Did the tracks not going into the roundhosue itself and radiating from the turntable at a typical steam-era roundhouse have wheelstops or bumbers on the end away from the turntable?
Hi, Jeff
None of the roundhouses that I have been in have had any wheel stops at the ends. I suppose when the stall was vacant it would have been a pain to have them sticking up from the floor. The hostler, who’s job it was to move locomotives around the service area was pretty skilled at stopping (or spotting) an engine. I have seen stops on the outdoor storage tracks, though.
Usually a steam locomotive is moved into the roundhouse under residual steam pressure since the fire was dropped out at the ash pit. As long as he had enough AIR pressure to apply the independent brake he was OK.
Of course the occasional over-run did occur… at BOTH ends of the radial track… through the roundhouse wall or into the turntable pit!
Ed
It appears in this pic that there may be a rail tie across the end. hard to tell though.
Brent
Duh [D)] I missed the part about the outside tracks. Still, I’d say yes to the wheel stops, or ties, or a pile of ballast or cinders. Some railroads didn’t get too fancy when it came to “bumpers.”
I was allowed to tour the roundhouse at Rock Springs Wyoming (still in existence and still used by the UP) in the 1960’s. There were still Big Boys in the roundhouse, but they had been inactive for 3 years and were slated for scrap. The radial tracks in the roundhouse did not have stops at the end of the tracks; the diesel locomotives that were being stored; and or maintained, in the roundhouse were being pushed onto the radial tracks by switch engines; probably SW 7’s. The diesels being parked in teh roundhouse were hooked to a long air hose that supplied the engine brakes so they could be set once the locomotive was spotted. I do not know if this was their normal practice, but it was what was going on the Saturday I was allowed to tour the facility (an arranged tour; a one off tour, conducted by the UP for the local NMRA group. Some of us traveled from Utah to participate.
Broken Tie
Thank You.
Nobody even mentioned the old dip or bowl of the radial tracks to keep whatever is spotted where its wanted. http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/prr7032s.jpg There is usually a grade going to the turntable pit and also away from it on outside garden and storage track. The grades were small and sometimes imperceptible at some camera angles.
Pete
Japanese practice for outside radial tracks, which I have never seen elsewhere, was to put a `hump’ in the extreme end rail, about half a meter high. Since they were all identical, this was probably done at some central facility and carried to the place where the rails would be laid.
I haven’t figured out how to reproduce the shape with model rail.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)