A lot of action can happen at a two track station!

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I was reading about passenger trains in MR, and found the hub-and-spoke operations article. I read through it, and said “Yeah right. I doubt much can happen at a small station.”

I then decided, well what the heck. I made a small little area in TRS2006 (A train simulator). They plan looked a bit like this:

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(I hope that turns out okay…)

If my diagram doesn’t work well, basically a two track station with single mains on the other side, a spur for a switcher on one side, and a third track at the station to ease switching.

I placed one baggage car onto the bottom siding, and train #1, a consist with a GP9, Coach, Rear facing combine, Express Reefer, and Caboose left of the station. On the right, Train #2 with a Mikado, Trainmaster, Baggage, Baggage, RPO, Sleeper, Sleeper, Sleeper, Coach, Coach, Coach, Coach.

Train #1 comes in. Switcher removes all the cars from the GP9, and pulls back to go pick up the baggage car in the siding. Then the switcher takes the baggage, and hooks it to train #1.

Train #2 approaches, and stops at the switch. The Mikado uncouples, and moves forward passing the switch. The switch is thrown, and the trainmaster hooks to the GP9. The switch is thrown again, and the mike backs up to the train, and pulls it up to the end of the passing track, uncouples, and sits on the bottom siding, waiting for

2

A lot can happen. An east and west train could meet there and then the RDC or Doodlebug pulls off the storgae siding to make a trip up the branch line. On return it is the first back so it can clear the mains.

3

It gets even more interesting if the accountants won’t stump up for a switcher and the train engines have to sort out the moves themselves.

The difference is that where traffic is heavy and the headways are tight a switcher may be provided to help get the job done faster and keep things moving. If you move out into the wilds and demand for track time is less there is less reason for a switcher and more time for the road engines to do the work.

Something else to think about is to locate a simple station between two junctions.

This can be made more complex by having more than one RR owning the different routes at the junctions. There are many permutations…

  1. West A to East B is one RR owning the mid-point station. West C to East D is another RR - routes do not cross over.
  2. Same as 1 but routes cross each other.
  3. West A to East B is one owning RR. West C is another RR and East D is a third RR. Someone is going to have trackage rights somewhere. (one of the non-owning roads may terminate at the station… or both)
  4. West A and C may be one (owning) RR while East B and East D are one or more other RR’s… trackage rights will probably apply somewhere. Local trains may terminate while some express trains work through… I think that the L&N was one example where trains ran way beyond their own tracks in some sort of “common stock” arrangement… that’s a whole different issue.
  5. RR from East B may have a yard somewhere a short distance along West A or C (or both)
  6. RR from West A may own the station but have a yard off on someone elses track to the east or west… traffic for this yard may make a local job or be picked up by the other RR…

These are just some of the possibilities. Once you start getting into them you can generate all sorts of traffic requirements. We haven’t even mentione short lines or regionals.

This is all relevent to the OP. Two

4

Dave, you had some good points. It would have taken forever if I made some AI’s run through with freights.

Adding a branchline from one side would make things interesting also, and since I didn’t put down any scenery, I guess the Mikado could have done the work by itself.

5

Don’t forget Railway express deliveries…Most of the time just one or two items coming in…and how about a football other special train or just a car…Cox 47

6

Wow. My topic is really kicking off. I guess it was worthless…

Well not totally.

Anyway, I tried the same session, same cars, except no switcher, which the mikado replaced. I did it in 15 min this time, except the trains arrived 1 min from each other, and I was running unrealistically.

I think I need a two track station on my layout.

7

No, in fact this is a great topic. Experimentation leads to discovery. I’ve been promoting the idea that less is more on a model railroad, this thread gives that idea support. Sure it’s nice to duplicate track for track the NS yard at Lambert’s point, but most of us can’t so we compromise. I’ view model railroading as a big challenging game board and that makes it fun for me, it isn’t fun if I always win. Less is more.