Hi Guys,
I have 2 possible locations for my freight house. It can be accessed from a spur going from my thorough-fare track in the yard, where a yard switcher could “switch” the freight house and add any cars to a train in the yard OR I can go out of my yard along the main to the next turnout and back into the spur with the freight house. I believe it’s more prototypical to switch the freight house from within the yard but am not sure. Any help would be appreciated. I guess my question really is…should a freight house really be part of the yard rather than along the mainline?
Thanks,
Mondo
Seems to me if a car would be spotted at the freight shed, it might be there for a while getting unloaded. It would then foul the main line. In the yard would probably be the best location.
Bob Boudreau
Definately a yard or a siding for the reason stated above.
Well since most freight houses were at stations where there were no yards, this wouldn’t be a requirement. They are also located within yard limits where that is convient. The real issue for a freight house is being able to get trucks (or wagons for the old timers) to the freight house for loading and unloading and have the space for them to back up to loading docks, turn around, etc. Usually, they were on a spur track. On little used branch lines, shortlines in an older era where only a few items needed to be loaded or unloaded it could be on the main near a station, in which case the loading unloading occurs while the train is stopped at the station. - the freight station may also be combined with the passenger station.
In your case, I would put it where it looks best or the switching is the most intresting…
Enjoy
Paul
If you’re building a shortline with very low traffic density, you can probably get away with placing the freight house on the main, next to or accross from the station.
Even then, in most cases, the freight house was on its own siding (only needs to be 1-2 cars long, depending on how long your freight platform is). 19 times out of 20, you’ll want it on a siding since it takes a good amount of time to unload (or load) a boxcar. So, if you run more than one train a day on your main, you’ll want to build a siding for it.
mondotrains;
I am just a little confused about the issue involved with your post but I believe I do understand what you are asking and I will tailor my reply on that assumption.
You state in your posting - and this is the assumption I am making - that you are considering a freighthouse location at a point beyond yard limits. The other alternative is a freighthouse within yard limits. Either location is entirely acceptable, however, you must keep in mind that justification for a stand-alone structure would require a substantial amount of traffic at that specific location - remember, railroad property is taxable by municipal authority and those municipal authorities just loved railroad property because a railroad can’t get up and run away. You would be amazed at how many times municipalities oppose/opposed abandonments because it would “upset” their “tax base.”
An industrial facility in a town or village location would probably have its own spur. In a town or village the freight location is likely to be a room within the depot - in urban/metropolitan areas the sheer volume of freight traffic would justify a stand alone structure and, I guess from the photos I have seen, there were some pretty substantial freight houses adjacent to the passenger terminals in downtown Chicago.
Whereever you locate it, don’t forget the team tracks.
There are a couple of switch operations with which one can service a “remote” freight location. If it is a trailing point spur as you define then it would be the first location serviced on the local/peddlers trip up the line. A more interesting operation would be as I have observed on the Onion Specific in Eastern Idaho. About twenty five miles out on the line - and in a rather “remote” location - the switch job encounters a facing-point spur but does not push cars to that location; instead it proceeds to the first siding where those cars are dropped; on the switch jobs return the ca
It appears that in the era of the freight house only the larger cities had a seperate yard for the facility. In most cases the freight houses were located on one of the house tracks near the station. This provided a good location, in town, for customers to pick up the smaller LCL shipments.
Along the C&NW, (Cheap & Nothing Wasted), in some cases the old depot building was converted to the freight house when a new depot as built and even moved a short distance to add a track or get better access to a street.
Tom.
I would generally place a larger, busy freighthouse where it is easy to get access to it by passing wayfreights. It shouldn’t be buried in yard trackage. If it’s not already a double-ended siding, then it will need to be near a runaround track so that facing point pickups and dropoffs can be made. In the largest yards, switchers did handle cars from the freighthouse and add them to consists when making up trains, but in many cases you do need to plan for switching by a passing local train.
On the other hand, freight was often handled at or near the passenger station, perhaps via a house track which looped around the passenger station, with only a platform and a small shed, although larger stations often did have separate freighthouses. This house track also served as a team track for consignees unloading their own freight. In situations like this, you can make multiple uses of the same trackage to retain a compact track layout.
Mondo,
I could be in either location. Mine is across the main from the yard and off of the ‘house’ track behind the depot. The house track is also used as a ‘lead’ for switching my ‘Swift’ packing plant. In larger terminals, the passenger station or freight house may be several miles from a classification yard and require their own switcher.
Another thing to consider is if the freight house track is off of your classification ‘lead’, that track is going to be tied up if you are working the yard and the freight house cannot be switched until the lead is clear.
Jim
Mondo,The freiht house in New Britain was off the Mainline and was clear of the mainline tracks, about 11/2 miles from the Station