My Questions for Today Are: 1-- What about you and your layout? Do you have a turntable and roundhouse? Or just a turntable? Or is your railroad fully-dieselized and thus has no use for them?
My Questions for Today Are:
1-- What about you and your layout? Do you have a turntable and roundhouse? Or just a turntable? Or is your railroad fully-dieselized and thus has no use for them?
There is one turntable on the 'far end of the branch' module, and one will be built at the UP end of Tomikawa, my engine change/subdivision station. The latter will be needed to turn JNR steam locos, which leave smokebox first in the direction from which they arrived (UP, aka toward Tokyo.)
2-- If your layout is modern, do you at least show the "last vestiges" of a turntable and/or roundhouse? Perhaps a converted building? Or some old ties in the dirt leading to a covered-in pit?
On my layout, the steam locos still burn coal and generate ton-kilometers and freight train hours - and some passenger train hours as well.
3-- What about engine houses in general (Including servicing facilities) ? How does your railroad service its locomotives?
There will be minimal steam servicing facilities (water, coal, sand, ash pit) for JNR steam and (separate) TTT locomotives at Tomikawa, and a small rectangular engine house/car shop for the TTT. The JNR steam is all operating out of the Tokuhisa engine depot, deep in the netherworld. (There is also a raised tank for diesel fuel used by JNR DMU and diesel-hydraulics.)
At the other end of the Tomikawa Tani Tetsudo, at the major colliery which is also railroad headquarters, there is a larger, better equipped rectangular engine house and full servicing facilities - with one odd feature. Locomotive coal is dispensed from a special chute and bin on one side of the main tipple.
4-- How does your railroad turn its locomotives (if indeed it is actually required) ?
The only locomotives which have to be turned are JNR road steamers. They turn on the turntable at Tomikawa between assignments. Deep in the netherworld, at a place designated Nonomura, steam-powered trains turn on a reversing connection between UP and DOWN mains before being spotted in staging. That connection also turns locomotive-hauled passenger trains powered by diesels and catenary motors, which return to Tomikawa from the direction they left in. (Especially important for the juice jacks - there's no catenary between Tomikawa and Takami.) The diesel-hydraulics are center-cab units and all the juice jacks are double ended, but they have to be kept on the front end, and there are no runaround arrangements in hidden staging.
Interestingly, the TTT turntable at the colliery doesn't turn locomotives. It's used to turn single ended passenger equipment, brake vans and cars that have to be unloaded from a specific side at the supply platform, freight station or company store. The TTT's motley collection of teakettles (and the articulateds) always operate with the smokebox DOWN, to keep water over the crownsheets on the 4% grade. That means they always run UP (downgrade, toward Tomikawa, and, eventually, Tokyo) bunker first.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
BATMAN The history part of Railroading is why I am in the hobby. I can't go back in time so I bring time forward. Though somewhat reduced in size. The real estate is reserved on the layout for a Turntable and Roundhouse. I could squeeze in the coaling trestle if I give up some parking. This photo is what I want my service area to be. I am worried about my creative and artistic talents. We will see how it turns out. Brent
The history part of Railroading is why I am in the hobby. I can't go back in time so I bring time forward. Though somewhat reduced in size.
The real estate is reserved on the layout for a Turntable and Roundhouse. I could squeeze in the coaling trestle if I give up some parking. This photo is what I want my service area to be. I am worried about my creative and artistic talents. We will see how it turns out.
Brent
That *is* a tad bit ambitious. However, if you remove that hexagonal water tower near the roundhouse, I think that might compress it well enough to squeeze it all in...
John
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
jwhitten My Questions for Today Are: 1-- What about you and your layout? Do you have a turntable and roundhouse? Or just a turntable? Or is your railroad fully-dieselized and thus has no use for them? 2-- If your layout is modern, do you at least show the "last vestiges" of a turntable and/or roundhouse? Perhaps a converted building? Or some old ties in the dirt leading to a covered-in pit? 3-- What about engine houses in general (Including servicing facilities) ? How does your railroad service its locomotives? 4-- How does your railroad turn its locomotives (if indeed it is actually required) ?
1-- My layout is set in 1962 and is a small line that interchanges with two larger railroads. All road locos are diesel as are the switchers. I have one 2-4-4-2 articulate and one Shay that will work on the upper branch plus be a tourist attraction and provide rail fan trips. I do have a turntable in front of the main RR's engine house, and a wye on the upper level branch.
2-- The engine house on the upper level will be a single stall brick one. The engine house for the main railroad is a modern metal building that replaced the older two stall brick engine house which was destroyed. I will have water stand pipes around and a water tower or two, and maybe a coaling tower on the upper level, but my steam fleet such as it is, switched to oil a long time ago.
3-- Service areas for the diesels will be minimal. The engine house of course for minor repairs, then an old short covered hopper on blocks for sand storage with a sanding tower near the fueling area, and an underground oil tank with a pumping station in a 20 foot container for unloading a tank car. Diesel pump stands will be on a fueling pad.
4-- Locos turn on the turntable and wye if needed. Most of the time turning is not required.
I just changes scales to HO, so I don't have a bunch of locomotives I need to do something with, so I decided to keep the railroads operation small and stay dieselized.
Elmer.
The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.
(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.
John, as a certified steam locomotive nut, and having decided on a suitable space that could accommodate a tt and rhouse, I felt it was a no-brainer. I was not happy with my first tt kit, the motorized 90'er from Walthers, but once I bought the indexed version of the same, I haven't looked back. For me, those things are as essential as a tender, as a coaling tower and water tower. They aren't strictly necessary anywhere on a layout, although if you have even a rudimentary yard on a layout in the first half of the last century, it would be difficult to explain their absence.
For someone with no real yard, only staging, and with a rail-fan style of terrain and tracks, there really is no point in having those things.
By stating that I have both items, I feel I have answered your subsequent questions. ?
-Crandell
"This Old Roundhouse"
Put a turntable and roundhouse on a layout and stock it with steamers and you've got a sure-fire recipe for drawing a crowd. I think its fair to say that the combination of turntable and roundhouse is arguably the most recognized "railroady" item on any railroad-- trailing behind perhaps only the water tower for "universal public recognition". On a steam layout it is difficult, though not impossible, to imagine how you could get along without one-- a turntable at least. As the railroads modernized and diesels came to rule the roost, the need for turntables diminished considerably and indeed many railroads did away with them entirely, or else converted them to other uses. Today, though the turntable and roundhouse remain a deeply embedded nostalgic element, more and more layout designers are doing away with them and utilizing the space instead for something else.
-- What about you and your layout? Do you have a turntable and roundhouse? Or just a turntable? Or is your railroad fully-dieselized and thus has no use for them?
-- If your layout is modern, do you at least show the "last vestiges" of a turntable and/or roundhouse? Perhaps a converted building? Or some old ties in the dirt leading to a covered-in pit?
-- What about engine houses in general (Including servicing facilities) ? How does your railroad service its locomotives?
-- How does your railroad turn its locomotives (if indeed it is actually required) ?
As always, I look forward to your thoughts and comments!
(Feel free to post some photos if you got 'em!)