Hi all . Need your wisdom once again, I am still learning as we all are I guess,
I am designing my layout and am thinking about where to put the engine service facility (ash pit,coal,sand and water filling), I will be running steam and diesels
My question is when does an engine go to dump ash, get more sand, and coal Or fill with diesel ? Is the diesel refilling done in another seperate yard altogether ?
Do they go there in the morning before their runs or do they get all the servicing at the end of the day ready for the next day’s work
I have staging yards North bound and south bound on double track main lines on one side of the layout room. Would it be better to have the facility close to staging or somewhere else ?
Steamers get coal, water and sand at the end of the run. If its going to be more than a shift or two before the engine is used again they wil top off the water and may top of the fuel.
The servicing facilities would be at the locations the train goes on duty or is put on or taken off the train. Water for steamers is every 20-30 miles. Fuel every 50-100 miles. Diesel fuel every 300-800 miles.
Diesels get fueled at the end of the run, switchers get fueled and sanded about every 6-9 shifts worked. If they only work one shift a day, then they are fueled once a week.
Locomotives is service as soon as they come in off their run so they will be available for service.All fueling,sanding and servicing is done on the service pad then the locomotives(s) is moved to the inspection area then either to the outbound ready track or a storage track for later use.
Steam locomotive service area was in the same location,the engine was then inspected,turned and placed on the outbound ready or storage for later use.
Staging is double ended, so both east and westbound trains enter staging from both ends. My service facilities are on the middle of my layout at on the west end of the hump yard. How would my diesels be serviced?.
BNSF, Mandan has fuel and sand facilities at either end of the terminal (a mile apart). Trains do not terminate here, so as the crew changes the unit is fueld and sanded and made ready for immediate departure.
BNSF Dickinson is no longer a crew change point, but still has diesel and sanding facilities for the local trains that call Dickinson home.
LIRR Montauk (and other eastern terminals) are serviced by a petrolium company who drives thier trucks up to the locomotives and refules them sometime during the night or in between runs. There are no refueling facilities at Penn Station, we duh, no diesels are permitted in there, but dual modes call in there all of the time. Refuel them elsewhere.
LIRR Dutton is the lines main locomotive facility, I suppose they must have fuel and sand there, but this is where all inspections are accomplished
NYCT does not use fuel : ) except on a few work diesels. Some Rider cars take on diesel fuel for light and heat. That is all the domain of C Division. The snow blowers must take on jet fuel somewhere.
They would be placed on the inbound service track and moved to the service area by the hostler and serviced,then moved to the inspection area then to the outbound ready or storage track until they are needed…
As a side note if the locomotives won’t be needed for a extended amount of time they will be shut down till needed.
I guess I don’t understand the question. The service tracks would be at the hump yard. The trains that terminate at the hump yard take their power to the service track after they terminate.
Train pulls into a recieving track. Power cuts off and goes to the service track. Power is serviced. Cars are switched. An outbound train is built. Power comes off the service track to the outbound track and gets on the train and leaves.
Same thing whether they are steam or diesel, doesn’t matter which direction they are going.
What I was thinking about was my through trains. For example the trains moving from the intermodal yard on the west side of my layout past the servicing facilities at the hump yard to the east staging tracks.
Oh, I wouldn’t think so. That is to say, I have never seen a hump yard, but have seen hundreds of fuel and sand facilities.
LION would suspect that a locomotive that brought a train into a place with a hump yard would uncoupple and go elsewither for service. Yard engines would bring the cars to the hump, and when trains are ready to depart, fresh fueled and ready locomotives would move to the point for departure.
In modeling terms, an engine service station or terminal would not have a hump yard. Just model the service terminal and hump the trains elsewhere, unless the whole porpoise of your layout was to operate a hump yard, in which case complete engine facilities would be a significant part of the equasion.
LIRR, MNCR. SEPTA, MERTA et al do not have any hump yards, but still their power is serviced.
Well I have seen a hump yard and have helped manage an 8000 locomotive prototype fleet. I have also managed a service track.
The OP said his facilities were at a hump yard. Therefore whether you have ever seen one or not there is a hump yard involved in this.
There are two types of trains at a hump yard, originating or terminating trains and through trains. Power for originating and terminating trains is serviced at the service track. Power for through trains is either not serviced (power runs through), serviced at a mainline fueling station (which could involve trucks) or the train is yarded and power taken off the train to the service track, serviced and brought back to the train. Railroads try to avoid the last option. Many hump yards have both a service track and a mainline fueling station. N Platte NE on the UP does it about every way possible, a service track with a shop, a run through mainline fueling station where the power stays on the train, a fueling station without the shop and truck fueling.
Through freight diesels can go 900 to 1000 miles on a tank of fuel, so they don’t need to fuel at every yard.
There are also fueling stations at remote points but they don’t have a service track or building. They just gas and go on the main track.
LION would be mostly wrong. I’m sure that someplace there is a hump yard without engine servicing facilities but I’ve never
LION did not see that the OP was dealing with a hump yard. LION went back and looked again, and still did not see a reference to a hump yard.
Him saw a question about servicing facilities. Servicing for steamy locomotives, since him kneaded an ash pit. Steamy engines needed to take on water every 30 to 50 miles and fulel every 100 or so. So him not even think of a humping yard.
LION suppose that a hot-shot steamer would work something like a stage coach. TRain come in, locomoticve gets pulled off, new locomotive and crew is attached, train moves out, maybe in less than a half an hour.
Besides steamy locomotives were assigned to districts, and would need to be pulled off before the train left the district. I mean, who needs to run a Big Boy or a Challenger across the plains of North Dakota. Indeed, even diesel power is added and removed according to the teraine that it will be running across.
I’m willing to wager that Dunsmuir, CA, operated as a gravity yard from its beginning in 1887. The entire yard was built on a grade…
Hmmm. Now you,ve given me an idea. Maybe if I dropped the Up end of Tomikawa about a centimeter I could ‘bump’ cars into the field tracks. Of course, Tomikawa is, primarily, an engine and crew change point - with minimal servicing facilities for steam, diesel and electric locos. Tomikawa is close to the summit of a pass, and the major servicing facilities are at the other ends of the grades (in hidden staging.)
