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Stupid question : passing sidings with industries

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Posted by BRAKIE on Sunday, May 10, 2015 11:42 AM

cuyama
[By the way, every transload facility I've seen has been set away from the running track a greater distance than a former passing siding would have been to allow for safe loading and unloading of commodities.]

Some railroads has indeed used former passing sidings for transload tracks like I stated.Of course these are usually found on downsized main lines.As far as being to close..There would be no need to next to the main track since the unloading devices would be in the paved unloading area.

A pump and a hose between the car and trailer is all that is needed to unload tank cars or covered hoppers.Not a very fancy setup.

 

 

 

Larry

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Posted by cuyama on Sunday, May 10, 2015 2:41 PM

mlehman
When something changes, change the label if the old one doesn't apply.

The original question wasn't about anything changing; it was about the two functions simultaneously occurring on the same track. Not via a long term change documented in the ETT or orders issued on a Form 19, or anything of that nature. Since the Original Poster now indicates that he hasn't even drawn a track plan yet, why not help him do it the most plausible and realistic way instead of indulging in flights of fancy, one-ofs, and could-have-beens?

It's theoretically possible to install an engine service turntable directly on a main line. And it may even have been done in real life somewhere in some bizarre scenario. But it's a bad practice.

My suggestions aren’t driven by slavish devotion to the prototype; they reflect what has been found to work the best in the most situations ... either on the prototype or the model.

But others prefer unicorns to plow horses, so carry on.

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Posted by BroadwayLion on Sunday, May 10, 2015 5:29 PM

A Passing Siding is under the control of CTC. If they give you a Warrant to use it for other purposes, you may do so. When the warrant expires, you must clear the siding just as you would the main track.

Their used to be a passing siding in Richardton, but when trains got longer they took it out. You cannot block all three crossings, now can you. Passing sidings tend to be out of town, work sidings tend to be in town.

LIONS tend ot be found in a cage in the zoo.

ROAR

The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.

Here there be cats.                                LIONS with CAMERAS

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Posted by KK Bridge on Sunday, May 10, 2015 6:37 PM

BroadwayLion
A Passing Siding is under the control of CTC.

But only in Centralized Traffic Control territorry. Depending on era and locaton, that may be another exception to the rule, but just that: an exception.

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Posted by BRAKIE on Sunday, May 10, 2015 9:41 PM

KK Bridge
 
BroadwayLion
A Passing Siding is under the control of CTC.

 

But only in Centralized Traffic Control territorry. Depending on era and locaton, that may be another exception to the rule, but just that: an exception.

 

The good folks in the MOW and operations can take a passing siding out of service to store camp cars for a track project-this of course is limited time deal.

The DS will tag that siding as out of service and will work his meets at other sidings-the ones that pays the price for the longer delay at meets is the train crew and customers and now add the slow order through the work site and its not a very pretty picture.

Anybody that believes railroading is cut and dry is believing a myth.

Larry

Conductor.

Summerset Ry.


"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt  Safety First!"

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Posted by KK Bridge on Sunday, May 10, 2015 10:17 PM

BRAKIE
The good folks in the MOW and operations can take a passing siding out of service to store camp cars for a track project-this of course is limited time deal.

Absolutely true. Back when I was in train service on the Milwaukee Road, I was familiar with the Timetable Special Instruction that said when occupied outfit cars were placed on a siding both switches had to be spiked closed.

And cars could be left on sidings, so long as that was consistent with authority, whether it be by Special Instruction in the employee timetable, train order, bulletin on the bulletin board or oral instruction from the dispatcher. Likewise, team tracks could be designated as sidings, and sidings as team tracks by Special Instruction. More recently, as Lion points out, I guess it can be done by Track Warrant. But if a siding is obstructed, operations in its vicinity get more difficult. Now, that may be the object of an operating session, which can be varied to increase "play value" or interest generally.

All of which is fine and good, but the original poster just wanted to know if, on a narrow shelf layout, he needed to have lineside industries located on his passing siding, or whether there were other options.  The answer is, sure, on a 12" wide shelf in HO you can have an industrial (house) track, a main line, and a generally-unobstructed passing siding, as illustrated in a photo of a really realistic looking scene of that kind.

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Posted by mlehman on Monday, May 11, 2015 12:41 AM

cuyama
But others prefer unicorns to plow horses, so carry on.

Nah, no need for unicorns or plowhorse's here. I actually model a prototype with a turntable on the main (Silverton RR), but just not enough space to model it so that I didn't.

I think your point is an important one: Consider the way things are usually done. Sometimes you do that until it turns out that something else may need to be considered. That's all. No need for a unicorn roundup.

Mike Lehman

Urbana, IL

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Posted by BRAKIE on Monday, May 11, 2015 6:08 AM

KK Bridge
The answer is, sure, on a 12" wide shelf in HO you can have an industrial (house) track, a main line, and a generally-unobstructed passing siding, as illustrated in a photo of a really realistic looking scene of that kind.

Absolutely..Looking at my old Slate Creek ISL one could easily see my short runaround track could be used as a short passing siding if one turned the clock back to th 20-30s and say that was a branch line and that's where the daily local met #134 the branch passenger train.

Larry

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Summerset Ry.


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Posted by Medina1128 on Monday, May 11, 2015 6:14 AM

I live in a small town (Clinton, MO) and we're served by the Missouri Northen Arkansas. There is an oil distribution company here in town and new tankers are brought in every week. They arrive in town trailing the locomotive, so there is a passing siding to place the locomotive behind them. My girlfriend and I spent about an hour train railfanning the train, watching it place the new tank cars on another siding, retrieve the ones from the plant, spot the new ones and haul the empties away. Made for a fun part of an afternoon.

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Posted by Mountain scenery on Monday, November 16, 2015 8:21 PM

Santa Fe all the way!
Having limited space on a shelf layout, is it OK to have multiple industries served by a passing siding? In some areas Im not sure if I have the depth to have a passing siding and a spur for an industry.
 

Santa Fe all the way!
Having limited space on a shelf layout, is it OK to have multiple industries served by a passing siding? In some areas Im not sure if I have the depth to have a passing siding and a spur for an industry.
 

 

Yes you can... trust me seen it and switch lines like that myself.

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Posted by dehusman on Monday, November 16, 2015 8:57 PM

BroadwayLion

A Passing Siding is under the control of CTC. If they give you a Warrant to use it for other purposes, you may do so. When the warrant expires, you must clear the siding just as you would the main track.

A dispatcher doesn't issue "warrants" in CTC.  In CTC track authority is by signal indication or verbal authority.  No warrants.

 

LIONS tend ot be found in a cage in the zoo.

Lion ought to be reading a rule book if he wants to answer a rules question.

Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com

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Posted by dehusman on Monday, November 16, 2015 9:03 PM

Industries can be on a double ended track.

If you put industries on a PASSING siding then its no longer a PASSING siding since you can't pass trains on it.

I'm sure that on branch lines that didn't use passing sidings as passing sidings they used them for other purposes.  On larger railroads when they blocked a passing siding with cars they had to install derails on both ends of the siding and issue an order or bulletin saying the siding was blocked with cars so it would not be used to meet or pass trains.

On larger railroads the answer would be no, you can't have industries using a passing siding as an industry track because as soon as you do it isn't a PASSING siding.

Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com

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Posted by wjstix on Thursday, November 19, 2015 12:53 PM

Ya it may just be an issue with semantics, what the OP is calling a "passing siding" is really just a double-ended industrial siding. That would be perfectly normal, but trying to sometimes use it as a passing siding so two trains could pass each other wouldn't.

In HO on a 12" wide shelf, you can fit four tracks in if you need to, so you could have a mainline track with a passing siding and a double ended industrial siding and still have enough room for background buildings and some scenery. Note that if you have the passing siding, you could use it as a run-around track and have the industrial track be a spur (single ended) track. I have that arrangement on my shelf layout and it works out OK.

Stix
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Posted by Mountain scenery on Thursday, November 19, 2015 7:07 PM

Yes, you can. the yard crew would have to do there work first before train is put on a siding or not able too do work on the pass siding because train is already there.

 

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Posted by Lone Wolf and Santa Fe on Thursday, November 19, 2015 8:23 PM

On my layout on a branch line, not the mainline, where the shelf is 5 ½ inches wide there is a passing siding/double ended spur or whatever you want to call it with an industry on it. Trains do not meet there to pass because there is the only one train that is on the branch line. Each end of this siding has a turnout which leads to another industry. So basically along one wall there are three industries along the back wall on the same rear track with two switches leading back to the branch. One of them is a couple of feet from the end of the line where there is a crossover heading back to the branch line. It is just long enough for a pair of locos. After the loaded cars have been picked up the locos run around the cars passing them…. If you are designing a point to point layout or a branchline something like this might work for you.

redlands branchline trackplan

Modeling a fictional version of California set in the 1990s Lone Wolf and Santa Fe Railroad

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