Duh, I should have known that… [:D] Thanks for the lesson.
Mike
Glad to help!
I have a small point to point layout and I originally planned to run my Shays in both directions. I found that operations became a little too routine, so I extended the layout and put a reversing loop at one end and a turntable at the other. I also use the reversing loop (most of it is in a tunnel) as a staging track and I now require all locos to run forwards on the main line. This gives me more to do than just run the train from one end to the other.
I read NG&SLG and they have published articles depicting turntables that are intended just to turn locos around (there is a feeder but no other track). Such a turntable would be farily simple to build and it wouldn’t take up much space.
Anyway, while turning Shays and Heislers is not really necessary per prototype practice, adding the capability to do so can make your layout more fun to build and run.
As others have said, in your situation, there is no need to turn locos. However, if you just don’t like the sight/thought of running a loco backwards (I struggle with that myself), then you could have small turntables at either end in staging, just for the purpose of turning the loco around. There was an article recently in Model Railroader (I think) that described how to build a simple, no-frills turntable whose sole purpose in life was to rotate an engine 180 degrees - no scenery, details, prototypical accuracy, etc. For a logging engine, it wouldn’t have to be that big. You could probably use an off-the-shelf Atlas turntable instead.
When we hear turntables a lot think of big locomotive, with huge concrete pits and large round houses.
This was not necessarily the case all the time. Many turntables on smaller branch lone railroads were actually hand operated. They would have a team of men and or horses to turn the table via a long handle for lack of a better word. These were typically made of wood and serviced small engines. Not saying this would be totally prototypical if thats thats what you’re going for but it would make for an interesting scene and still accomplish turning your engines
Last September, I rode on a museum railroad in Carson City, Nevada. The train ran on a simple oval but it did have wye at one end of the loop. If I remember right, they would reverse direction the train ran for each run and use the wye to turn the engine. The did this to even out the wear and tear on the wheels.
What they called an “Armstrong” turntable…
I’m reading this thread with great interest because the same thought hit me a few days ago and I planned on posting the same question. In my case, I have planned a fairly length branch line to be added when I get my mainline fully scenicked. The branchline will be served by a pair of 4-6-0s and a doodlebug. My layout is freelanced but I imagine this branchline as being about 25 scale miles long. Would a prototype railroad run engines of this type in reverse for that length. Several responders have pointed out instances where steam ran in reverse but what about the doodlebug. Were they equipped with controls on the opposite end so they could run in reverse ala MU commuter trains.
Just to add another thought to this, the Hocking Valley Scenic Railroad runs a push-pull operation. The engine pushes the consist from Nelsonville to Logan, OH, about 12 miles, then runs on the forward end for the return trip. How common would this practice have been on short line railroads.
Trailing trucks generally were there to support the firebox, although a few tank engines had trailing wheels to help them run in both directions. I know there were some logging 2-8-2Ts and some commuter passenger engines that were IIRC 4-6-4Ts. (And yes, T is for Tank…Thomas is an 0-6-0T.)
Anyway, engines like a 4-6-0 had to have a narrow enough firebox to fit between the drive wheels. If you made the engine frame longer and put the firebox behind the drivers, you could make it as wide as the boiler. Bigger firebox, bigger fire, more heat, more steam…more power!! However you had to support the firebox, so the 4-6-0 had to be a 4-6-2, the 2-8-0 became a 2-8-2 etc.
Eventually in the 1920’s with the need for more power to pull the heavy heavyweight steel passenger cars that were replacing the lighter wood ones, it was discovered that with a 4-wheel trailing truck you could get a really huge firebox and “superpower”. Of course you usually had to have a mechanical stoker to get the coal in fast enough to keep the fire up!! So then you had the 4-6-4 and 4-8-4…and 4-8-8-4.
Anyway back to the original question. Running backwards seems to be one of those things that model railroaders hate to do because it “looks wrong” but that real railroads did fairly often. It wasn’t unusual in steam days to have a branch served by a small engine that ran foward going in and backwards coming out or vice-versa. That being said, a lot of railroads did provide at least a small “armstrong” turntable at the end of the branch if they could find a way to do it.
Part of the reason road-switcher diesels like the BL-2 (EMD’s “Branch Line” road switcher) and GP etc. were popular is railroads could assign them to branchlines and eliminate the turntable as the diesels ran equally wel
p.s. although most people think it’s entirely ficticious, the Atlas turntable is actually based on a “covered pit” type of turntable that did in fact exist on some old-time railroads like logging railroads serving areas where snow was a problem. It’s rarely (if ever) modelled, but in places like the Great Lakes region, logging was primarily done in winter so snow could be an issue. At 9" the Atlas TT should have no trouble with a logging Shay, Climax etc.
Some doodlebugs were equipped with controls at both ends. An example of one still in operation is Wilmington & Western’s ex-PRR 4662, which has controls, a headlight, and a pilot on the rear end. There is a photo of it on their website www.wwrr.com , but it doesn’t show the rear end.
Wow, thanks again guys for the effort to help me… I think I am going to just run the engines which ever way they are facing. But I am probably going to put a small single track turntable at the end of my staging yard… And we’ll see about an old wooden one later on at another time to put down on the sceniced part.
Mike