Hey everyone,
I was wondering if anyone knew of some famous freight yards that one could modeled in 2X14 in HO. The era would be in the 1940s or 1950s.
Thanks
Andy
There are very few "famous" freight yards that can be represented in 2x14.
Take Potomac Yard. Very famous. Very big. Much bigger than 2x14.
I look forward to suggestions, as I have none.
Ed
I think the question is how are you going to incorporate features that will distinguish on yard from another?
"No soup for you!" - Yev Kassem (from Seinfeld)
7j43kThere are very few "famous" freight yards that can be represented in 2x14.
I'm not sure if that can be done in N Scale either.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
I'm sure there are lists of the biggest, and the busiest, most important, but famous? Unless there are some with more historical significance than others.
I suggest the OP research yards, and decide what features of a yard would be doable in the space he has. I think Kalmbach has a book or two out there on the planning and the workings of a yard.
2' x 14' might seem like a big area, but by the time you consider easy access from both ends, including the important features of a working yard, in his time period, the space will fill up quickly.
Mike.
My You Tube
The main yard on my layout is a hump yard. It is 19 feet long by 20 inches wide. This in N scale so to do a decent representation of a famous yard in HO is nearly impossible.
Hi Andy,
When you say "famous freight yard", you are suggesting "big" or "busy". Even though your space looks big to you now, it will quickly fill up with the basic components of a moderate sized yard.
You don't say what railroad you favor, but other posts indicate you prefer a Midwestern locale with agricultural traffic. To me, that suggests a road like the Soo, M&StL, or even the AC&Y with which I am usually associated.
The AC&Y's largest yard was Brittain Yard, on the East side of Akron, Ohio. It actually is laid out on a gentle "S" curve, which you would have to straighten out for your space. The engine terminal at the West end would require more depth unless you eliminated some parts of it.
Approximately midway on the AC&Y's route was Carey, Ohio, where there was a large complex of the National Lime and Stone Company, plus interchanges with the NYC and C&O. The yard was fairly long and straight, with a small engine terminal and wye. The wye would take a bit of space, but this could be handled with a drop-leaf extension. The National Lime and Stone complex stretched along the North side of the yard, which would make for a very interesting backdrop.
At the West end of the AC&Y, the terminal was at Delphos. This yard was aligned on a roughly North-South axis, but the mainline curved to the East at the North end. This was described in Model Railroad Planning a couple years ago. There was an engine terminal with a wye (again, a drop-leaf is the most likely answer), plus an interchange with the parallel NKP yard to the West. To the South, the line ran down Washington Street parallel to the NKP, and terminated at an interchange with the PRR mainline.
Morning Sun's 2015 book on the AC&Y covers these areas well enough to get you started.
You might also look at a town like Peoria, where several roads converged and interchanged.
If you were modeling an Appalachian coal mining line, I could suggest several long and narrow yards that nestled down in the narrow valleys.
I guess the best thing to do is start with your favorite road and see what it has to offer.
Tom
I should've clarified and metioned that I was looking for a famous yard that could be condensed into a 2X14 space. LDE style.
In that space you find a yard you like, find a "significant" building that identifies the yard. Then you build a model railroad yard that fits the needs of the layout, pace the significant building on the LDE's, scenic it for the area you are modeling, then call it whatever yard you chose.
By the time you condense a real yard down to 2x14, its so compacted that the you really only have space for one or two signifiant features. I worked at a couple smaller, "insignificant" yards and the small ones would be about 60 feet long and 3 feet wide if modeled in HO scale. A really big one could be over 500 feet long and 50 ft wide in HO.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
amill32073I should've clarified and metioned that I was looking for a famous yard that could be condensed into a 2X14 space. LDE style.
For the most part, the "famous" real-life yards are thousands of feet long.
14 feet in HO is only 1200 feet in real life. Once one allows for yard ladders, that's not a lot of body-track length. Compressing yards too much leaves body tracks that are unusably short.
In the limited space you have, how a yard works is probably much more important than how it looks.
The most compact “famous” yards in real-life, such as the former end-on interchange yard between the Clinchfield and the C&O, are still long (over 3800 feet in this case, even without the wye). And their functions are typically pretty limited.
What functions do you want your model yard to perform (making-up/tearing-down trains, block-swap, industrial support, etc.)? In that space in HO, accommodating the functions you need will be more important than cosmetic appearance, in my humble opinion. Good luck with your layout.
Byron
Layout Design GalleryLayout Design Special Interest Group
A smaller branch line yard or short line yard would work. The old Grand Rapids & Indiana (now the Kendallville TerminalRailway) yard in Kendallville, IN holds 35 cars.
The Flats Industrial Railroad also has a small stub ended yard that's around the same size (just go to Google or Bing Maps and type in Flats Industrial Railroad).
The man who posted above, Cuyama, designed an awesome N Scale 6x1 foot switching layout, The Alameda Belt Line, which was built by M. C. Fujiwara as Port Henderson. In HO, this would work out to 12x2 feet (I would add the additional 2 feet onto the yard at the right end of the track plan). It's one of my all time favorite layouts that can be expanded in many different ways.
__________________________________________________________________
Mike Kieran
Port Able Railway
I just do what the majority of the voices in my head vote on.
Take a famous feature and model that with as much yard as possible.
An example would be the timber transfer at Mt. Union on the East Broad Top railroad. You can't get the whole yard in of course, but see the December 1971 trackplan for the EBT. The plan has a representation of the Mt. Union dual/single gauge yard in 14' with timber transfer.
The timber transfer (overhead crane) was used to lift a car end so that standard gauge trucks could be rolled out and narrow gauge ones rolled in (and vice versa). This enabled standard gauge cars to travel on the EBT.
The plan also includes a coal transfer trestle to dump narrow gauge hoppers into standard gauge ones. Plus a couple of industry tracks.
Good luck
Paul
cuyamaFor the most part, the "famous" real-life yards are thousands of feet long.
True enough.
C&O's Russell, Ky yard was three miles long and around a half mile wide. C&O's Peach Creek yard wasn't as big back in its prime but,still would require more then 14' just to make it close enough and that's in N Scale.
Compressing either of those yards to 14' would be quite the feat even in N..
A yard I think would be interesting to model is the NP/BN's Northtown yard north of downtown Minneapolis. It isn't terribly wide so wouldn't look bad squeezed down to 2' width. No big buildings around it, so easy to make a realistic backdrop. It's near the Soo/CP Shoreham yard, and the Soo mainline goes over Northtown's tracks on a bridge at close to 90 degrees. In steam days NP had a roundhouse / turntable there.
Dont know if you could call it famous but you could model Hiawatha yard (back date to MILW days).
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1414621,-87.1950369,3785m/data=!3m1!1e3
B&O division point, shops and yard at Washington, IN
https://www.google.com/maps/@38.6556883,-87.1976464,536m/data=!3m1!1e3
B&O RRHS article on the subject.
https://www.borhs.org/magazine/unprotected/eSentinellow20121Q.pdf
C&O yard @ Cheviot OH. This is the location of the yard throat. The Glenway Avenue bridge was installed before the railroad yard was abandoned. Consolidation happened in the 1980s when Queensgate Yard was modernized. You can google for photos if interested.
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1288096,-84.6060569,130m/data=!3m1!1e3
Fostoria, OH. A few potential yards to model.
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.1511173,-83.4059831,15.03z
In 2x14 feet in HO you could model the ladders at the bottom of the hump on one side of a 20-track classification yard. If you include the retarder, you lose the last two turnouts.
All of the 'famous' hump yards would need more like 140 feet of length, and probably more than 14 feet of width.
In just about the same length (15 feet) and width (2 feet minus) I have a six track flat-switched stub yard, arrival tracks and a short line interchange with passenger platform. The stub tracks can only hold 8 4-wheel goods vans each. Any resemblance to a famous or major yard is purely hilarious. (The thoroughfare tracks and mainline platforms occupy the 8-plus inches of width in front of that yard.)
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)