At my club I am responisble for creating (or taking over actually) a passenger terminal. I don’t want to have to ask the guys working on their sections to stop what they are doing and give me ideas which half the time I don’t understand anyway.
Right now it consists of 8 parallel tracks on the end of a layout. On one side is a freight dock and on the end is the passneger terminal. What I need to work on is tying the passenger yard together with the terminal. Since this is “my” yard, my locos will be housed here and I want to tie them in with the terminal.
They are PRR all in Brunswich Green
BLI E7A
Proto 2K F2a/b consist
BLI M1A
Proto 2K ALCO S1
What would it look like between the tracks: Platforms, covers, etc. The general theme of the layou seems to be 40-60’s mixed lines NYC, Conrail, B&O, etc.
Sounds exactly like Cincinatti Union Terminal. I would do a google search both the web and images for the layout and pictures as well as history. Then I would do a terrserver search for aerial pictures and USGS maps that should add even more data. NYC, PRR, C&O, B&O, Southern, L&N and probably others used the station and it had its own CUT switching engines.
John Armstrong’s Track Planning for Realistic Operation has a top notch chapter on design of passenger terminal trackage. Really exlains how they work, why they are built the way they how, and (per your question) how they tie in to other trackage and facilities.
Down at the Depot has pictures of I would guess 100 passenger station BUILDINGS, concentrating on the buildings, with only peripheral coverage of the terminal trackage on a few of the stations. But it is great for the buildings. Don’t let the time period of the title scare you off. Most of the major passenger terminals in the US were built before 1930.
Recommend you take a look at Kevin J. Holland’s “Classic American Railroad Terminals.” Lots of great photo’s, etc., to provide not only inspiration, but perhaps bring back some memories.
Try doing Google Image searches. I did one using “La Salle Street Station” as my search term, and came up with interior and exterior views of the depot building, shots of the trainsheds and of tracks and equipment under them, diagrams of trackage, etc.
I know SpaceMouse has a copy if Track Planning for Realistic Operation knocking around–there is a good section on passenger terminals. If there is a nearby passenger terminal, go take a look at it…figure on a couple of tracks for passenger loading/unloading, a freight depot for REA deliveries and express freight, and a couple of storage tracks for offline passenger equipment.
The passenger tracks would have butterfly shelters. There would probably be some means for passengers to reach the tracks without having to cross over a lot of tracks–this could either be an underground subway with stairs leading up to each level, or a “skyway” bridge where passengers walk up some stairs and walk over the tracks, descending to their track.
An icehouse, to add ice to express reefers, wouldn’t be out of line either.
1). Is this a through station or a stub terminal? If it’s both, how many tracks go through and how many are stub?
2). What is the current track spacing?
3). How long is each track?
4). How is this connected with the mainline?
5). How much room do you have to work with?
6). This is HO, right?
Get back to me on these, and I’ll do my best to help…
BTW, the best book, bar none, on the subject of designing passenger stations is “Passenger Terminals and Trains” by John A. Droege, a New Haven official. First released in 1917 and now Out of Print, if you should see one, it’s worth getting as it has been described as THE definitive work on passenger terminal design.
It is stub if by that you mean that you can only come from one direction.
About 3 1/2 to 4"
6’ to 8’ with the center being longest.
The passenger terminal and the yard both funnel throuh one track about 40’ then attach to the main line. IT is kind of screwy becasuse the only way to get a train into the yard is to back it that same distance.
I’m not sure how to answer that question. The tracks are layed. The passenger terminal and freight dock already exsist. There is a turnout leading to nowhere to the left of the layout, where I plan to put an two door engine house, and to the right is a turntable. I have to design the spaces between the tracks.
Theoretically, what I would like to do is make is so a train can head into the yard, runaround to the turntable, turn around and head back out of the passenger terminal (and therefore the same would be true of the yard.)
Yes
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QUOTE: Get back to me on these, and I’ll do my best to help…
BTW, the best book, bar none, on the subject of designing passenger stations is “Passenger Terminals and Trains” by John A. Droege, a New Haven official. First released in 1917 and now Out of Print, if you should see one, it’s worth getting as it has been described as THE definitive work on passenger terminal design.
You need a wye track to help the engine to be able to “turn” into the yard from the main instead of dragging the entire train past the only switch that leads into the yard and then backing all that way down the track. You say there is 40 feet from the main line all the way to your yard/station? wow. There has to be room for a third track (Wye) so trains leaving can go either way and trains arriving can go from either direction.
Once that lead engine stops at your station at the end of a stub with the train behind it, it will need what is called a “ESCAPE TRACK”
This is nothing more than a switch positioned about 2 feet from the end of the stub so that the lead engine (s) can disconnect from the passenger train and back out of the hole. The local switcher then takes over the passenger train while the “Big” engine heads for drink and feed on coal/fuel
There is a Amtrack Station at Lorton VA that handles trains to Florida I believe that design may fit you well. I have no memory of where it may be at Kalmbach but one reason this article sticks in my mind is a effortless handling of multiple needs on a very long train (Sleepers, Express, Merchandies, AUTOMOBILES) I say autos because this is a Auto train to florida where people take thier cars to florida with them.
Why not have a roundhouse-style enginehouse around the turntable, instead of a separate enginehouse? Or is there an engine servicing/storage facility somewhere else on the club’s layout?
Let me see if I can explain this layout. As far as I can tell there is no theme, or if it is, it is not-self evident. The location is Pennsylvania but the era and roadnames fluctuate with each member. I am among the earliest with my PRR transition period M1A, E7 F2a/b and S1. There are other M1a and a Big Boy. But there are modern Conrails, Amtracks, B&O, New York Central, etc.
I’ve never seen any yard work done, in fact, I’ve never seen any real running. I’ve made a complete circuit with my E7, but not with my M1A or F2 consist. I’ve done the most w
There is a six-stall roundhouse off the turntable but full of freighters. There is another huge engine facility in the large yard, and several others around the track. Adding a two stall house on the passenger terminal won’t be innapropriate.
These are all good questions and if I ask people at the club they are going to say, “It’s you’re doing it, you choose.” See answers above for my best approximation.
If there is any indication from the layout–no one has talked at all about theme or operational plan–it is a series of short runs. There is a continuous loop but no “world connection”
I doubt it. Right now there are passenger trains stored on sidings, passing sidings, the passenger terminal. etc. Then again nothing is running.
Yep, that’s stub. In other words, each track has a bumper at the end of it.
Hmmm… You are staggering these gaps, right? Each track should not be that far apart from every track. Think of it like this, where each vertical line is a track, and the asterisk is the platform:
||||||||* is what it should look for 8 tracks (and 5 platforms), not like this: ||||||||*
In between the tracks, the spacing should be small, about 1.75" to 2". In between the tracks where the platform is should be 3 1/2" to 4".
That’s not very long. Figure a pair of passenger engines (18"-24"), and that only leaves you with about 6 cars for your longest train. Anyway to make them longer? I would try to go for at least 10’ if possible, 12’ is even better.
Hmmm… Which yard are you talking about? The passenger coach yard, a freight yard, or the terminal yard itself?
For starters, most engine facilities were all in one location. Usually, they would plop the diesel house on top of the old roundhouse site, or just use the roundhouse for diesels. Most d