A lot depends on what prototype you are more or less following.
N&W liked a 'one stop shop' for fuel, water and sand. There were penstocks almost under the structure, and sand pipes angled out from the sand tank at the top of the coaling station to spots close to where sand domes would be with the bunker under the chute. (They also liked one stop lubrication - with oil lines and grease guns within arms length of every fill port and fitting inside their lubritoriums.)
A bucolic short line that only has to service a locomotive or two might have its facilities located pretty much at random. A heavy traffic operation will be as efficiently laid out as can be arranged.
So, what do I do? My JNR coal burners can get water and emergency coal at Tomikawa, but their servicing area is at the bottom of the grade, at Takami. Since Takami is part of the netherworld, I don't have comprehensive mainline facilities. Likewise, my TTT-kettles top up coal and water at Tomikawa (coal hand-shoveled from a drop-side gon on an adjacent track) but the serious facilities and shop are located at the other end of the line, at the big colliery.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Mid 90s there was an article in MR "Maumee Turns a Mike." It was brief but to the point.
Sorry to chime in so late. I knew I had a book about this but it took me a couple of days to remember where I had squirreled it away.
The book is The Model Railroader's Guide to Locomotive Servicing Terminals published by Kalmbach in 2002. It might be out of print--if so, try ebay.
It contains about 40 pages of steam servicing info, ten pages of diesel and 20 pages of modeling info. lots of photos and diagrams.
Good luck.
Here's another odd relationship between roundhouse and turntable:
Dave
Just be glad you don't have to press "2" for English.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ_ALEdDUB8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hqFS1GZL4s
http://s73.photobucket.com/user/steemtrayn/media/MovingcoalontheDCM.mp4.html?sort=3&o=27
Out on the mainline, water was obtained from lineside tanks and/or standpipes; but in loco terminals, water was often delivered from standpipes located at various places around the terminal. Sometimes the water came from a municipal water source, so sometimes there was no water tank per se. Coal and sand were usually near each other, or integrated into one large coal/sand station. I'm not very familiar with terminals where oil fuel was dispensed. It seems that ash facilities were usually located between the fuel facility and the enginehouse. However, in those naive pre-EPA days, the ashes were often dumped directly into an adjacent nearby stream, so the ash dump may have been located wherever convenient. When the ashpan was cleaned, water hoses were used to clean out the ashpan. Don't forget to install water hoses for this purpose. N&W had enclosed "Lubritoriums" that were part of the routine process. I think they were located betweeen the ash facility and the enginehouse, but an N&W fan could probably tell you for sure. Most roads didn't have these.
Sometimes the arrangement depended on the physical restraints of the property line and the topography.
It's interesting that in some locations the turntable was not in the expected location in front of the enginehouse. At the Bellefonte Central's Coleville, PA terminal, the turntable was on the opposite side of the mainline and across the street from the enginehouse; and the coal tipple was very close to the enginehouse, serving only one track. This was likely dictated by space limitations.
Many loco terminals in England had their turntables located away from the enginehouse. And some locations here and across the pond had their turntables located inside the roundhouse. The B&O Museum is such a location, and so were the B&O roundhouses in Martinsburg, WV.
The easiest solution is to find a particulear prototype that fits your needs, and model that.
Tom
I think, they should of/would have been set-up with a logical progression. Not all locos would need to head to the roundhouse for water, sand; or, coal, so these should be set-up so locos passing through the yard could have access. The ash pit and ash cleaning tools would likely be on the inbound turntable track. Ash removal, coal for the coaling tower and sand for sanding, if posible, should be loaded; or, removed so as to not block other service tracks.
NP 2626 "Northern Pacific, really terrific"
Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association: http://www.nprha.org/
Hi,
I doubt their are "rules" on the subject but logic for each situation should prevail.
Locos coming into the roundhouse for repairs would likely drop their ashes first.
Coming out of the area, they would fill up with coal/oil, sand and water. The location of these three facilities (as compared to each other) is likely not an issue.
However, locos may just be coming into the area for fueling (coal/oil, water) and are passing through. So that should be a consideration as well.
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
The order that I have my service area stuff is as follows: Ash pit, water column, coaling tower, sand tower, wash rack, turntable, then into the roundhouse.
Elmer.
The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.
(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.
I don't know of any prototype "rules" on this, and see quite a bit of variation on prototype track plans. If your line follows some particular prototype, then you would likely want to check photos and track plans for the engine servicing facilities for that railroad to see if there was any standard.
At my workbench this month is a calendar photo of the engine servicing facilities of the Maryland & Pennsylvania at York, PA. There, the order was: water, tool house, coal, ash pit, and then sand house. At the larger Baltimore terminal, there was a coal dock located some distance from the roundhouse, and the various service parts weren't all grouped together.
For the Buffalo Creek & Gauley at Dundon, WV, the sand house was close to the engine house, but the water plug was out on the main line and they filled with coal when they were at the tipple.
The Uintah had the water tank at Mack on the end of the wye turning track that was furthest from the station and other servicing facilities.
While there is thus a great deal of variance in the prototype, we modelers do tend to exercise our "selective compression" in this regard - putting all of the servicing structures close together. You are wise to have a second track from the yard to the turntable, as crews would be upset waiting to get to the turntable while someone else was going through the servicing routine. On my HO short line, the order is: sand, water, coal, ash pit, turntable.
Bill
i'm starting to build my steam yard servicing area just before the turntable and round house. I have the water tower, the sand tower, the ash pit and the coaling tower. A stub ended service track to take care of these will be right behind them. On the front side will be the track leading from the yard to the turntable. I also have a second track from the yard to the turntable as well. My question is: Is there any particular order for these servicing items to be in. Would you typically have the ash tower next to the coaling tower where both could be serviced at once? Some photos of people's servicing area would be great if possible.
Thanks, Rob