Hello - quick 'new guy' question... I am considering building a small servicing terminal layout. I have a question about locomotive movement - if my terminal has an approach / departure track that leads to and from the roundtable (and roundhouse), I would assume once servicing is complete locomotives would need to be either reversed out of servicing or straight out based on the direction they would need to travel once back on the main line... is this accurate? Are their protypical examples of this? I have donw a fair bit of reading on the subject but can't seem to find this paticular question addressed. Thanks for the help! Mike
Hi, Mike...
You're absolutely correct that the outbound locomotives were turned to the appropriate direction on the "ready track".
There was considerable planning and cooperation between the dispatchers, the "power desk" the crew caller and the roundhouse foreman. The latter would see which locomotives were available for the planned train movements in the near future, say the next two to four hours, although there were "peak" times where locomotives may have to be dispatched with great frequency, say 10 to 15 in an hour.
The assigned locomotives would be chalked up on a big board in the roundhouse for the hostler(s) to get ready, and in the correct orientation and then have the engine ready to be turned over to the road crew (who's names were also on the "big board") who would then move the locomotive to the appointed location for the swap, if it was going to be an engine change or to the appropriate yard track to tie on to the waiting train.
Some terminals, like Harmon, New York on the N.Y.C. Railroad, ALL the steam locomotives were headed north (railroad west) since the trains were brought into Harmon by electrics and they were pulled off and steam power was assigned to take the train from there.
For many of the premier "varnish" trains there were backup locomotives kept in reserve at strategic division points to "protect" against breakdowns and these engines were kept at the ready for any contingency.
Of course, one of the big selling features of the Diesel was its adaptability for bi-directional operation by having a cab at either end of a multiple-unit configuration and it was a simple matter to arrange the automatic brake valve cutout and control switches for operation in either direction.
Great question! Maybe others will have more info...
Regards, Ed
The major industry on my layout is going to be a Rocky Mountain pusher station that also is capable of being able to do repairs to just about anything. That way I can justify having a lot more loco's in the area as compared to the amount of other rolling stock. I don't have room for a good size yard on my little layout so this way I can have MOW equipment, a few bad order cars that have been dropped off mid Rocky Mountain pass and whatever else I want to show up.
I only wanted a 90' turntable so it would reflect the fact that it has been there since the early days of the RR being pushed through when engines were smaller. However I will have a balloon track that goes around the roundhouse so I can turn MOW trains, a passenger train and a 2-10-4 if need be.
I am currently building the roundhouse and machine shop. You can see the template of the roundhouse at the far end with the balloon track around it.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
With our usual space restrictions, the locomotive ready tracks are often omitted on model railroads. It is easy to think that the locomotives spent all of their "down" time sitting within the roundhouse, but that is not usually the case. The service stalls were for performing that service and repair (some stalls usually designated for the heavier repairs), but if such work was not needed, the engine would have likely been coaled, watered, checked for sand, and then moved to the ready track. Good work on your part to include one as part of the terminal.
Bill
In 1912 the IC built a division point engine service facility in Centralia, IL. The following description of the operation is excerpted from an article in the June 27th 1913 issue of Railway Age:
"The engine house has a single opening, to the south, enabling all freight engines to enter and leave the house without reverse movements, but requiring passenger engines leaving or taking trains at the Centralia station which is north of the yard, to run about 2,500 feet south of the roundhouse and reverse. Passenger locomotives inbound to the house, leave the main track north of the extreme limits of the yard, taking an engine lead alongside the double track lead to the southbound tail switching yard. Passing just west of the roundhouse this track connects with the main ladder of the engine yard, at the south end of which connection is made with the inbound tracks to the house. Southbound freight engines pull their trains into the southbound switching yard, run through to south end of this yard and return on the thoroughfare track which connects directly with the inbound engine tracks to the roundhouse. Northbound freight engines leaving their trains in the northbound receiving yard at the extreme south end of the terminal, use this same thoroughfare to reach the house. There are two inbound engine tracks, one running straight into the house without passing over the inspection pits or the cinder pits. The other crosses the inspection pit and the three cinder pits with crossovers just beyone each cinder pit to enable an engine on the rear pit to run around an engine still standing on one of the pits ahead. Crossovers are also provided to reach the coaling station if it is desired to coal an engine before taking it to the house. Inbound engines may water at a penstock just back of the inspection pit.
Outbound engines from the house can use one of three tracks. two of which pass the coaling station. A penstock located just outside of the roundhouse, and another just beyond the coaling station allowed outbound engines to take water conveniently. Freight engines take the southbound thoroughfare track directly directly from the outbound engine tracks to reach either the northbound or southbound departure yards. Passenger engines run down one of the outbound tracks to the main ladder, down this ladder to the thoroughfare tracks, reverse and take that track over to the old southbound main, which they use as a northbound thoroughfare track to the north end of the yard.
In addition to the running tracks, the engine yard includes a wrecker track close to the roundhouse, an oil car track alongside the storehouse, a material track on either side of the storehouse, three stub end tracks for coal and material, a coal track under the coaling station, a crane track and cinder track alongside the cinder pits, a cinder track to the boiler cinder pit and a coal track to the power house bunkers."
There is a track diagram, but I'm not sure if the copyright on the article is still good after 103 years so I won't post it.
The article explains the sequence of servicing the engines:
"The inspection pit is unique in having an underpass which allows the inspector to get under the locomotive without the danger and inconvenience incident to crawling under in the usual manner. It is the intention to develop the use of this pit as much as possible, to handle as many of the minor repairs as can conveniently be done at this place instead of in the roundhouse."
Incoming locomotives first went on this outdoor inspection pit and as many repairs as possible were done there, then they were serviced with coal and water and sent to the ready tracks. The roundhouse was 48 stalls, 9 of which were an erecting building for heavy repairs, leaving 39 stalls to serive the 100 locomotives that the facility was responsible for every 24 hours. This meant one stall for every 2 1/2 locomotives.
Don't forget small shelter buildings or car bodies for the men working out in your engine yard. One could easily build a complete layout around an engine servicing facility like this.
There's a nifty video that includes lots of info on the late steam era UP servicing / shops area, but I can't find a link. It might have some relevant info. Perhaps someone can recall the one I'm remembering and post a link of still available.
Paul
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent
Great information all - thank you! I did not consider adding a ready-track to my layout but I definetly will now. I came across an article on steam servicing operations in Hinton VA which described reversing locos down the servicing tracks onto the roundtable. So - just so I am sure I understand - it is prototypical and accurate to back locos into servicing and onto the roundtable based on their orientation when they arrive at the terminal - or reverse them off the roundtable onto the ready-track when servicing is complete so they are correctly oriented to run on the main (once again based on the direction they will run once on the main). Hope that makes sense - it seems obvious you would have to occasionally reverse locos in or out of servicing but there is little mention of it based on my research. Thanks!!
MICHAEL BRATLEYI have a question about locomotive movement - if my terminal has an approach / departure track that leads to and from the roundtable (and roundhouse), I would assume once servicing is complete locomotives would need to be either reversed out of servicing or straight out based on the direction they would need to travel once back on the main line... is this accurate?
Yes and no, when servicing was finished, steam locomotives would be turned on the turntable to face the direction of travel for the train they were assigned. This was done on the way out of the roundhouse so the locomotive only needed to be turned once, if at all. Some roundhouses had outbound tracks spaced so that locomotives could move off of the turntable in the forward direction no matter what their intended direction of travel.
It would be undesirable to have to send a locomotive back to the turntable or to a wye for turning at a later time (delay in starting the train). It didnt always work out for freight trains (railroads didnt usually have cover power as discussed above for them).
MICHAEL BRATLEYAre their protypical examples of this?
This is covered in Freight Terminals and Trains by John Droege (1912, 1925), available online or in print form from the NMRA (1998, 2012). Chapters 27-30 cover servicing of locomotives.