I am presently finishing up a small (9 track) freight yard in HO. I want to add some details usually found in these yards. I plan on using discarded rail sections; track ties and some sand spills but have not found any good pictures of these yards on the web. Does anyone have any ideas or pictures, which would help me in this project?
Thanks, Doc
Be careful, don’t go to far!
Remember that your employees have to walk in the yard to do their duties. Large pieces of junk would be a “trip” hazard. The yatrds will be somewhat clean. Think of mud and trash.
Have fun
See this photo pfrom Texas Zepher:
http://www.walkersquawker.net/images/curveylocotrack.jpg
Or this view of the Conway PA yards:
It’s pretty neat.
Here’s what looks to be the RIP tracks, which you’d expect to be cluttered. Still pretty neat:
This MOW area is about as messy as it gets:
KL
Terrific pics, Kurt. thanks for those.
Mike
Yup. Yards, no matter what the time period, are TIDY places: no trash piles, no discarded anything, no weeds and trees. Railroaders have to walk every inch of yards daily, no matter what the weather or light quality might be. Piles of junk around aren’t just a nuisance, they’re deadly hazards.
Most modelers crud up their yards, probably because they’re copying modeling “masters” they’ve seen in the magazines. While it might be neato and trendy, it’s anything but realistic.
So keep it simple: ballast, a few sand piles across the rails, and maybe a puddle or two. But that’s IT. Leave the garbage piles to the slums that usually back up to the yards, but are mysteriously never modeled.
Thanks for the pictures and the good advice on the freight yards. I foregot about the lights mounted on those tall poles. The different ground colors also helped. I am going to keep the yard simple as advised. Actually there are two yards served by a branch off the main tracks. The second yard is for MOW equipment which I have a lot of. The second phase of the layout which is probably a year away will have an engine facility including a 9-stall roundhouse and locomotive shop so I might be asking for more help at that time.
Thanks again, Doc
Doc,
The short sections of rail and ties would usually be found in the MOW storage area - rail on racks or laid out on some widely-spaced ties, not just laying on the ground, and ties neatly stacked. The same area would have several sheds (ranging from ancient wooden structures to modern pressed steel ‘oversize garden shed’ types) for storage and crew rooms. Old house cars were frequently used, often with doors and windows cut through in unusual places. Don’t forget the smokejacks for heating stoves.
Another thing that you might find in dedicated MOW facilities would be pre-laid panels of rail, 39 feet long, used for quick tracklaying - for emergency repairs after a derailment or washout. This is a good place for those < 6" lengths of flex that are too long to toss and too short to use. (My panels are made from yard sale snap track, courtesy of my yard-sale-addicted sister.)
Well maintained yards, in constant use by a reasonably prosperous railroad, are pretty clean. Spilled lading is reclaimed, if possible, and anything that might be a tripping hazard will disappear as soon as a yardhand sees it (open topped 55 gallon drum by the crew room, with samples of odd junk in it?) Yards in soggy climates often have elaborate French drain systems, given away by the occasional concrete-surrounded steel manhole cover in the ballast.
I have seen prototype yards, on almost-abandoned lines owned by carriers on the verge of bankruptcy, which meet all the slovenly cliche standards - full of blown in and thrown in junk, tracks that disappear in the mud, weeds (and bushes) all over (including between the rails.) I doubt that this is the effect you want to model!
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September 1964)
I have seen prototype yards, on almost-abandoned lines owned by carriers on the verge of bankruptcy, which meet all the slovenly cliche standards - full of blown in and thrown in junk, tracks that disappear in the mud, weeds (and bushes) all over (including between the rails.) I doubt that this is the effect you want to model!
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September 1964)
Actually that sounds great to me. But your points about tidiness are well-made. Thanks for the interesting info, esp the idea of a drum full of junk. Can’t wait to get my Guilford yard up and running!
Mike
P.S. I have saved on my computer a good photo of a yard in Bloomington, Illinois with puddles and lots of grass between the rails. Not much junk - just a couple of small piles off to one side, well out of the way. Not sure I’d be allowed to post it here coz of copyright.
Unfortunatly, I don’t have any photos…but most active yards I’ve working in look similar:
Nick
At Burnham Street yard in Milwaukee they have air hoses to keep air up in strings of cars while the power is changed out or switches cars. This is a freight yard now used by the CP and I think the air hoses are still in place.
Dave Nelson
A yard would be likily to include numerous small structures:
Yard Office
Crew Shed - lockers and maybe a lunch table - Coke machine? Drum for lantern oil out back
Switchman’s shack near ladder so the switchmen can try to get warm once in a while
Latrine/s
Caboose track shed for supplies
Phone boothes -
Lights
And so on
Have fun
That is pretty darned cool.