Happy New Year to All!
I came across the idea to plan a stub ended passenger terminal station.
It should be a midsized terminal in the 60s. Now I’m looking for information like track plans, operation.
Any suggestions, links?
Wolfgang
Depending on how much room you have, this could be an entire layout in itself. The Saint Louis Union Station served 16 different lines and they all crossed each other on a long maze of double-slip switches controlled by a central control tower operator.
If I were planning something like this on a home layout, one or two tracks coming into the terminal would be all I would ever attempt due to space limitatiions.
Sorry, I don’t know of any links, but good luck in your search.
Try the Model Railroader book Track Planning for Realistic Operation. It is a little expensive but I think it is worth it.
Basically it is no different from a stub end freight yard with one difference. You need a larger space between every other track for a platform. The length of your tracks will be a function of how long your trains are and you shopuld use #6 turnouts or longer due to the length of the passenger cars.
A stub-end passenger terminal will need some way of turning the trains around, like a wye. For long passenger trains, that can be quite a bit of track in itself.
There are exceptions to this. There are prototype stations where trains going in one direction head in, then back out and trains in the other direction back in and head out.
If a stub ended station is at the end of the line, a wye wouldn’t be necessary because arriving trains would be broken down. Cars would be sent to the coach yard and the locos could then be turned on a turntable.
An old book (Atlas I believe) I had, (12 great track plans?), had a great plan for such a station. If memory serves me it was built as a peninsula off a double track main, and was also a wye. At the end was the terminal and at the wye part was serviceing facilities. Can’t find the book right now - if I still have it, but will scan & post the plan if I can find it. Hope this helps.[:)]
HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL!
Model Railroader had an article, about two years ago I believe, on operations and track layout at a small stub-end passenger terminal. It had four platform tracks, two track mainline in and out, small coach yard, commissary and service facilities. The article also had, if I remember correctly, a sample of the timetable of trains in and out, so you could see how the tracks were used.
Passenger station operations. Model Railroader Sept05 p.62 Includes detailed track plan of “Smithfield station” on B&O, two page spread drawing.
That wasn’t two years ago was it, just last year in 2005. Oh wait, this is 2007 now, isn’t it?!?!
Not all trains were completely turned. Some passenger cars had seats that could swivel and would be before the passengers loaded and the train left. You would even see the observation car at the “wrong” end sometimes. Asthectically not pleasing but realistic.
Rick
You mention ‘mid 60’s’ era so you could depict train sets that do not have observation cars on the rear end. Therefore eliminating the need to turn the train. You could also realistically run two engines tail-to-trail and not need to turn the engine set, just run them to the other end of the train.
The Pennsy MP 54s had seat backs that were hinged at the bottom and could be pushed from one side to the other of the seat. At the end of the run the conductor would walk through pushing the seat backs over for the return trip.
-George
try looking up carl arendt : kings pancreas on his website www.carednt.com its an amazing compact layout and you could enlarge it to fit your space and/or prototype
Wolfgang,
Try looking at the October 2002 issue of MR, which had a plan for a layout based on passenger operations at the New Orleans terminal. If memory serves me correctly, there were even suggestions on how to operate such a layout. If not there are plenty of resources published recently on passenger operations. Good luck and happy New Year!
Mike,
thank you for the source. I remembered this article but didn’t know the issue. [:(!]
Wolfgang
I found the book, “Atlas 6 railroads you can build” copywrite 1958 - may be out of print! below are plans and sketch - if you need more on the plans email me
John Armstrong’s classic Track Planning for Realistic Operation includes an exhaustive study on the track planning of passenger terminals, including a very much abridged version of the St Louis Union Station (which had 42 tracks and two triple-track wyes!) One thing he emphasizes is the use of scissors crossovers and double slip switches to shorten the length of the terminal throat.
Frequently, a passenger terminal with four platform tracks would actually have five, six or even seven total tracks if trains headed in rather than backed in. The ‘extra’ tracks served as runarounds, to let the locomotive escape from the stub end once the train had stopped at the platform.
My own passenger operations center around a through station configured very much like the first track plan in Armstrong’s book.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with heavy passenger operations)
A coach yard with related express, postage, and commissary facilities are more interesting than a large passenger terminal. With a coach yard, one can do switching moves and assemble/disassemble trains rather than a terminal’s mere gathering of trains. But that’s me.
Mark
Wolfgang,
I would defiantly recommend The Model Railroader’s Guide to Passenger Equipment and Operation, (Andy Sperandeo, Kalmbach Books, 2006) I have it for myself and it’s a great book covering all aspects of the history and operation of passenger trains. It has a lot of information as well on station terminals and their individual operation. It also includes the track plan and article for the New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal. Besides that, it will also help you on planning realistic consists for your layout.
Simply, if your building a midsized terminal, I would suggest you design the track plan and station its self to have been constructed, probably in the 1930’s at the latest. Most terminals would have been up and running by that time. Also remember to use selective compression when designing your terminal, as most midsized terminals could have as many as 10 tracks. (Many large terminals in the USA had upwards of 15 to 20) For a reasonable midsized terminal, I would limit yourself to four tracks in the terminal and then no more than four tracks in the coach yard. Then make sure to have an RPO building near the tracks (although by 1967 almost all RPO services were dropped from trains as post offices switched to trucks and planes) and an REA building (ditto like the RPO) If you keep the tracks to no longer than eight feet long, and give yourself around two feet of width, you can easily fit everything into a single peninsula. It would help if you ran the coach yard parallel to the terminal and make it stub ended too. This would keep you within the 8-10 feet by 2 feet area. Another important thing to remember while planning is to leave adequate space for easements and longer turnouts. Mr. Sperandeo states in his book, (as well as his article in the Nov. 2006 issue of MRR) that a minimum of 30" turns and #6 turnouts must be used, however, to always plan for larger where space permi
What about using the Toledo Passenger Termial the old NYC passenger station as a starting point? It was in a MR issue last year. Just a thought. Kevin
Could you let us know what scale you’re using ? It seems that everyone else is just presuming you are using HO. Knowing your scale will make it easier to give you more accurate advice.