I read thru Tom Bryants post about his roundhouse and engine facalties. And checked out his diagram and thought the work he has done was well thought out and planned. Obviously the more experienced will find things that could be done differently. My question is what does a engine house and yard need at the steam to diesel transition. Obviously the ash pit would need to be removed from the oil fueling area, water would need to placed to not block the exits to the yard, and the sand towers would need to be accesable to both steam and diesel.But what would they need to contain and does anyone have any suggestions as were to locate plans for different yards. And some ideas for modeling an ash pit and inspection pit would be good.
Secondly what kind of car would be used to pick up mil to be deliverd to the creamery. You see the creamery listed in Walthams catalogue and I had heard that fast passenger trains would collect the milk but I have not seen any milk cars listed on any sites.
Thank you
Athearn has an excellent line of milk cars in various dairy names. They are 50’ ice cooled reefers painted Pullman green. Some milk was shipped in tank cars but I have yet to find such a car. Several manufacturers offer REA reefers which could be used for milk transport. It would be unusual to see a mechanical reefer in milk service because at the same time mechanical reefers became widely used, milk shipping was changing over to truck service. I wouldn’t say milk was never shipped via mechanical reefer but almost all the pictures I have seen of milk trains shows either ice cooled reefers or tank cars.
Ash and inspection pits can be pretty easily cut out of the area under the track, especially if it is foam. Some plastic “beams”, paint and ballast finish it off. Of course more details can be added.
During the ‘Steam to Diesel transition’ period ('48 - '56) most RR’s added diesel fueling to their existing Steam fascilities. In-town land was scarce - and costly.
As diesel took over coal towers came down water tanks and round houses disapeared. In the 1960s Santa Fe used their 18th st. fascililties (engine house - turntable - machine shop - sanding towers) exclusively for passenger diesels. Their larger engine house and fascilities at Corwith yard were gone. Engines in blue & yellow sat outside on parallel tracks.Occasionally you would see a ‘red nose’ (war bonnet’ F).
Today, Dearborn Station and tracks to 18th st. are gone, Corwith was ATSF’s destination and since the BN merger - who knows. AMTRAK had taken over the Santa Fe’s passenger yard operations @ China town/Cermak Rd.
LAST TIME I rode the Sothwind/ SW Chief into Cnicago, it used the BN tracks E of Joliet, bypassing Argonne. Corwith, and the Stevenson expressway.
In response to your milk car question:
In general, farmers bring their milk to a creamery or to a railroad milk pick-up platform.
The creamery is often a farmers’ cooperative. Milk is combined and sent to market on their milk car. Usually the car had tanks for the milk. The milk and the car were cooled, the milk loaded and picked up by the railroad and rushed to a dairy at the market. These cars were either owned or leased. The Walthers 50 foot wood Pfaudler cars are of this type as well as the Roundhouse 40 foot wood cars and the Intermountain 40 foot steel Pfaudler cars. These cars were insulated and did not have ice hatches or bunkers.
The milk dropped off at a railroad milk pick-up platforms were picked up by a railroad owned car. These were usually “can cars”. The milk was shipped in the milk cans and cooled by putting ice on the cans and did not have ice hatches or bunkers. The milk was taken to market and processed at the dairy for distribution. One “odd” operation was the Bellows Falls (VT) Cooperative Creamery where the milk was bottled and then shipped to market. Train Miniatures sold the Bellows Falls car.
Once the milk train was assembled it had a fast/high priority schedule to market. The return trip for the cars was not as high priority. Some of the empty cars were returned on freights or as part of a passenger train. As for the Athearn and Roundhouse 50 foot cars, they have ice hatches and may be used as a lower cost “stand-in” car.
RutlandRay