) would back on to the train to begin the next run.
Cabooses were designed to run in either direction. There might have been some specific situations where a railroad would want to run them facing one direction all the time, but it would be pretty rare.
I'm designing a stub classification yard based on the "10 Commandments of Yard Design" ( http://www.housatonicrr.com/yard_des.html ). I have not decided whether to use #4 or #6 turnouts, then thought about passenger cars.
Did passenger cars use "freight" yards or did they have dedicated tracks while being serviced? Are #4's too tight for most passenger cars?
Also, I'll have a caboose track. Were cabooses (or cabeese) always oriented the same way on a train; were they turned on turntable?