Length of interchange track(s)

[wheeler]

I am using mostly steam era 40' boxcars and hoppers. In my proto, I am being limited by space for the interchange track between NYC and my B&O main. I currently can set 5 cars off of the NYC waiting for pickup by the B&O. Is this enough space? I honestly don't know how much interchange of different lines takes (took)as the NYC in my setup has its' own main going thru. (1950-58)

Thoughts?Questions?ideas?

Thanks.

[tomikawaTT]

I don't believe there was any standard length for interchange tracks.  Each railroad built what they thought would be a long enough track to handle the traffic, which could be anything from a couple of cars a day to most of a local freight train several times a day.

If your hypothetical interchange traffic is only 4-5 cars an operating 'day,' you're good to go.

(Most published track plans, except for basement-fillers based on major prototypes, only have rather short interchange tracks.)

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with short interchange tracks)

[doctorwayne]

If the NYC drops off 5 cars for the B&O, and the B&O, when it picks up those, drops another 5 for the Central, you've interchanged 10 cars in an operating cycle - not too bad unless your layout is huge.  I don't know what your track set-up is like, but with a "live" interchange, with locos from both roads showing up at the same time, could you interchange more cars, either five-at-a-time, or an entire train?  I didn't have room to include an interchange on the layout itself, but all of the staging tracks are available as interchange tracks when it suits the operating scheme.  One of them, which is the sole staging area for one end of the layout, is a designated interchange.  It holds about 20 cars, far larger than  than the usual length of trains in this area, and "interchange" occurs when I lift the cars off the track and replace them with others from the storage shelves.  In the photo below, this track is the one at the lowest level, behind the post.  There'll eventually be another large staging yard above the existing one, as the layout will be partially double-decked.  Those reefers, on the intermediate level (there are two tracks there) are in an industrial staging area - industries not modelled but generating traffic none-the-less.

 

Wayne

[wheeler]

Thanks for the replies- I am really enjoying this forum. I have seen some great layouts, and gotten good tips and ideas.

For my interchange, the NYC is down to a two day a week run, as the B&O runs non stop. I never was a "Prototype" modeller in the past, as I thought "those guys" were too anal over details and such. HOWEVER as I am older, I am enjoying modelling a REAL location and its' mark in time. Not to be bent over detail, I see it as a great set of parameters to make it run and seem more "Real"

[hawghead1]

Interchange tracks are what you make them. There is no set rule for them. They can hold one to a hundred and fifty it's whatever you want or need.

hawghead1

[R. T. POTEET]

One of the hobby periodicals did a clinic feature on interchange sometime in the sixties or seventies I believe. They pointed out that interchange at yard locations usually involved little more than a shove and a pull; things got a little more complicated when the interchange was taking place at Boondocksville, Pennsyltucky. Your post infers that your interchange is taking place at one of these Boondockvilles!

When the XYZ and PDQ railroads originally began using Boondocksville as an interchange point the facilities at that location were designed with a certain capacity. Often, however, capacity requirement increased and it became necessary for certain modifications to be made.

Some of these requirements were solved by modifications to the physical plant i.e. through lengthing the interchange track; there was even a recorded case I seem to recall where the interchange track itself could not be extended so the XYZ railroad built a siding a short distance away and that siding was utilized for interchange at that particular location. Other capacity requirements were solved by operation modifications i.e. the interchange was no longer switched by the daily peddlers but rather schedules were adjusted and the interchange was switched several times a day by manifests.

[jecorbett]

On my freelance layout, I have a junction town with a small yard. On the west end, a branchline feeds into the yard, there is no track that is strictly for interchange. Both mainline and branch line trains will drop off and pick up cars in the two track yard. The branch has yet to be built so for now it is just a simulated interchange.

On the opposite end across a river is a simulated interchange with the Erie. A single Erie track crosses my double track main at about a 45 degree angle. The Erie main is a dummy track running from the edge of the layout back into a tunnel near the back wall. There is a short interchange track between the live and dummy mainlines that will interchange about 6 40' cars. So far, that has been enough. That interchange track is also a fiddle yard where I can take cars off the layout or put them on between sessions. If at some point I decide I wanted to interchange more cars than that interchange track can hold, I will simply hold the overflow cars in the yard.