I’m thinking of placing my drill track (yard lead) at the bottom of my yard ladder, with a turnout off of the engine arrival track to the roundhouse.
It would fit the bill in that it would keep a to be classified train off of the main line and away from the yard tracks. Would this be a problem in any way that I’m missing, operationally?
Just bring the train in off of the main, all the way down the yard ladder’s straight track and onto a drill track? It seems somehow, “wrong” to bring an entire train through every turn out on the ladder, but can’t think of why it might be problematic.
Any advice, opinons would be appreciated regarding this. It would allow my stationary yardmaster to read
the car numbers in the “drill” as they’d be right on the aisle. So there is that advantage…
Not having a room the size of a football stadium we are forced to compress prototype operations in creative ways. Depending on era modeled, how about coming off the main and the road engines cut off and sent around the yard to the service track. Then the train can be broken up using switchers and run around tracks. The plans I have drawn for my little spare bedroom layout has the locals coming off the branch onto a drill track with the caboose left on the main. The road engine will cut back onto the main and back down to retrieve it and take it to the cabin track while a switcher will break and classify the inbound to out bound trains.
I think you are using the terms differently than most of us would.
A Yard Lead (or drill track) extends the opposite way from the ladder to allow a switcher to work without fouling the main. The yard lead may connect back into the main at the far end (to the left in this sketch) to allow an additional path into and out of the yard when things are congested, but that is optional.
It sounds like you are describing an arrival/departure track. A sketch of your arrangement would help others understand what you are asking.
Going into PRR’s CA&C yard in Columbus the main line was the switch lead-only 10 trains a day enter or left this yard.This was part of the massive Grogan yard that served the CA&C Sub…
Just bring the train in off of the main, all the way down the yard ladder’s straight track and onto a drill track? It seems somehow, “wrong” to bring an entire train through every turn out on the ladder, but can’t think of why it might be problematic.
Nothing wrong there…Sounds like the PenNor yard in Columbus…This yard served the Sandusky branch and where N&W handed over coal trains to PRR bound for Lake Erie.
Neither PenNor or the CA&C yard had inbound/outbound tracks so the used the yard ladder to enter the yard.
The cabin was removed by the Grogan yard cabin car switch job and taken to the cabin car service track.
PennNor was a joint yard used by the PRR and the N&W. Penn for PRR and Nor for Norfolk & Western.
I expect that the OP will be running more then 10 trains in and out of his yard in 24 real hours. That’s why model railroads need yard leads where the prototype may not, as has been explained many times.
The point is that he does not seem to be describing a “drill track”. A/D track, maybe. Classification track, maybe. “For Now” track, maybe. But not a yard lead or drill track. As all the real-life railroaders I know use the term, a drill track or yard lead is for active switching, not storage.
Byron, you are, of course, correct. I’d be branching the “drill” track off of the A/D track. What I’m wondering is whether or not this can fulfill the function of a drill track as it will keep the mainline clear and as far as I can tell the rest of the yard/ladder once the train is on this track.
I CAN put a drill track on the correct lead/end as you’ve indicated but my concerns were that 99.9% of this track would be hidden track and started with a curved t.o. and track curved to boot. I’d pull the train out onto the yard’s runaround track parallel to the main and break it up from there, but I was hoping to accomplish two things with the A/D “drill” notion:
Keep the car numbers readable by a stationary yardmaster at the aisle with an entirely visible train.
Not block traffic from staging to a universal industry (port) but that could be worked around via a schedule.
If the A/D “drill” track (really an A/D or “for now” track (which I realized) alternative is too far fetched prototypically or would cause other traffic flow problems I’ll go with the proper end of the yard.
I’m not understanding why I can’t actively switch or block cars from the A/D version by running them back up the ladder and backing them into the stub tracks and how this would be different in action than at the other end of the yard. Is there a difference in function that I’m missing?
I’m going to look into adobe or another method to do diagrams to post, but it can’t be right now.
Too busy with family medical stuff to explore that just yet.
Drill tracks are active switching tracks, not “out of the way” storage tracks. Whether that storage track is a good thing to have or not is impossible to know without a diagram.
A/D and drill tracks are completely different functions, by most peoples’ definitions.
I’m sorry, I’m just not able to picture what you are describing. If you block the ladder and main while doing switching, its sounds as if it is just another yard track, if oddly connected.
You can draw diagrams with anything, even MS paint.
Hope things improve for you and you’re able to post so that someone might be able to help. Best of luck.
Byron,I don’t think I need a book telling me what a yard lead is or how to plan one…[(-D]
A large yard may have several inter divisional yards in them and the lead(as its called) was the only way in and out of that smaller but,needed yard.Did you know the majority of old steam era yards in larger cities was a combination of several merged railroad yards that
I know using a ladder goes against the book teachings but,there are thousands of examples where the ladder was used as the inbound/outbound lead.Even today you can still find examples of this operation in older steam era yards.
Book operation and layout planning is cut and dry…Railroading goes far beyond that.
I’m sorry, that doesn’t make any sense. Leads and ladders are different things, on the prototype or model. Any movement entering or exiting the yard uses the ladder by definition.
Because the model usually has so many more trains within a given time and such short mainline runs compared to the real thing, the best yard design for the model is often different than what the prototype used.
Actually the ladder is part of the switch lead since its used in switching.You must hold on the lead when a train enters or leaves the yard.Now if that lead is part of the outbound/inbound lead then you clear in a yard track…Ladder is just a fancy name for a row of yard switches off the switch lead-I learned that as a student brakeman.
Of course those cut and dry books doesn’t mention that phase of railroading.
Thanks for the help and critiques guys. I was able to get together with one of our ops guys on a round robin layout Sat. and was able to look over my track plan and discuss alternatives.
I ended up (thankfully) with a true drill track coming into the yard throat in the prototypical manner. The compromise was that I’ll have a curved turnout entering a tunnel (the points plus some exposed) which I was hoping to avoid. This allows me to keep the mainline clear and have a drill track long enough in hidden trackage to accomodate 15 cars or so.
I wasn’t making myself clear (obviously) in that I always intended using the “true” drill track as a drill, but would be limited to only pulling 3-4 cars onto it at a time. My idea for bringing the full train down the ladder lead track to a “for now” stub was to allow room to temporarily store the train while I used a few cars at a time on the drill track.
I’ve learned a valuable lesson that I need to learn to post track diagrams and pics-soon! Once the family medical/care issues “resolve” themselves I’ll get to that.
The GOOD news is that this drill track/alternative mainline run is my golden spike (other than staging tracks) moment, so once this is done (today!) I can finally run all of the time and start working on Ops scenarios.
Dave, thank you for taking the time to post your diagrams and work through this with me. I truly appreciate it.
Everyone else, thanks for your experiences with prototype exceptions to the rule examples, etc.
Byron, thanks for the PM. Very kind of you and also appreciated. Looking forward to things settling down a bit so I can enjoy tr
