Hi, I would like to know if you know of a good website that explains how to create a natural looking freight yard?
Thanks for your help!
What exactly do you mean by “natural looking” freight yard?
Rich
What is Natural? The first problem is that our tables are not long enough for a natural looking yard, and then second, our turnouts a too small (frog numbers) for getting tracks closer together. We tend to think of a number 6 as a long turnout (12 mph) but the railroads would call it a short turnout.
The geometry of our turnouts is not correct, having long tangent tracks before you can lay the next switch point.
LION used No 6. Turnouts, and cut them back so that he could string them closer together.
If you really want NATURAL, you will have to do your own special work, LION does not want it all that badly. Rather if him tried it, it would turn out badly.
Model railroading is fraught with compromises, but if you want a yard to be your center piece, then start with that and assume that it will be on a table about 3’ wide (access from both sides) by at least 18’ long.
ROAR
Freight yards aren’t natural, they are man made. You should come up with another term to define what you are looking for.
Next to N Platte Nebraska google DeButts yard here in Chattanooga. Its a Norfolk Southern operation and had track and turnouts going everywhere!
[alien]
Here is a PDF about some of the decision process I used to build my yard.
http://thewilloughbyline.com/willoughby%20text/Willoughby%20Yard%20design.doc.pdf
I would also suggest that you read the Armstrong track planning book and do some research into the type of yard you are looking to build. Fitting a yard into the space and keeping your design functional for the needs of the layout can be a bit of a challenge.
Guy
http://www.housatonicrr.com/yard_des.html
http://www.x2011west.org/handouts/ldBootcamp-YardOps.pdf
http://www.nmra.org/member/sites/default/files/datasheets/Trackwrk/d3h1.PDF
The only thing I can suggest is to do what I did - go out and LOOK at some freight yards in their natural habitat.
They range from almost surgically clean on fresh ballast with every track perfectly aligned to, “Looks like leftover spaghetti sinking into the trash-strewn mud.”
These days, with Google Maps and Google Earth available, you can let your fingers (on a mouse) do the walking - but the fine detail isn’t as easy to see.
Once you’ve found the ‘look’ you like, then comes the fun of building it - in such a way that it can be operated. I leave that as an exercise for the student.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Why not start with “Freight yards” by John Armstrong (available at: http://www.kalmbachstore.com/mrpdf035.html).
Besides the articles in issues of MR magazine, there is also a download of “Modeling the Right of Way” by Paul J. Dolkos. You might try to find a copy of Andy Sperandeo’s “The Model Railroader’s Guide to Freight Yards” on-line or maybe in a library (it’s out of print).
Alan
Yards vary with location (space available) and purpose. If the yard is an interchange yard, far from any industrial areas, it has one look. If it is a yard where trains are broken up for local branch line trains as well as some through forwarding, they are different. Does it have an extensive servicing facility or just a shop to do the most necessary repairs?
I’ll agree, do some reading. Our host has a book on freight yards and John Armstrong’s “Track Planning for Realistic Operation” has some good examples.
Good luck,
Richard
I think the best single book for track planning is “Track Planning for Realistic Operations” by John Armstrong, if you can find it. It will answer your questions about yards plus other things you will want to know as you design your track plan.
When thinking of freight yards and not " marshaling yards" I think of the varioius old small towns which had their industrial areas adjacent to the railroad’s main line.
It was common to see a switch run off the main line and then a rail line ran parallel to the main line. Off of this line there were switches that ran into each of the industrial lots in sequence.
Each of the properties had their own spur line into their yards, the yards being fenced for security. In smaller towns the lots would all be on one side of the secondary line, in larger towns there would be properties on both sides of the rail line being served by spur lines.There were roads to each of these lotgs as well.
Those in the industrial area not served by a spur used a common unloading platform located at the end of the secondary line.
In the early days each of those properties were usually owned by the railroad and rented to the individual company, this included oil storage facilities such as bulk farms.
These companies not only paid for the property they used, they also had to pay for the spur line onto the property they occupied.
Only when trucks began to take the bulk of freight traffic could the occupiers/tenants refuse to pay extra for the spur line. Most spur lines were removed over the years and nowy there are only a very few left in place…
Back when rail was king, the switching crews would spend a full day switching out cars.
Lots of tedious work.
“Marshalling yard,” is Britspeak for what an American railroad would call a classification yard. Hump (or gravity) yard is a subset of the above. The term is a leftover from WWII, when Wren photo interpreters would give after-action damage reports on German rail facilities. Our rail-illiterate journalists picked it up, and now it seems to have become imbedded in journalism courses (along with ‘tarmac,’ another of my pet peeves.)
Classification yards are found where trains are assembled from loose cars and short cuts. Most such are humongous facilities that dwarf airports and rival sea terminals in size. Take a look at Page 16 of the July Model Railroader for an example. It can be found just south of Louisville, Ky, adjacent to the airport, if you want a present-day satellite view. In HO, the ‘fan’ from the hump crest to the secondary retarders would be a tight fit in my double garage!
Chuck (Former flight line mechanic modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I stand corrected, I should have said switching yard,
in Canada the secondary lines with the industrial tenants is referred to as the freight yard. This is where a string of cars is broken down and delivered to the various tenants and the empty cars or refilled cars in some instances collected to be sent to others.
To differentiate from the main switching yard which in small towns would not be that large.
There was railroad activity in Canada before WW2, and the terms marshaling yard as well as classification yard were used.almost interchangeably. There were also areas known as freight yards where all of the spur lines feeding the various tenants were.
Hi Hellwarrior
What exactly are we talking about here
A goods or freight yard can be anything from one siding with a freight shed and or loading dock.
A small yard that is part of a station and services local customers needs.
Or a large yard that re arranges trains to forward them on to there destinations?
Could even be a one industry facility with one or more sidings
Entirely different beasts with entirely different needs.
None of which is natural all man made.
regards John
Not much more that I can add that hasn’t been already posted. The biggest thing is to decided what type of yard realistically suits your railroads needs and do you have the available real estate (layout space) to model that. Layout space is a big determining factor here. You can desire a large yard, but if you don’t have the space then the point is moot. The suggestion to study pictures, existing track plans, or better yet…field work (taking a drive to some local yards, industries etc) to see for yourself is a good one indeed.
Happy modeling!
Don.
Here’s a starting point. This is a stub-end yard on my layout. I have a vague idea of what rail yards look like, but I generally model by what I think they should look like, so there may be glaring errors that I’m not aware of.
First, the tracks are not elevated on roadbed. They’re all on flat ground, and they’re lightly ballasted. I put some ditches in there, and even put Envirotex “water” in the one just in front of the first light tower.
I used Code 100 Atlas track. If I had it to do over, I would use Code 70. The lower profile and lighter rail would look more realistic.
There are Walthers bumpers at the end of each track. In some yards, you’d see wheel stops or piles of ballast instead. I like them, though, and I think they look right on my layout.
Make it completely flat. Old plastic-wheeled cars won’t roll much, but new metal-wheeled ones will. One trick I use to keep cars in place even with a slight slope is to “plant” some tall grass between the rails. It’s stiff enough to hold a car in place, but it doesn’t provide enough resistance to stop a switcher shoving a few cars.
I understood your question exactly, it would relate to me wanting to create a “natural” rail line from the Canadian Prairies, to duplicate it would mean a table 350 feet long as stops and stations were 20 to 60 miles apart, can’t be done, so we compromise and make it fit the layout size as “naturally” as possible.