HO Scale
I am going to build a stub end train station that will support mulitple railroads. It will be a 4-6 track station supporting five railroads. I am planning on two additional tracks, once for head-end traffic and the other for "Auto Train" loading and unloading.
What could be some opperating steps as to how I could manage operations of this station? Does one railroad own the station and direct trains to specific tracks based on time of day and traffice flow or does each road own a track at the station to use when they needed?
I think I will have one RR responsible for switching the station. I might model an intermodel yard opposite the main line from the wye that enters the train station. One of the switcher jobs would be to switch the flexvans from the passenger trains and take them to the intermodel yard.
What are your thoughts?
Good Question!
Union Stations are used many times in terminal areas where coaches/baggage cars are swapped between railroads for further forwarding.
Sometimes the Union Station is jointly owned by the railroads that use it, and many times there is a 'depot switcher' painted/lettered for the Union Station company. Other times, the participating railroads supplied their own crews/engines to do the switching. St Paul Union Depot had their own switch engines, but several of the railroads used their own engines to switch out cars. The SOO, CGW, RI, and C&NW used the depot switcher option. The GN/NP/CB&Q and the MILW had dedicated switch crews/engines to service their passenger trains.
In your case, it is your choice. A depot engine in a flashy paint scheme may add to the enjoyment.. BTW, the prototype Auto Train came after Amtrak assumed inter-city passenger operations for the private railroads.
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
jrbernier Sometimes the Union Station is jointly owned by the railroads that use it, and many times there is a 'depot switcher' painted/lettered for the Union Station company. Other times, the participating railroads supplied their own crews/engines to do the switching. St Paul Union Depot had their own switch engines, but several of the railroads used their own engines to switch out cars. The SOO, CGW, RI, and C&NW used the depot switcher option. The GN/NP/CB&Q and the MILW had dedicated switch crews/engines to service their passenger trains.
Same situation at the old Dearborn Station in Chicago.
The C&WI, a jointly owned company by five railroads, owned Dearborn Station and C&WI switchers handled the duties for the five roads. The C&WI had its own coach yard and engine servicing facility.
Santa Fe leased trackage rights from the C&WI at Dearborn Station, but Santa Fe used its own switchers and had its own coach yard and engine servicing facility.
Rich
Alton Junction
Good advice so far.
As for station operations, have you given thought to a coach yard or, more realistically, access to staging so that you can move trains in and out of the station without using the station itself as a parking lot?
Ideally, you would consider the station tracks as part of the overall staging for the layout. Most likely, you'll have to settle for something less. I think you could get away with just a two track coach yard, plus the station, if you have space to do that. On the other hand, if you have staging nearby, that works. If it's farther away, then you might think of a dedicated track or two.
I'm bringing this up because I have a similar situation where I wish I did have a coach yard, but have to settle for a track in the freight yard to hold trains that will depart later, but would otherwise tie up a station track until then. You don't have much flexibility if you plan ops based just on the station tracks themselves as it tends to be last out -- first in.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Great Conversation. I have not put much thought into a coach yard because I am not sure if I have space for one. I do have staging, but it will be all the way across the layout away from the station. I will look at possibilties for a two track coach yard, but with everything else I am trying to do that might be difficult to fit in.
My passenger fleet is a mixed bag of eras. I have modern Amtrak cars with 90s era locomotives (and a brand new Walthers E-8!), late 60s passenger trains, and two trains of heavyweights pulled by first gen deisels. So my passenger fleet is a mixed bag.
I have two projects I am working on for my GTW passenger trains. I am going to paint a SD-35P in black and red with noodle GTW. I am also going to build a dummy FP45B that will be GTW black and red as well.
I am a true believer in my railroad, my rules!
NILE,
Do you have a track diagram that you can post?
Yeah well, different places did it differently.
New York Penn Station, home to AMTK, LIRR, and NJT, but once upon a time it was PRR and LIRR was the stepchild of the PRR. Actually LIRR owned the franchise to build the East River Tunnels, and so PRR bought the LIRR to acquire that franchise which the LIRR could not afford to act on anyway.
So it was PRR's station and PRR rand the show although LIRR used half of the station for its own operations. All interlocking towers were US&S pneumatics with PRR crews. They knew the LIRR schedules and when trains were coming and going, their own schedules were more fungible since moves to and from the Sunnyside yards could be more ad-lib as needed. All car-knockers were PRR personnel.
Then PRR seems to have run into hard times, they merged with NYCS to form the PC but prior to this they had already spun off the LIRR which was in its own financial doo doo. Penn Central went bankrupt, and the US government took it over calling the thing ConRail. ConRail still supplied commuter service to upstate New York and Connecticut. It was not a money making deal and eventually the MTA was formed and operated NYCT, LIRR and MNCR and in conjunction with CDOT, MNCR also ran some of the old New Haven routes.The State of New Jersey also assumed control of former PRR (PC, CR) commuter services. It is only recently that NJT also took over AMTKs Clocker Services.
Sometime during this time frame, I am not sure where, exactly, AMTRAK took over all long distance passenger service, but not the local, then still ConRail commuter service.
So the tenancy of NYP was fractured after the station was built. Even in the 1980s I recall that AMTK carknockers prepared LIRR trains for their trips, I assumed they did the same for NJT, Today with the construction of LIRR's West Side Yards, LIRR crews took over the carknockers for LIRR. I assume NJT may have done likewise but of this I am not sure.
AMTK owns Penn Station lock, stock and barrel, and LIRR is by far its largest tenant, followed by NJT and then itself. AMTK and LIRR together manage the station and its towers, now fully automated.
LIRR and AMTK Empire Service uses 750v dc Third Rails, while the rest of AMTK and NJT use overhead wire. The wire of course does go onto Long Island to serve Sunnyside Yard and Hell Gate Bridge. The centenary is 25 cycle AC, some time a long time ago, AMTK announced its intention to convert to 60 cycle AC, and so Metro North went ahead and converted its wires in Connecticut. AMTK never did convert its power in NYP and in New Jersey. So in addition to the mix of railroads that use NYP, power constraints impinge on what equipment can go where. LIRR along with NYCT use over-running third rails but New York Central (now Metro-North) uses under-running third rail. MNRR and LIRR use 750 v DC, NYCT still uses 600v DC, but fortunately DC motors are more forgiving about the voltage issue than AC transformers about the number of cycles it runs on.
AMTK, and therefor also NJT use 25 cycle AC which has no trouble also running on 60 cycle, but Metro North equipment is 60 cycle only, the transformer cores being much smaller and lighter, and cannot handle 25 cycle wire. Thus the Sunday trains from Connecticut to the Medowlands all use New Jersey equipment.
There is another interesting fly in this jar of ointment that we call NYP. LIRR has dual mode diesel/ third rail locomotives, but they must put one on each end of the train: AMTK will not allow LIRR to only run dual mode trains with the locomotive only at one end. Their own Empire service from up state New York? Yes only one locomotive is needed, but LIRR must use two. We are speaking here of dual modes collecting DC current from the third rail. AMTK locomotives are always at the front of the train and the engineer can see where the gaps in the third rail are located and can take care not to stop his locomotive where there is no power for it to run on. LIRR on the other hand runs with cab cars forward and the engineer has no concept of where his locomotive is in relationship to the gaps in the third rail system, and some of those gaps are up to 600 feet long.
Which brings us to a new anomaly: Metro North has under running third rail and so its dual mode locomotives can only to to Grand Central Terminal, where as the AMTK Genesis locomotives have retractable shoes that can be pulled out of the way of MNRR infrastructure or run on LIRR rail, but cannot run off of MNRR third rail. Likewise MNRR locomotives or passenger cars cannot run on LIRR/NYP tracks. MNRR is now developing new third rail shoes that can run on either, but this is on the new New Haven commuter equipment and not on their locomotives.
It is a wonderful knot of tracks and problems that you may not want to work into you 'small Union Station" but it is interesting enough in its own right, and you could, if you wished, weave issues such as this into the history of your station as a reason why things are done this way and cannot be done that way. It give you an excuse to maintain some sort of an archaic set of operations in your station.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
The Bangor, Maine Union Station may be something of the size you are looking for. It was built in 1895. It had 3 thru tracks to serve trains from the South and 6 or 8 stub tracks under a train shed serving trains to the North and East. 2 of the thru tracks were under the shed as well. The 3rd track allowed freights to bypass the terminal while passenger trains were loading / unloading without filling the shed with coal smoke. Between the station and the Penobscot River, there was a coach yard. ON the street side there was a Railway Express and bagage handling building. IN the 1950s, it served Maine Central and Boston & Maine RR (under joint ownership until 1955) from the south and east and Bangor & Aroostook RR to the North.
The staion was demolished in the late 1960s and replaced with a "modern" minimall which still stands.
Some photos (hopefully will show properly, Photobucket is doing an upgrade, and their beta site has a lot of problems):
The front of the station from a postcard circa 1900.
Aerial view showing station, 600' long train shed and coach yard, date unknown, probably in the 1950s
Another view of the station and train shed from around 1950. Looking North from near the bridge crossing Kenduskeag Stream. Coach yard to the right. The steam locomotive places the photo for sure before 1954 - that is when MEC retired it's last steamer. Note the windows removed from the right half of the train shed. Originally, they covered the whole opening, but half were removed, probably to allow coal smoke to vent from the structure better.
Inside the train shed looking south tword the station, from an old postcard date unknown. Thru tracks to the left. Note the crossover track to the right pair of tracks to allow the loco to escape. REA building is to the right, but does not show
This is a link to a Google map of the site in recent times. The railraod bridge across the Kenduskeag Stream is visible and still in use. MEC used to have a flat classification yard to the South (left) between the river and Maine St. The boxcars visible between the mall and the Penobscot River occupy the former coach yard. The bridge to the right is fairly new, and replaces an old mulit-span truss bridge; if you scroll to the right, you will see the RR truss bridge, still in use for RR service to the paper mill in Bucksport, and formly in use for the MEC Calais branch with service to Bar Harbor via Trenton. Tracks to the North (right), were BAR serving Northern Maine with freight & passenger service.http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Bangor,+Maine&hl=en&ll=44.798784,-68.767097&spn=0.003563,0.006856&sll=45.188406,-68.984705&sspn=3.623607,7.020264&oq=bangor+ma&t=h&hnear=Bangor,+Penobscot,+Maine&z=17
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch