I know that in some instances railroads actually did have balloon tracks at passenger stations to enable an entire train consist to be easily turned around without locomotives needing to uncouple and run around the train.
My question is: does anyone have a list of any known stations on Illinois Central, ACL, SAL, FEC, CofG, that actually employed a balloon track arrangement??
In the model world, where so many of us employ a version of a folded dogbone layout, a balloon track into a passenger terminal is kind of a no-brainer. I’m just looking for real world locations to investigate and/or attempt to “model”.
In Vancouver C.P. would take their trains from the station through a tunnel under the city to the yard and then around a balloon track that went around the roundhouse and turntable. They would then pull it back through he tunnel to the station.
Here is a train going around on the balloon track.
I have a (sort of) dog bone layout. Here you can see I have a balloon track going around where my turntable and roundhouse will be. This is an old pic. I have the turntable now.
I entered “miami amtrak” into google maps and turned up a sample right away. I’d recommend continuing that concept for your favorite cities and see what turns up. Consider that loop turning of passenger trains will normally be done at the “end of the line”, not in mid-route. So that can limit your choice of cities.
Wyes would be, I think, more common for midpoint cities. They take up less real estate, and they can also supply a junction or diverging point. But on a model railroad, they’re not quite as convenient. A wye large enough to turn a 16 car train in HO is going to be huge. But if it’s also a diverging route, it still might work out.
Broad St. Station in Richmond VA had a loop arrangement. IINM it was built by RF&P, but also used by ACL and SAL.
Not in the South, but up in New Jersey, Wildwood Crest (PRR, PRSL) had a balloon track to turn trains and Bay Head still has a balloon track in use by NJ Transit.
