Types of Interchanges and How They Work

[Big Boy Forever]

An interchange would be a good feature on a model RR instead of OR in addition to a classification yard.

Anyone on how different prototype  interchange track configurations are designed and how they operate?

Also configurations of interchanges with Class 1 to Class 1 and lower class independent shortline RRs interchanging to Class 1s? 

How has some members here fit interchanges into their layouts?

Photos would be nice?

[dehusman]

An interchange is a place where railroads exchange cars.  It can be a separate track, a separate yard or just an existing track in an existing yard. 

In Salt Lake City, the SP and UP yards just interchanges in the A/D tracks of their respective yards. 

The default yard to yard interchange operation is railroad A hauls its cars from its yard to railroad B and the engines come back light.  Railroad B hauls its cars to railroad A's yard and the engines come back light.

Out on line of road an interchange can be any track that both roads have access to.

Bottom line is you don't need an "interchange" yard or track in a switching yard, you can just have a transfer deliver a cut and you can deliver a cut to the other railroad.

This is pretty much the same regardless of railroad size.

On the other hand that's not how most modelers view interchanges.  I view my interchanges as "staging yards".  I have a B&O interchange at Wilmington plus will have PRR interchanges at Wilmington, Chadds Ford, Coatesville and Birdsboro (there were 2 more PRR intechanges but I didn'thave room to fit them in.)

At Wilmington, I eventually want to have the B&O deliver to my RR and my RR deliver to the B&O.  The B&O transfer will have 3 tracks with the option of a 4th, for a normal max capacity of 48 cars.  The PRR will have a 2 track yard that my railroad will deliver and pull from, it will have a max capacity of 28 cars. 

At Chadds Ford it will be just a connection track with a 4 or 5 car capacity. 

Coatesville will have 2 tracks and my railroad will deliver and pull from them, with a max capacity of about 32 cars. 

Birsdsboro will be about the same as Coatesville.

[ricktrains4824]

My Proto-lanced regional carrier layout had a connection track with another line, with capacity on it for 4-5 cars, depending on length, but, the key point of it's location, (just like real estate, "location, location, location."), was the fact that it had been located, directly into the main yard, off the yard lead, allowing an entire train, or more, to be staged in the yard, either a class 1 run-through, power included, or simply the train-long cut of cars to be left in the yard, as if the interchanging railroad crew had been here, left the cut, and is already back to home rails with any cars they had picked up from my line.

This allowed me the option of run-through class 1 trains, of coal and intermodal, and the option of adding/removing rail cars when I wanted to swap them out.

My new layout, still being planned, as the room is still being finished, will have a pair of connecting tracks, one located again directly into the main yard, the other leading into a staging yard, allowing the run-through option on it, and the cut of cars option to the yard. (I have yet to decide if these will be the same rail line connected in two places, or if they will be two separate lines...)

[Lone Wolf and Santa Fe]

Usually there are two types depending on the location and direction of the railroads, parallel tracks or crossing. If both railroads are going the same direction then there is a siding between them where cars are left for the other railroad to pick up. If the railroads are crossing, then the siding is often similar to the third leg of a wye.

[wjstix]

Interesting topic because there are so many possibilities, ranging from a tiny shortline railroad whose only connection with the rest of the world is an interchange with one large railroad, to a belt line or transfer railroad that hauls cars between the yards of several different railroads.

[davidmurray]

Hi All:

It seems to me that an "off-line" staging area is a de facto exchange track, in that the cars leave your layout for their final destination, and could go anyplace in North America.  If your home layout is set in north America.

Dave

[tomikawaTT]

davidmurray

Hi All:

It seems to me that an "off-line" staging area is a de facto exchange track, in that the cars leave your layout for their final destination, and could go anyplace in North America.  If your home layout is set in north America.

Dave

Well, my layout isn't set in North America, and all the track in the off-line (actually hidden extensions of the visible line) staging belongs to the same railroad.  In 1964 the Nihon Kokutetsu was a government-owned national monopoly.

My private coal originator interchanges through three specific tracks of the shared Tomikawa station complex.  Two tracks handle coal units (Tomikawa Tani Tetsudo size, not Powder River monsters.)  The other track takes care of loose car interchange, a few at a time.

The other main station sees 'interchange' with two other minor railroads.  In one case the loads (logs with the bark still on) are swapped by a transfer crane.  The other might receive a (very occasional) load of supplies for the up-gorge power generating facilities or one of the hot spring resorts.  The usual cargo units are two-legged, and transload themselves.

Deep under Takamiyama (Lookout Mountain) therre's a hidden interchange where JNR juice motors trade loaded coal units for empties, part of the 'empties in, loads out' maneuver at the big top of the valley colliery.  A TTT-kettle delivers the empties and takes the loads away.

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

[BRAKIE]

Let's throw a monkey wrench into the works.

My Summset Ry waddles its way twice a day to the NS interchange.In the morning the crew goes and picks up the inbound cars later that day the crews returns to the interchange with the outbound cars.

Now,NS/CSX has a interchange at Marion.. I've seen cars sit there 2-3 days before being picked up even though both roads has a yard and local crew there.

[dehusman]

davidmurray

Hi All:

It seems to me that an "off-line" staging area is a de facto exchange track, in that the cars leave your layout for their final destination, and could go anyplace in North America. 

A lot of people treat interchange like an "industry".  I treat mine as staging yards (even if its only one track 5 cars long) for this exact reason.

[jecorbett]

I have two interchanges at one of my towns. One is a dummy interchange in that the mainline of one railroad crosses the main line of my railroad. That dummy mainline track runs from the edge of the benchword to a really dark tunnel a few inches from the backdrop. There is an interchange track that connects the two. I use it as a fiddle track. Cars left on that track for the dummy railroad to pick up are taken off by hand between operating sessions and are replaced with other cars to be picked up by my railroad. There is a nearby runaround track so that cars can be picked up going in either direction. At the other end of the town is a working interchange with my branchline. It has a two track yard. One for cars moving from the branchline to the main and the other for cars moving from the main to the branchline.

The dummy interchange track only holds 6 40 foot cars. I wish I could have made it more elaborate, like the branchline interchange, but space didn't allow it. It still functions as a universal interchange in which any type of car can be dropped or picked up so it serves its purpose. I use a car card an waybill system and if more cars get routed to the dummy interchange than the track can hold, the overflow can be stored in the branchline's interchange yard which is just across a bridge from the dummy interchange.

Since my main classification yard is at one end of the layout and close to the entrance to the east end staging yard it too is an interchange point. Trains from several foreign roads come out of staging and into one of the A/D tracks and the train is broken up. Going in the opposite direction, a train for each of those foreign roads will move from the classification yard to east end staging.

[BRAKIE]

dehusman

lot of people treat interchange like an "industry". I treat mine as staging yards (even if its only one track 5 cars long) for this exact reason.

The staging interchange track are the best types for small layouts since the outbound cars can be removed and inbound car placed on this track.

IMHO regular staging doesn't help that "Gee whiz,there's that dented B&O gon again with the same waybill" blues.

Of course unit  trains,pig trains and passenger trains doesn't fall in this group only cars destine to be dropped off in a yard should IMHO be rotated..

[Shafty]

Interchange practices varied widely.  

 

When I hired out on the U.P. in Los Angeles in 1955, as best I remember, the interchange was handled as follows:

 

Almost all U.P. - S.P. interchange occurred at the U.P. 4th Street yard.  Each railroad delivered and pulled there.  "Hot" cars such as livestock,  perishable, or cars for important customers were handled at a track up the river near the Alhambra Shops.  There were a few "hot" cars for industries such as General Motors in South Gate and cars of magazines that were interchanged to the S.P. at Butte Street.

 

The U.P. and the ATSF delivered to each other's yards, and came home lite.  "Hot" cars were handled on a short track at Hobart Tower.  If one of the railroads was especially outraged at the other, as happened a few times, they would fill the short track with mtys that the other railroad would have to clear off before they could put anything on the track.

 

All railroads delivered to the L.A. Junction "A" yard and pulled from the "B" yard, not necessarily with the same crew.  The ATSF sometimes delivered to the L.A. Junction "C" yard.  Some outbound "Hot" cars may have been pulled from the 'A" Yard.  The P.E. was the exception, all interchange occurring at Walker Street.

 

The U.P. delivered and pulled the P.E. at Butte Street.

 

These practices changed from time to time as conditions changed.  Later the U.P. 4th Street Yard was no longer used for interchange.   After that the interchange was handled between East Yard on the U.P. and Taylor Yard on the S.P.  The crews would alternate, U.P. delivering and pulling for a year, then the S.P. crews delivering and pulling for a year.

 

At times there was also inadvertent interchange on industry tracks where more than one railroad spotted and pulled cars.  A crew would pull an mty which had originally been spotted by the other railroad.

 

Eugene Crowner

[JWhite]

Why would there be a scale on the interchange?  I've been researching Centralia, IL.  The IC had a huge operation there and so did the CB&Q.  The two mainlines ran next to each other for a couple miles through the center of town and the CB&Q veered off to the West while the IC continued North.  They had an interchange yard just North of the passenger depots IC on the East Side, CB&Q on the West.  There was a scale track in the interchange yard.

The IC also had scales in their huge car shop in town, so I'm wondering why they put a scale at the interchange. I don't see scales at other interchange tracks and yards.

 

 

[cuyama]

JWhite

Why would there be a scale on the interchange?

There may have been an industry on one railroad that had loads that were interchanged to the other railroad without first being routed through a yard with a scale track. The interchange yard would be a handy place to weight that load for billing purposes. It may not be common, but I have seen it in a couple of other places.

JWhite

The IC also had scales in their huge car shop in town

That was likely for re-weighing cars after repairs (always necessary). It would be inefficient to route loads into the car shops and back out all the time.