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Yard operation has three basic parts, arrival, classification, and departure. In a hump yard you will usually also have separate arrival and departure yards. In a flat yard you may have longer tracks for arrival/departure and shorter for classification. I strongly suggest you look at some yards because the layout affects the operation. In a modern yard the arrival and departure tracks will have roadways between them so carmen can make inspection from their motorized carts. Many yards have auxilary areas too. Most common is a repair "rip" track. This can be one of two short tracks or up to six or so with a building. Modern rips tend to one way flow through designs, older ones may be stub tracks. If you are in caboose era dont forget a caboose track. Can be a short track parallel to your switching lead. Probably need a place to put the power. Can be anything from full blown roundhouse with turntable to a stub track or two. Older facilities will probably have fuel, water, and sand. Operational flow is to land inbound trains in receiving track. Carman makes inspection and identifies bad order cars which have to be switched out for repair. Cars are switched by destination which may be by station or group of stations "blocks" depending on situation. Blocks of cars are then lined up on departure track. In big yard ther may be a yard air plant so brake test can be made by carmen without need of locomotives. If you are looking for something practical to model, I stongly suggest you look for something older as it will be more compact. Appleyard in Wenatcheee Washington would be a nice one. It had a two track ice dock about 60 cars long. The "ice hole" was on the river side, with track 1 on other side. There was a scale on the West lead. "Class" tracks were 1-9, each about 70 cars long. Arrival and departure were 10-13, each about 90 cars long. Until mid 1950's 10-13 were electrified so there was a wide space between 8 and 9. Caboose and rip tracks were beyond #13, with Electric Shop beyond that. Steam facilities were never extensive. Appleyard had about a 60 degree curve in the body at the east end. The lead was straight. This is nice feature if you need to get around a corner. Main track bypassed yard on hill side. In the late 1960's they started 5 or 6 locals in three directions all in the afternoon. Handled about three or four through freights. Westbound 97 reduced to 3600 tons. 83 reduced to about 6000 tons. Usually made an extra West, and terminated an extra east. Eastbound 82 ran through. Originated #88 which was a mostly fruit train. Originated #130 which was a dead freight to Spokane with east cars to Minot and short. terminated an extra west from Spokane. Ruling grade to West was 2.2% over Cascade mountains. tonnage limit 6000 tons with cut in helper. Needed 10 F7 or GP 9 for that. SD40 was good for 1200 ton. Eastward ruling grade was 1% and trains were 5000 to 6000 tons. Same to Wenatchee from Spokane. Hope this was helpful and thanks for the trip down memory lane. Mac McCulloch
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