As I get nearer and nearer to laying down track, a critical look at my layout and how I want to operate it made me think about the sidings. A look at layouts in MRR show that many track configuration have the sidings running back and away from the direction of travel.
Should all sidings be placed so a train can back cars into it? What if a train is coming the other way and needs to spot a car? Dutch drop it through the switch? Should I expect to run my trains in one direction? How to the prototypes do it?
Local situations dictate the direction from what I can determine. Backing a car in is always the prefered method. Sometimes it just isn’t possible. On real large railroads the switching would probably not be done by engineers of through trains but by a yard crew from the nearest yard and would have local rules regarding speed and other concerns. Many times the crew would have a facing point spur(s) and spot the cars ahead of the engine at the nearest point where the engine could run around the cars. This may require a max. speed of 10mph when running this way and a brakeman on the front car riding the stirrups and handrails. Best bet is to find a set of rulkes for the prototype and follow them ( as many or few as you wish).
The easiest way to have all the industry sidings face the same way.
When the sidings face both ways, there will either be: one train in each direction to work the appropriate sidings; or one train will operate as a turn, and work one set of sidings on the way out and the other set on the way back.
And yet, John Armstrong suggested that we mix 'em up to give us problems to deal with and to keep our layouts “interesting.” I have two facing one way, and one the “wrong” way. Since my main is a folded loop, I can approach any of the three as I want from either direction. Sometimes, I put a boxcar in front of my 0-6-0 and trundle into the siding that way. Other times, it is part of a larger consist and gets dropped off when the time comes.
If you have a yard planned, that is the whole purpose of these things; to help to give you the same experience as several railroad personnel who have a role in generating revenue, from the yard master to the brakeman who’ll pull the pin and disconnect the hose at the drop. If you really muck things up, you can play the wreck master, too. [8D]
I started a similar thread last year and the replies were fascinating. As has been pointed out, trailing point spurs are the ideal solution. Facing point spurs slow the process which is a nuisance for the prototypes but actually creates operating interest for us. There are a number of ways to handle this situation. A runaround track would allow the local to push the car into the siding but this requires extra moves. If the local freight is a turn (goes out and back) it might park the car at the next siding or yard, pick it up on the way back, and back it into spur. If the local is working only one direction, it might drop the car off beyond its destination and for it to be picked up and spotted by the local working the opposite direction. Which option used would be up to the railroad and might be dictated by how quickly the freight is needed.
On my own layout, I have a spur track that forks to serve two different industries that receive their shipments from opposite ends of my layout. One of them is going to be a facing point spur. In this case it is the lumber yard that will be a facing point. I have a double track line with crossovers which creates the runaround I need but that fouls the mainline in both directions during the switching move. Depending on traffic, this might force the local crew to bypass the lumberyard and take the shipment to the main yard and have it delivered by the next local going in the opposite direction.
Remember too that if a car is going back the same way it came, if it was delivered to a trailing point spur, it will be a facing point for the crew that makes the pick up to take it in the opposite direction. You can make all your spur tracks trailing point spurs if you want but you might be missing out on some interesting operating possibilities if you do. Anything that creates “work” for my crews is a plus in my book.
It is the Old Dog’s understanding that a siding is a side track that connects to the main at both ends. A spur is a side track that connects to the main at only one end. Hence a siding would be by-directional.