My On30 layout has a short spur that is dedicated for engine servicing. Being that the railroad is “poor”( it is afterall still reeling from the great depression) , servicing has to be bare minimum. the brass hat has already approved a water tower and a coal shed, theres a plan to build a small sand house but wondering what else is essential? Is the ash pit mandatory? can a small diesel be refueled from say a drum set up with a small pump ?The line Mogul and a small diesel are the only one needing servicing
Steam loco’s on my RR fed water from a tower, a newer luxury for my crews. Before that, they had to use a hose and hand pump setup. Sand is still done by the bucket brigade and wheelbarrow. Coal used to be done by a wheelbarrow that used a ramp to a raised platform (tender height) and dumped in that way, but management recently saw fit to invest in two angled conveyer bucket units on wheels that are equipped with small gas motors. (The guys never had it so good!) Management justified this by reasoning that the same conveyers could also be used to clean out the ash pits when needed. The conveyers still need to be fed by shovel power though, so it’s not all fun and games on the RR.
Someplace to dump ashes is necessary for steamers, but it doesn’t “have” to be a pit. If you dump on a service track then it will have to be cleaned off more often, and, it will eventually burn out the wooden ties. If you go this way, you could model the tie damage to give the scene some history.
As for “D” word loco’s, them’s still fightin’ words on the Autumns Ridge Railway & Navigation Company lines!
mm i like the idea of a conveyor belt for feeding in and taking out… might have to bring it up to the next board meeting. could that also be used for sanding or is the quantity of sand negligeable to haul?
A couple of bucketloads usually take care of the sanding issues. Gotta keep the guys in shape ya know!
If it’s an oil-fired steamer, you won’t need to have an ash pit or coaling facilities. You could even use the same fuel-oil and loading facilities for the diesel.
Go to Walthers website and check out Durango Press they make a lot of neat ON30 stuff just like what your looking for. I saw a jib crane that look cool and that would be something a servicing facility would need for lifting a locomotive or a car lets say for changing wheels or any number of heavy lifting tasks.
Well, not quite bare bones, my engine service semi-diorama includes fuel oil from raised tank for steam locomotives, gasoline or diesel fuel from a half-buried tank, a primitive sanding facility, a small warehouse, and out-of-the-picture to the right, a small rectangular water tower.
Mark
I would say you were already way beyond bare bones. However, I would think that a drum wouldn’t be sufficient for the diesel. Here in Denver a tank truck meets the Amtrak diesels every morning to give them a fill. Can’t get much more bare bones than calling the local fuel company to send over a truck when needed. To match what you already have it seems to me a small tank that is three to five times the size of the loco’s fuel tank would be more appropriate than individual drums. That way the local fuel company would not need to be called so frequently.
they do make a neat looking little jib crane but i doubt if it would ever be used for lifting a car or locomotive.
at least, i never saw it done that way in my years around the railroad. cars were always raised off their trucks by jacks (air powered where compressed air was available) set under the jacking pads on either side and after disconnecting the brake rods, the truck was rolled out from under the car once the body was high enough to clear the king pin.
locomotive wheel and/or traction motor changeout was accomplished using a drop table.
of course, i worked for a couple of wooden axle outfits and maybe the more “progressive” or modern day companies have other methods.
Very very cool ideas from Philip - interesting modeling in a very small space conveying the feel of a shoestring “make-do can-do” operation. What could be better than that?
I’m reserving a spot on my layout right now for just such a facility!
Jim
It’s worse than that. The ITM guys told me that south of 39th street, somewhere along Sutherland Ave, they found the remains to a service track that the steamers dumped on. Thanks to the rainwater mixing with the uncleaned ash, it turned to acid, and is eating out the bottom half of the RAIL. And we want to go to Indianapolis on that…
They also fed 587 with the above mentioned conveyor.
Dave, great to see you again! Boy, if you only knew what you started. ( Dave and I our friends from my HO slot car days)
PM me and I will send you some pictures.
Ken
The conveyors are available from Walthers. You’ll need one for unloading coal from a hopper:
The coal can be piled on the ground near the service track. Then you’ll need an elevator-type conveyor to get the coal into the loco’s tender (shovel technicians will be required to feed this thing with coal from the pile):
Mine is set fairly low for loading the truck, but you can build yours at whatever angle needed to reach the height of your loco’s tender.
If your line has survived the Depression, you’d most likely already have a water tank of some sort. Walthers makes an attractive wooden one, although I believe that it’s available only as a Built-Up. The Atlas water tower has been around for a long time, but its smaller size might be more appropriate for your short line. The kit is well-engineered and reasonably-priced. I painted all of mine boxcar red, but you could also paint yours as weathered wood, and make it look a little more time-worn:
For sand, the bucket idea would work, or you could build a simple jib crane, as shown HERE. A post (piece of dowel or styrene rod/tube) located 4’ or 5’ from the track, a fixed jib or boom (piece of brass or plastic “I” beam) extending out about halfway over the track, and a chainfall on rollers (you could probably fashion something suitable of of some bits of styrene. I wouldn’t bother to m
I’m barely a beginner in this area but a few things occur to me…
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Please keep your diesel fueling away from your ash dumping! Unless you want to model a burnt-out structure or two. This goes for your lube oil storage as well…also any kerosene store for lamps etc. Okay none of them are as bad as petrol but they can all go “WOOF”! in the right (or should that be wrong) conditions. I would guess that at least basic signs would be posted.
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Why not run your steamer over a nearby creek on a short girder bridge? So long as the stream doesn’t dry up you get to extinguish the ashes and dispose of them at the same time. (bushes might get a bit scorched…)
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Everyone seems much to keen on providing work for shovels. I don’t know what space or levels you have but any sensible railroader would always set things up for the work to go downhill.
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If you’ve just survived the Depression where are you going to get the money for a conveyor? … plus the gas to run it?
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Gravity comes for free so I would find somewhere that I could spot a gondola of coal as much above the tender as possible/needed and build a shute of scrap material to shove the coal down.
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That might move you too far from your model scene… so, back at the original track… Instead of an expensive gas powered conveyor find a small steam donkey engine that’s become scrap (replaced by some rich kid with a gas engine)… and feed the steam donkey with a take off from the loco. All you have to do then is build yourself a conveyor… or hoist. There’s a lot of similarity between a small coal hoist and an ash hoist…
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Hmm…If you make one pit under the track for the service facility you can put the bucket of a
Sorry to “fuss” but the idea of a new water tank is bugging me.
I have to stress that I (of course) don’t know your whole geographical or historical scene… but…
Water arrangements will have been provided from very early in the RR’s life… of course an old facility may have required replacement…
With just one loco to fill up - maybe two previously - there wouldn’t be a great need for a large tank. Over here a lot of narrow gauge lines managed with between 1 and 2 times the loco’s own tank size… and often fed the tank from a stream… sometimes through an overhead pipe across fields from an upstream inlet some distance away… again - gravity fed water is free… pumping costs money… or you could get lucky and have an artesian well…
If I were the loco crew I would want to be able to top off the water during the day without having to go into the loco spur… so I would suggest things are arranged with a spout serving the main track…
It depends on where and how high up in the country you are… but I would give some thought to the supply tank not freezing up… You could put it over the workshop with it’s forge…
I think that I’ve already killed off a coal shed by trying to minimise the amount of shovelling… who wants to shovel coal into a shed and then back out… by the ton?
Thinking of freezing though… the far end of the track would tend to be the natural place to park any snowplough… and maybe some sort of way car to carry equipment, including the jacks, out to any derailment… so you might have other stuff like re-rail frogs carefully stored…
[8D]
No your exactly correct but if I am not mistaken this is a back woods dirt water railroad so doing things So doing thing on "the cheap’ or unconventionally is the norm. It’s supposed to look if I am not mistaken like Rube Goldberg is heading up the maintenance department…lo I have a whole series of pictures of real logging railroads I bought at a flea market and if you want to talk about being inventive and creative with equipment these guys wrote the book.
Go check out the coal loader, ash pit, traveling crane, and the clean out rack these are all things I would have in his type of facility. really cool stuff.
hey Dave-the-train, thanks for the input, you’ve certainly put a lot of thought into my little query. Im definetly going to read up and apply some of your points, especially the idea of a steam donkey providing power to a conveyor belt… thats the kind of clever thinking the management would appreciate 
oh also , to those that have put up pictures, thanks, i like to visualize and even though we dont model in the same scale, its interesting to see im not the only one that had to deal with a situation like this. i do enjoy the problem solving though
keep the suggestion coming
I enjoyed coming up withn the ideas [:P] (That and I like waffling [:-,])
I started my RR interest with UK narrow gauge and then went world wide. I don’t know so much about US lines though. I used to get Shortline and NG Gazette which is brilliant but so much about models rather than the real thing. I like great models but I want info on the real thing so that I can model that not a model.
Where is your RR set and what’s its traffic?
If the diesel has replaced another steamer have you thought of all the things you can do with bits of the steamer. In your period the scrapnvalue would probably not meet the cost of disposing of it…
[}:)]
PS I don’t know what your steamer is burning but have you ever tried shovelling ash on a windy day? You want your ash drop in a sheltered spot and (relevent to the prevailing wind) not up wind of your workshop/offices, and any neighbours’ washing lines… if at all possible… and/or you spot the gon you collect the ash in a similarly placed location… and even put an old tarp over the cooled load.
One thing you would want by your regular ash drop is a hose pipe or other source of water to damp the ashes down… you might have scorched bushes if there is a lot of vegetation…
[swg]
well i plan on putting up a lil work-in-progress blog this week so maybe that will help. The layout is set in early 30’s. right after depression. no specific locale but close to northeastern US around the canadian border (like a whimsical version of vermont i guess ). The Road owns the little mogul but the brass hat has been convinced to try a small diesel to see if it could eventually take over the place of the steamer ( it won’t but the brass hat has been impressed enough to let the diesle operates as a switcher). The road connect one town ( the part modeled) to another ( hidden) the road reason of being is passenger traffic, and a pickling station ( and some general freight too) .the pickling station is well… part of the whimsy i guess, just thought about the fact i had yet to see a pickle producing station as a main source of revenue…i have enough room to model a decent size station that could necessitate twice a week servicing at least… the engine servicing spur is located next to the small 2 track freight yard. ill have some pictures later this week i guess
Looking forward to seeing your progress [:P]
What are you pickling? Fish? Umm… [%-)] I don’t think Vermont is coastal… a lake? big river?
I’m thinking of all those “what rail traffic would there be for…” threads.
I’m a great fan of William Least Heat Moon’s “Blue Highways” and this sort of thing always makes me think of catfish farms and the like. How about pickled porcupine?
Could that passenger traffic link to holiday resorts like they had in the Catskills? Or maybe an attempt to start something like that?
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