DoughlessCould you double the main line between the yard and the branch turnout? I'm sure prototypes might do this to prevent bottle necks.
Actually some major railroads removed the second main track to "improve" service.
PC did that with a joint NYC/PRR transfer connector that would have given PRR trains out of Cleveland Ave yard access to the NYC and NYC trains to Cleveland yard-this happen while Buckeye yard was being built.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
It's already a double track main. I suppose I could tie the branch in to the ends of the industrial line which is also the yard lead.
But during actual operations, this wouldn;t be an issue, the train for the branch would head out, run the branch, and come back. If they have to wait for clearance to get back on the main, they wait.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
rrinker I also have 2 branches which can be operated without interfering with manling cirulating trains, although the actual operating scheme of both branches includes some running over the main to get to the yard. In demonstraton mode, I can run the length of each branch and switch while trains circulate. --Randy
I also have 2 branches which can be operated without interfering with manling cirulating trains, although the actual operating scheme of both branches includes some running over the main to get to the yard. In demonstraton mode, I can run the length of each branch and switch while trains circulate.
Could you double the main line between the yard and the branch turnout? I'm sure prototypes might do this to prevent bottle necks.
You could operate the slow branch local along its mainline while the faster circulating train passes by. Cool.
- Douglas
I'd think a drill track serving as the industrial main lead would be a design that many real railroads would use. They would want to save track and turnouts where they could too. Batman's placement as a looping track around a roundhouse (even a torn down RH in modern times) would also be prototypical, IMO, and works well as long as no real coupling takes place there.
A balloon track around the roundhouse is my yard lead. At the far end are two A/D tracks where I build or take apart trains pulling them to the balloon track and pushing them onto the ladder. It seems to work quite well. I have always wanted to invite some critical thinking on the setup and ways to improve it. I may start a thread to do that.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Considering I like switching more than running a through train on the main - this works out very well for me too. In addition to the industries worked directly from the yard, I also have 2 branches which can be operated without interfering with manling cirulating trains, although the actual operating scheme of both branches includes some running over the main to get to the yard. In demonstraton mode, I can run the length of each branch and switch while trains circulate. One branch is nice and long, and I have no plans to double deck this. It's on the opposite side of a floor to ceiling wall from the yard and the main, which I hope gives it the feel of the slow and off the beaten path branch the real thing was. The other one, I only have space to incoproate the cement plant the was served and the connection point witht he main, I don;t even have room for the small ard that was part of this branch or simulate the connection to other railroads at its far end. On my layout, the connection to the main will be more of an interchange, since the plant will be switched by their own plant switcher. Not true to prototype but a reasonable alteration that will make better use of the available space.
I haven't even thought about the upper level yet, but it should have a bunch of short branches to serve mines. Since most of it will be fairly narrow, I may take advantage of the wide space over the yard to use removeable structures/scenery to hide some staging for an interchange.
My goal was for the industries to be switched while the four display routes on the mainline run without interference.
My operational goals include three distinct modes:
Full crew with dispatcher = four ATLANTIC CENTRAL mainline trains under CTC, a combination of one to three yard/industrial belt line crews, and a WESTERN MARYLAND crew.
Limited crew = no dispatcher, mainline crews act as their own tower operators as they progress, yard operations as crew size allows.
Display mode = four separate ATLANTIC CENTRAL mainline loops can run without conflict, WESTERN MARYLAND can run as a loop without conflict, yard and industries can be worked without conflict with mainline.
So the belt line feeding directly from the yard to the industries was the perfect answer.
Sheldon
Perfect. I will continue with my plan then. Seemed like it made more sense than to add additional crossovers on the main to reach industries just beyond the yard, which would tie up the main just after a train heading west pulled out of the yard.
I'd love to do the same thing on the other end of the yard, but I am limited by needing to have a removeable section there for access to the furnace and water heater, so I don't want to make a deep scene with lots of structures and track all over.
rrinkerCrazy idea, to have the yard switcher step out of the way twice a day to allow this train out of and back into the yard? Or is there some prototypical basis for doing this?
Not a crazy idea. Some railroads used a traveling switch engine (TSE) to handle industries near the yard and these TSE would use the yard lead to depart if that was the route to those industries..
As a side note of interest PRR's TSE in the Columbus,Ohio area was called for 11:00 pm and returned around 4:00 am. This TSE had a assigned crew and usually used a SW7 or SW1200.
hardcoalcaseTrains needing to share the same tracks from time-to-time isn't a problem... its part of the operating fun.
I agree!
We modellers have to live with limited space so it makes perfect sense to design something that allows for more than one function. As Jim said, "it's part of the operating fun". Hey, that will make it 'fun'ctional!
Maybe you could include a short spur off of the yard lead, just long enough for the switcher, where it could be parked out of the way but still close to the yard lead.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Not crazy at all. That's what happens when any train arrives or departs from the yard. I think most (maybe not most, but definitely some) prototype yard leads are arranged where they come off the main well in advance of the yard ladder rather than being on a switchback like we do on model railroads so often. In that case, the switcher has to clear the lead for any arriving or departing train at that end of the yard.
It is also very prototypical to have industrial tracks logically "in the yard" so they can be served without ever going out on to the mainline.
I am doing exactly what you propose. I don't claim to be an authority on prototype practice, but in this case, I think I'm safe since I copied the track arrangement from the real yard at Eckman, WV that I'm representing on the layout.
I have the right to remain silent. By posting here I have given up that right and accept that anything I say can and will be used as evidence to critique me.
On my layout, the yard lead extends to a logging branch, where a Shay brings loaded log cars down to the yard and hands them over to a road loco that takes them to a sawmill a few towns away. The lead track is in place, the logging branch is "coming soon!"
Trains needing to share the same tracks from time-to-time isn't a problem... its part of the operating fun.
Jim
rrinker I was thinking about extending my yard lead all the way around to the town side to serve the in-town industries - this would be just a short local, only a handful of rail-served industries left. Potentially all switched under yard limits if that even makes sense. Crazy idea, to have the yard switcher step out of the way twice a day to allow this train out of and back into the yard? Or is there some prototypical basis for doing this? The existing yard lead already extends around the back of the roundhouse, to make it long enough to serve the longest yard track. --Randy
I was thinking about extending my yard lead all the way around to the town side to serve the in-town industries - this would be just a short local, only a handful of rail-served industries left. Potentially all switched under yard limits if that even makes sense.
Crazy idea, to have the yard switcher step out of the way twice a day to allow this train out of and back into the yard? Or is there some prototypical basis for doing this?
The existing yard lead already extends around the back of the roundhouse, to make it long enough to serve the longest yard track.
That's exactly what I did, wish I had this drawing ready to show you.
On the west end the yard lead connects to the mainline with a crossover and keeps going as a belt line to a group of industries. On the east end the belt line branches off the yard lead befor it joins the mainline.
This way, all that local switching can be done without entering or crossing the main. The yard is directly connected to what are effectively two small industrial switching layouts.
There is a little bit longer run to get to the larger industrial area on the west end, and the connection to the mainline is a little sooner, so the belt line doubles as a longer drill lead.
It is just one of the elements of selective compression. I don't see it as an operational problem at all.
In each case the industrial areas are close enough to feel like the same city, but far enough to feel away from the yard.
The yard and the two industrial areas are along the front edge of the layout, with other trackage and urban scenery behind.
At this point, I'm not even sure if, or how many, additional industries I might have elsewhere that would require a local out on the main?
Thelead job on my layout ahs to take breaks to allow trains to arrive and depart and other stuff, so having one of them be a local that runs out to the end of the lead shouldn't be any issue.
The local won't operate under yard limits, it will just operate like its on a yard track.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com