Isn’t the assortment of buildings and equipment going to kind of depend on the size of the railroad and the number of power units to be serviced? I’ve seen articles in Trains, MR, and RMC showing huge facilities with several racks between multiple parallel track capable of handling lashups of as many as 5 current generation super power down to a single track where a small Porter type diesel is fueled from a tank truck that makes deliveries, and the sand comes from a closed bin, where if needed, it is heated and dried by the bucketful over a stove in a small office on site.
The only current diesel service facility I have a chance to see from closer than about 200’ is in the local steel plant. Most of it is visible from one of the cities main streets. I was also fortunate to have found a book in the local library that actually covered the railroad company that operates in 2 or 4 former U. S. Steel plants
This plant railroad operates 9 locos, all EMD, ranging from a couple late 1940s NW-2s up to an SW-1500. They even have several slugs. The visible portion of their service area contains:A combination engine house and office building. It has 2 through tracks for routine maintenance, and one stub track for heavy maintenance. This building according to the library book has the capabilities of doing complete engine rebuild and traction motor rewind. It can hold at least 2 locos on each track.On the outside are two service islands between four parallel tracks, capable of servicing two locos on each track with fuel, sand, and water. Fuel is stored in what appears to be about a 10 to 12000 gallon vertical tank surrounded by a containment dyke. I can’t see the actual tanks, but considering how much attention the plant gets from the EPA, I’d imagine all refueling areas have containment pits to capture and contain spilled fluids. There are also severalsmaller sheds and tanks around the area. I’d imagine that at l
Great, information on what you need. My problem with the list was you told us you had hamburger and a head of lettuce and asked what went with those and I gave you the inventory of an Acme Market.
What you are looking for is most likely a service track and a RIP track (repair in place).
A service track is a “gas station” for engines. It normally has provisions for the 4 consumables an engine uses, fuel, sand, water and lube oil. Fuel can be brought in by truck, pipeline, barge or rail. Fuel can also be stored away from the tracks and piped to the fueling rack, so you don’t need to model the fuel storage if space is a premium. Sand is either brought in by truck or rail. Lube oil is either by truck or by rail and for a smaller facility could even be in 55 gallon drums. Water would be an inch or two diameter hose.
I would arrange the fuel rack and and tower sequentially , along side one track or between two tracks (allow wider spacing between the tracks). The water hose would be on the fuel pad. Lube oil could be in a 55 gal drum on a rack, with a large oil can or a pump with a hose. The order isn’t critical. If you have 2 fuel stands, space them apart by one engine length (based
I cannot ever recall another situation on this forum in which someone like yourself, Dave, would provide so much useful and helpful information and then disparage himself for doing so.
As far as the Acme Market analogy goes, you didn’t give the OP the entire inventory. You simply identified everything that went on the hamburger from mustard to tomato to pickle to onion. Exactly what the OP was looking for.
So if you won’t pat yourself on the back, I wlll for you. Nice job.
Just my 2 cents; I too have been modelling a yard, although a mixed-era one.
Firstly, here’s a link for free downloads of yard buildings, the link being to an inspection pit which I am building but there are other free structures available: http://www.scalescenes.com/products/R002c
You might want to look at my other posts, under “…ongoing ceiling train…” for some pics for inspiration.
My only other thought is that even though you’re modelling the modern era, there might still be an unused coaling tower or the like around. Also check out http://www.thortrains.net/ for links to simple trackside buildings, all free, as well.
Dave is not disparaging himself - he is (again) pointing out that the original question (and the original approach of some of the respondents) was too general and too vague. Just listing every building and other structure that might be in or near an engine service area is not as much of a help as some people insist.
But, after the OP had finally provided a more precise description of what he actually wanted (“a place where diesels go to get fueled up and sanded”), Dave th
I just don’t see how the OP’s original question was too general and too vague.
He started out by saying that he was working on designing his layout and would like to include a service yard. So far, he had a Diesel House and a Car Repair Shop and was considering the Engineering Office. He ruled out a turntable and was considering a diesel refilling station. He was wondering what else to include in a service yard. That all seems pretty specific to me.
As I previously suggested to the OP, he should consider the transfer table and other structures as illustrated and detailed in the Walthers Rail Shop illustration:
Lastly, I didn’t accuse Dave of false modesty. He seemed to be berating the OP for not doing more research on his own including the study of satellite views of service facilities on specific railroads and the relationship that various servicing strcutures have to the yard itself. Well, once the OP does all of that, then he w
Do you have any idea about how much space he has available for his engine service area?
Do you have any idea about whether he is modeling a big engine terminal on a class 1, or a small engine servicing area for a shortline, or something else?
Did you know whether he actually wanted to model a heavy backshop - with transfer tables, and multi-bay workshops for taking locomotives apart, or whether he just wanted to have a place for his engines to get refueled and resupplied with sand, water and maybe oil?
After he answered Dave, we know that the transfer tables and shop buildings probably is not what he was looking for.
A “service yard” can be just a track with oil stains on it or a facility that covers a half a square mile. A run through facilty looks completely different from a facility that just services yard engines. More information is better.
And based on my experience I would suggest that a transfer table is an extremely rare animal overall and almost never found at a RIP track (I don’t know of any but there probably is at least one somewhere). Most often transfer tables are used in heavy repair or car building shops, not car repair shops and are more common for passenger car shops than freight car shops. So if he is modeling the Pullman or ACF shops I could see a transfer table. If he’s modeling a service track for engines or a RIP track, not so much.
Why do people think that suggesting somebody actually look at things “berating” somebody? How do people think the people they are asking the questions of learned things? The reason somebody knows something other people don’t is that they did actual research. Finding something out yourself is just an investment in time that pays back huge dividends in most cases. I have learn 100 times more looking at something or finding it out myself than I
I always say look to the prototype for inspiration. You can find a wealth of information online and in books and magazines but I would bet a road trip to your favorite railroad would be more enjoyable. A lot depends on what size of railroad you are modeling and whether you are modeling a division point, a crew change point or merely a serving yard.
Division Point yards on class one railroads are massive. Many are hump yards and many actually have working turntables. Most modern division point yards have large engine terminals including multiple tracks for servicing locomotives. These yards also include multiple rip tracks for the Car Department. You will often find multiple towers including a main tower, retarder tower (hump yards) and another tower at the end of the yard designated for building outbound trains. You can also find offices and support buildings for other departments such as the Superintendent’s office, Dispatching office, Engineering, Signals and Communications and a Train Crew room.
Crew Change points may be a division point yard or may simply be a smaller version of one. These yards often exist between division point yards. They may have very few buildings compared to larger hump yards. Sometimes just an office and maybe a support building or two. They may have one rip track and one engine service track where a fuel truck can drive up along side the locomotive.
Serving Yards are small yards normally with local switchers assigned to deliver and pick up cars from industries. Road Trains often stop and drop off/pick up the cars handled by the switchers. Like Crew change point yards they normally have a depot or office building for the train crews. Other than maybe a rip track or engine track not much else. Normally once a week the switch engines find their way to a Division point yard for servicing either by way of a road train or moved as a light engine or transfer r
Seems to me, the OP asked a question concerning what could go into a modern servicing yard. I don’t recall him mentioning how much room he had available, or what size and type of road he was modeling. He got in reply a number of lists of buildings and items that would cover any type of facility from a small branch line (Small shed, sanding and fuel stands) up to a major class 1 facility including major repair building, turntables, and transfer table, and including at least one suggestion to include some remains of old steam servicing. Just as good were a number of suggestions of research material and resources. I’d offer the suggestion that Kalmbach has a book on engine servicing facilities that covers the range.
It’s his RR, let him do some head work and do what he wants to do.
$13 at Amazon. Worth it if it saves a single purchase of a building that doesn’t fit into his vision.
I don’t think anyone disagrees with the point that the layout owner both gets to (and must) make the final decisions on how to do things.
The disagreement was more on the way we teach our young - do we just give them “the answer”, or do we try to teach them how to define problems and figure out things on their own?
There are at least two schools of thought here:
“Give a man a fish, and you feed him for day. Teach him how to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime”
“Teach a man to fish, and he will sit in a boat all day drinking beer”
But however interesting teaching discussions may be, I guess they are pretty off topic for model railroading.
The OP now have several tools, a description of a fueling area, links to other discussions etc. Time for him to do “some head work”.
Hey all. Thanks for the great information here. You all have given me alot to think about. Going to try and deffinatlly get the engine servicing facility book to read up some more. But for now the information you all have given me has provided me more stuff to think about and continue researching on my own.
Jeff, I hope that I did not post by accident as I was typing up a reply and bumped my mouse and the partially written response vanished with out being completed or edited by me, so I will try again. At the very least you will need fuel sand and water as well as consumable items for crews and some minor cleaning and repair location. Climate and the amount of traffic will determine what type of structures if any are present. Depending on the location of the facility in relation to the main route of your railroad and the traffic present could also determine how much of an investment the railroad will make in non revenue items. A very good book is available from our favorite publisher and not only discusses these things but also provides modeling info and examples that you can draw from in deciding what features you need on your railroad. See link. No I don’t work for them but I do appreciate their work and effort.
Jeff, I hope that I did not post by accident as I was typing up a reply and bumped my mouse and the partially written response vanished with out being completed or edited by me, so I will try again. At the very least you will need fuel sand and water as well as consumable items for crews and some minor cleaning and repair location. Climate and the amount of traffic will determine what type of structures if any are present. Depending on the location of the facility in relation to the main route of your railroad and the traffic present could also determine how much of an investment the railroad will make in non revenue items. A very good book is available from our favorite publisher and not only discusses these things but also provides modeling info and examples that you can draw from in deciding what features you need on your railroad. See link. No I don’t work for them but I do appreciate their work and effort.
Ok cool. I just dont want to buy a book and not have it fully applie to what I’m building for a layout. Ok sounds like i will be able to get some good knowledge out of it.
