3 what? facing or trailing?
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Sorry, three facing.
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The question:
“Run around or switcher” ?
The answer:
Run around AND a switcher…
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you don’t need a run-around near those turnouts. you can position the cars in the fromt of the loco at the nearest siding and then run train down to those turnouts and switch the cars.
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The more I think about this, the more I like the idea of a runaround.
That way, you have covered both options that the OP raised in his opening post.
Rich
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the irony is that prototypical RRs make things as simple as possible (within econonomic reason) while modelers tend to make them less simple for operational interest
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LOL, ain’t that the truth.
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Good thing model railroading is about fun, not making a profit!
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If it was about making profit 95% of my locomotives and rolling stock would have to go.
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Yeah, when I discussed this with the guys at my club almost every one of them responded with, “Well, a run around would make operations more interesting”. Not necessarily more prototypical, because they also admitted that in real life a run around very likely wouldn’t have been built in such a relatively small yard, just more “interesting”.
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A station in the run round with two turnouts to five small factories.
Not as easy to operate as it looks, but great fun.
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ide say a siding with 2 track turn out behind it
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Hello All,
My 4’x8’ HO freelance pike is based on the vintage 1970s Tyco operating hoppers.
These cars have doors that are operated by a special piece of unloading track.
A locomotive’s underframe cannot clear this section of track, and the cars need to be shoved over the unloading platform.
This unloading platform is at the top of a 3% curved incline on a level siding with two spurs on each end.
A three (3) unit consists of GP-30s handles this duty; one at the head end and two (2) as pushers up the grade for the six (6) hopper train.
On a receiving siding, underneath the unloading platform, a train with a four (4) unit consist of GP-40s with twelve (12) operating hoppers is waiting to receive the live loads.
When the first car reaches the top of the grade, the head-end loco is cut.
Then it moves to the trailing turnout to receive the empties on the main track.
Loaded cars are shoved into place on the siding and cut before the unloading platform.
A critter shoves the single, loaded car over the unloading platform where the single GP-30 loco is waiting to remake the train and guide it down the helix to the mainline.
The two (2) trailing locomotives, after completing their shoving duties, join the end of the empties train for additional braking force on the rear end, down the helix.
Once on the mainline the consist of the two trailing locomotives are cut a the first siding and are run around to the head end to remake the three (3) unit head end consist.
Hope this helps.
Post Script: Because of the locomotive reassignments necessary to make these moves is why I went with the NCE DCC system because of it’s amperage and how it handles making and breaking consists. J.J.D.I.- -H.T.H.
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Isn’t Lionel’s 1950s coal ramp (#456) similar to those Tyco hopper unloaders?
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Hello All,
Similar concept, different execution.
The Tyco unloading system uses a 6-inch section of track with what can best be described as vertical wings that engage and open the doors as they pass over.
Hence the underframe limitations.
This section of track fits into a supplied raised platform with a plastic catch basin below.
I was able to make an upper and lower siding over each other- -think trestle.
Another difference between the Lionel and the Tyco system is with the Tyco track you can attach a stub end or continuous track for a run-through of the cars.
The run-through can be a hump style or a level platform to receive the empties.
Hope this helps.
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Interesting…
Though, I do have to wonder if anybody ever thought about just taking an electromagnet and unloading the Lionel hoppers into a pit below track level–sort of like at some real industries.
How well does the Tyco system work?
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In the real world, railroads might find it less capital intensive to buy a second hand locomotive cheaply and use it for a special purpose than it would be to install new track. Especially switches.
Just like the prototype, it would be easier for you too. If you already have the spare locomotive.
Personally. I think it would also be more fun to use the second locomotive.
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Pity you can’t gravity-feed this like some of the real car-unloading facilities. Switch cuts of cars to an elevated track, then uncouple each car on the end to roll over the ‘unloader’ and then go up a gravity ramp and then back down to a parallel tail track through a spring switch.
Me, I’d just rig the unloader to slide vertically on rails, and make a lever or solenoid arrangement to drop it any time I wanted a low-clearance engine or car to cross it.
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Thanks for the replies everyone - much appreciated. My new switches needed for the run around arrive today but I will still retain the option of having a dedicated switcher for that area when I want to play with one.
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That is the best of both worlds.
Rich
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