HO Scale Hump Yard

Hi, I am considering adding a hump yard (nothing big like UP’s North Platte Bailey Yard) to my model railroad (still in the planning stages) what would be the implications of building such a thing. I have read that some have used air jets in place of retarders I also read that a guy actually built a retarder system that worked like the prototype. Would powerful magnets work too or just do nothing? I look forward to your replies.

This is discussed in Track Planning for Realistic Operation by John Armstrong. https://kalmbachhobbystore.com/product/book/12148

I read about that somewhere, dont remember where, or how well it worked

Where?

They would do something, but that something is nothing that you want to happen.

The club I belonged to had a hump yard with air jets. Turnouts were all air thrown, too, it was the old Del-Aire control system.

It’s quite tricky to get it all to work right, because physics just doesn’t scale. It was fun working it during an open house, it’s where I usually put myself, but prior to the open house I had to run cuts of cars through and pick out ones with proper rolling characteristics, and then I would run a train through the hump process then use the hump bypass to go down into the bowl and collect all the same cars and haul them back out for another pass. Top of the hump had 3 Kadee magnets in a rown, running at slow speed you could reliably uncouple with a quick flip of the direction switch.

–Randy

If you would take the time to build a simple 4’ x 8’ layout, you would get some idea of the space needed to operate like the prototype, or not, and the skills needed to operate a model railroad.

A lot of things that seem to make sense just musing about them, prove to be impractical in reality.

What the vast majority of us have done is to take a stab at building a layout so that we can understand and appreciate the complexities involved.

If you were to build a simple 4’ x 8’ layout, a lot of theoretical questions would be answered for you on the basis of experience. Why not get started?

In this specific instance, I believe that you would quickly find out how much space it requires to build even a small hump yard.

Rich

Some HO scale hump yards in action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBQudMMcjAI

Take Care! [:D]

Frank

There is a user video posted on the Lehigh and Keystone Valley, you might get a shot of the hump yard in it. That’s not the one I operated, since I was a member the club moved to a new building. But they yard was HUGE, between the receiving yard, hump, and class tracks it was at least 30 feet long.

–Randy

Great YouTube link Frank. Plenty of others included. It sure gives an idea of the space required.

Mike.

At 16 years old, you sure have a lot of ambition! First kitbashing slug units with no kit bashing experience and now a hump yard with retarders! Whats next, a space shuttle in your garage? just kidding.

There was a guy in California who I read an article about who was building a sizable hump yard in his rather large home attic layout - this guy, mind you, looked like he had a lot of experience under his belt. Many of us don’t have space for a decent smallish home layout, let alone consider a working hump yard. Dream and dream big!

Here’s a track plan in O:

http://www.rrtrack.com/html/nyc_selkirk.html

The plan is 238’ long and 37’ wide. If you divide by 2 (no HO is not exactly half of O), you get a 119’ x 18.5’.

It can be done in less space than 119x18.

The yard hump will need to have sufficient grade to get the cars rolling, but not excessive. You will likely want to have your rolling stock all properly weighted per the NMRA standards. You will want free rolling metal wheelsets, so that all the cars will roll down the same grade and not stop in the middle. The cars need to be traveling fast enough that they reach the near the end of the classification yard tracks.

On each side of the hump is a yard. Those tracks should be of sufficient capacity to each hold the length of train that you typically run. This requires space. They yard ladder requires space. The hump requires a grade up to the top, this is usually shallower than the grade rolling down.

All of the cars should have the same type and quality of couplers (ex: Kadee and Protomax couplers work well together).

Nearly all smaller models claiming to be “hump yards” don’t work like the real thing: they can’t handle single cars; the operator just shoves cuts of cars over a too-steep hump, causing them to slam into cars already in the body tracks.

The few successful hump yards are relatively large. Air jets that allow cars to be retarded and accelerated seem to be the best approach.

As others have said, this is far from a beginner project. Talk is easy, but building is more rewarding. I hope you will try building a smaller layout to gain a realistic view of the hobby.

Try emailing these guys: http://www.dupagemuseum.org/model_engineers.htm

They have working retarders that “squeze” the flanges and I have operated myself very succesfully. This is quite old and really didn’t require any special characteristics.

So the magnet idea would not work? Also would using DCC remote uncouplers and ball bearing wheels help?

The magnet idea seems like it would work, at least for humping single cars. A cut might be more of a problem. Unless you calibrated it. Which you’re going to have to do with single cars, too, I think.

I don’t see what you’d gain with DCC remote uncouplers. Except huge expense and installation problems. Of course, I’m assuming you’re talking about installation in rolling stock. If you’re talking about the ground-based uncouple, I again see absolutely no gain.

No. It would probably make things work, 'cause the cars would (presumably) roll even farther.

Ed

PS: Steven responded (below) to my comments before I modified/improved them.

I kinda figured the magnets would do nothing. But ball bearing wheelsets would not help? I would think that they would guarantee the freerolling of cars.

Well how are cars usually humped in cuts or solo?

One thing I have to consider is the field that would be generated by the magnets and the possible affects it would have on the decoders.

Once again you are wanting start by enrolling in a doctorate course before you have even made it out of elementary school.

AFTER you have built your 4x8 layout and AFTER you have a yard that is a double ended track plus 2 or 3 yard tracks and AFTER you have figured out what you need to make that operate, then talk about a hump yard. They are very large (even the model ones), very commplicated (even the model ones) and the model ones have issues operating (because a 125 ton car doesn’t roll the same as a 4 oz. car).

Both.

Ed

Are you planning on putting decoders in your cars? Because there’s no reason for a locomotive to be over an active magnet.

Ed