Beginner topic: What is a runaround? (Updated)

[SpaceMouse]

What is a runaround? This topic has come up quite a bit in the last few days so I decided to explain it in very clear terms.

Click the link.

http://www.chipengelmann.com/Trains/beginner/runaround.html

[andrechapelon]

QUOTE: Originally posted by SpaceMouse

What is a runaround? This topic has come up quite a bit in the last few days so I decided to explain it in very clear terms.

Click the link.

http://www.chipengelmann.com/Trains/beginner/runaround.html

Aw come on, Chip. You know as well as I do that a runaround is what you get when you try to pin down a manufacturer on the actual release date of a previously announced model.[;)][(-D]

Andre

[ukguy]

And I always thought the 'runaround was what them pesky ladies were giving me [(-D]

Just goes to show ya, ty Chip for the clarification.

Take care & be safe,
Karl.

[egmurphy]

Nicely done Chip. Good graphics, readily understandable. Hopefully this is the beginning of a series on your website.


Regards

Ed

[Anonymous]

Simply, a passing siding to allow a train to reverse direction by allowing the power to "run around" the train.

Now, if I had a better pair of glasses, I could have seen you had answered the question already Chip....... nice job [:I][:0][V]

[SpaceMouse]

QUOTE: Originally posted by egmurphy

Nicely done Chip. Good graphics, readily understandable. Hopefully this is the beginning of a series on your website.


Regards

Ed

That's the plan.

You other guys made me laugh.

[dave9999]

Chip,
I'll echo Ed and say that the explaination was clear and to the point. You know how the
saying goes "a picture is worth a thousand words", I guess that goes for a diagram as
well! Nice work. Dave

[SpaceMouse]

Once around for the weekend crowd.

[Anonymous]

Pretty good... until the 2nd to last sentence... Why did you change from the correct "runs around" used earlier to "circles around"? Some people are fussy! [:O][:O]

The idea is certainly excellent, the sort of thing I'd like to do if I had the programme/skills to do the sketches.

Do you want to work on some details and variants?

There is almost always a condition in RR operation/signalling... the track condition returns to the "Normal" situation that it started at. (So, whatever you do, you should always end up with the main track back at where you began - have gone "full circle").Hope this information will help your notes.

Have a nice day[:P]

[jacon12]

Railroading 101! I like it 'cause I'm a beginner.. :)
Got more?
Jarrell

[SpaceMouse]

Thanks David for your suggestions...I made the amendments.

[claycts]

QUOTE: Originally posted by SpaceMouse

What is a runaround? This topic has come up quite a bit in the last few days so I decided to explain it in very clear terms.

Click the link.

http://www.chipengelmann.com/Trains/beginner/runaround.html

The EXACT DEFINITION Chip is:
"What you wife gives you when you want another engine" [:D]
Take Care
George P.
P.S. WELL DONE GRAPHICS!!!

[Anonymous]

I don't want to rain on anybody's parade - I appreciate humor as well as the next guy - although some of the e-mail I get indicates that my humor is either misunderstood or not appreciated - but I took SpaceMouse's topic as a serious one.

So SERIOUSLY I went to my trusty Railway Age's Comprehensive Railroad Dictionary, Second Edition, (Simmons-Boardman, Omaha, 2002.

(pg 212) - run-around 1.A track that is constructed to bypass yard congestion. 2. The act of moving a locomotive from one end of the train to the other.

Your example has cars parked on a;

(pg 233) - spur track As distinguished from a side track a spur track is of indefinite length, extending out from the main track.

More specifically your example refers to a facing-point spur track, so called because the switch into the spur track is facing the direction of movement.

To drop or pick-up cars from a facing-point spur track one must perform a;

run-around (see def. 2. above); to accompli***his one needs a;

(pg 224) - siding A track auxiliary to the main track for meeting or passing trains. (Standard Code)

NOTE; "Standard Code" refers to an AAR definition or specification i.e. this is what the AAR states is the definition of a siding. Sidings have switches at both ends; if there is only one switch involved you have a side track. Side track and sidings are frequently used interchangably but technically there is a difference. Technically spur tracks are also side tracks except in extremely rare cases where spur tracks are sidings.

PICKY-PICKY-PICKY. I am not a railroader; to be honest, I have never wanted to be a railroader (gasp!!!) - except for the proverbial " golden parachutes" railroaders have the best retirement program in the business, but God, do they have to work to get it!!!; I have, however, been a modeler for over forty years and I have, in that time, had some association with modelers who were also railroaders. Pardon me, but I don't think I have ever heard a siding referred to as a runaround.

[marknewton]

QUOTE: Originally posted by rtpoteet

Pardon me, but I don't think I have ever heard a siding referred to as a runaround!!!

Presumably this is another instance of the terminology varying from one railroad to another. On the railway I work for, such an arrangement is always referred to as a runround, or runaround road. Siding has a very specific and different meaning. YMMV.

Cheers,

Mark.

[wickman]

Very well done Chip [:)], simple and to the point and may I add that using this runaround in that fashion... pushing cars into the industry also permits the use of very tight radius's using the cars rather than engine going into the industry ( I think JH has a name for this[:I]