The Drill Track

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

In the June 2010 issue of MRR, there is an artice titled, “13 Tips for Freight Yard Operation and Design”.

Tip #10 is to include a drill track off the main line. Fair enough! Then, Tip #12 suggests direct access between classification tracks and the main line and includes a diagram. The diagram illisustrates the connection between the classification yard and the main line. It shows an arrival-departure track but no drill track, although the extension of the arrival-departure track beyond the yard ladder access track from the main line is referred to as the “switching lead”. Is the switching lead and the drill track one and the same? Is the extension of the access-departure track beyond the yard ladder access track considered the drill track or switching lead?

On my layout, I have a double main line and an access-departure track, all connected by crossovers which continue as access tracks into and out of a double ended yard. My yard consists of 5 “classification tracks”, if you will. I use the first three tracks to classify cars, the fourth track serves as a caboose track, and the fifth track serves as a “roundaround” track for the switch engines to reach either end of each classification track. I am probably not using one or more of these terms correctly, and my layout is nowhere near prototypical, but I wonder if it passes at all for an accurate representation. And, do I correctly place the approach-departure track and is the extension of the approach-departure track beyond the access track to the yard ladder considered a switching lead or drill track?

Here is a very crude, and highly compressed, diagram of my yard. The blue and red tracks are the mainline, the green track is the approach-departure track, and the orange tracks are the yard tracks. The black tracks are the crossovers.

[IMG]http://i672.photobucket.com/albums/vv90/richho

2

Not sure what you consider an “approach departure” track.

In your diagram the green tracks would be the drill tracks beyond the ladders. They don’t have to connect back into the mains and can be stub ended. The drill tracks are used as tail room for the switchers to pull back a cut to switch it. With your yard design any track in the yard can be used as an arrival, departure, or classification track. So I wouldn’t get too concerned about designating a specific “arrival-departure track”. Most small yards don’t have “arrival-departure” tracks. Because the green yard track is the longest track, you might use it more often as an arrival or departure track, but it doesn’t have to be exclusively dedicated to that purpose.

3

Yes.

Smile,
Stein

4

A switch lead can double for a inbound/outbound lead in smaller terminals and some times any track can be used as a switch lead.One such example would be any of the tracks leading from a hump bowl to a outbound track…Some smaller outlaying yards the main line is the switch lead.

IMHO theres not a cut and dry answer because yard operations is complex…Thankfully we condense that operation down to modeling size and in doing so our yards become simpler to operate.

Your yard looks good for a home layout…

5

You seem to have it figured out. The hard part to swallow is the length involved in the throught and drill(tail) or switching lead. Idealy the lead should be long enough to handle the cars of a train to reduce the number of moves in and out of the arrival departure tracks. I compressed mine and it takes two shots for my switcher to classify an entire train.

A pic to help. The switcher is on the tail (drill) track and if you enlarge the photo you can see he has dirrect access to both A/D tracks(where the 2 trains are) and the yard. The track left of the trains and switcher is the mainline. This way through trains can proceed without delay and a train can arrive or depart while the switcher continues to work delayed only by a train movement on the right track.

Picture_1521

6

The problem I had with the tips was the comment that one of the class tracks could be used as an arrival/departure track if the normal track for that purpose was otherwise occupied. While this is true, once a train gets into the class track then what happens? There was no engine escape track, plus the tail end of the train would have blocked the switching lead so that the switcher was trapped. In the construction trade that is know as being “two blocked”.

I also feel that the capacity of that yard was rather limited considering its 12 foot length. Possibly there was more track off to the left so that the class tracks could be extended, but now we’re getting outside the realm of space that a lot of us have available.

7

Now, if you take Spidge’s yard and add a crossover from the yard lead/drill track (where the engine is) to the main (on the left), somewhere behind the engine, you can (even if both A/D tracks are full), depart a train directly from any yard track, or take a train directly into any yard track.

At the cost of the yard switcher having to stop classifying cars and get out of the way while a train departs from or arrives into one of the yard tracks on the right side. That is the core of tip #12 in the article you refer to.

As for whether you would want to do so - that depends on how you want to operate your yard, and your amount of traffic - whether the main challenge for your yard is not time to sort cars without being interrupted by arriving or departing trains, or whether it is “not enough A/D capacity for originating or departing trains”.

Rich’s design is fairly flexible with regard to trains being able to arrive or depart from any track.

Switching (on one end of the yard) will have to stop whenever a train actually arrives or departs - since all paths into any yard track crosses over the switching lead.

All tracks are double ended and the yard is pyramid shaped.

Which will costs you a lot in potential yard capacity (in the number of cars per track). Might be worth it if you will be switching your yard from both ends and arriving and departing trains both ways a lot.

A couple of illustrations of yard capacities with different kinds of yard configurations. None of the drawings show the yard lead (which comes in addition, if you won’t be switching off the main):

8

Dave,

Thanks for that info. I consider the green colored track as my approach-departure track, using that track to initially accept trains coming in off the main line and prepare completed trains for departure from the yard for the main line.

Not sure how appropriate that is.

Rich

9

Brakie,

Thank you much, I appreciate that coming from you.

Rich

10

Thanks, Stein, that seemed to be the case to me but I wasn’t sure.

Rich

11

Thanks everyone for your responses. This turned out to be much more interesting and educational for me than I had even imagined.

I went down to my layout to take some measurements.

I am fortunate in that I have a 42’ x 22’ space for the layout in an open P-shape.

The yard is situated on an inside curve. The approach-departure (A/D) track measures 30’, 14’ to the left of the yard ladder access track and 10’ to the right of the yard ladder access track. I now consider these two extensions of the A/D track as the switching leads or drill tracks. The portion of the A/D track between the two yard ladder access tracks measures 16’. That portion is reserved for incoming and outgoing freight trains.

The yard tracks measure approximately 16’, 14’, 12’,10’ and 8’. I use that 8’ track as the engine runaround track to keep switchers moving from one side of the yard to the other. The 10’ track is my caboose track. The three longest yard tracks are the freight car classification tracks.

I would post photos but I am in the midst of adding cinders back after some extensive track realignment so it doesn’t look real pretty at the moment.

Your comment and advice here is invaluable to me. Thanks again.

Rich

12

Sounds like you have plenty of yard space then - depending on how many and how long trains you need to be able to handle in your yard.

With your setup you don’t need to designate a specific track the A/D track. In your case you can take 16-foot trains into (or out of) either of your two yard tracks closest to the main - the one you have labeled the A/D track, and the next one in - since both tracks are just as accessible from the main, and just as long (16 feet). 14-foot trains can be taken into (or depart from) any of the first three tracks from the main.

Btw - A/D is short for Arrival/Departure, not Approach/Departure.

Smile,
Stein

13

[8D]

GASP!

[#oops] I think I called it an access-departure track, then an approach-departure track, in my initial post.

Thanks for setting me straight, Stein. [8D]

Rich

14

Here is the yard on the layout I built for my son, it is a L shaped shelf layout along 2 walls in a finished basement. the yard lis located in one of the return loops on one end:

The track closest to the edge is the main.

The track next to it is the drill track. The caboose track breaks off the drill.

Back on the loop are two tracks inside the main, they ate the A/D tracks (they have trains in them).

Inside the loop are, from left to right, the engine house tracks, 4 class tracks (currently holding passenger cars) and a team track.

While my son mostly just runs trains, the yard is designed to be fully functional. You can depart to the main off either A/D track or the class tracks. A switcher can pull a cut back onto the lead and let a train depart. A switcher can move cuts from any track, including the main to any other track in the yard.

Here is the business end of Wilmington yard on my 1905 W&N railroad.

The through track on the left is the main. The two stub tracks next to the wall are industry tracks.

The track next to the main is the “runner”. It is used as a running track, A/D track, runaround, whatever is needed.

The next 5 tracks are class tracks. Only track #1 is double ended.

The two tracks on the right are the caboose track (with cabooses on it) and the scale track (with the engine on it).

The two tracks exiting at the top are the main and the drill track (with an engine on the main.

Note the pair of crossovers which allow a train to move from any yar

15

Nice (and functional) looking yard throat.Got a picture showing the yard tracks looking the other way (down the yard tracks) ?

Smile,
Stein

16

Rich, show us some pics of your layout and yard. We don’t care if your scenery isn’t perfect because of the track re-work.

17

Since you asked…

Here is the stub end of the yard:

I wish I had another 2 ft of room, I would have double ended 2 or 3 tracks.

While we are touring, here is an overview of downtown Wilmington, DE. The engine facilities are in the foreground, downtown in the back and industries to the left and right.

To the extreme left is the Maryland Ave branch with a team track, freight houses and 3 industries:

Towards the center is the passenger station. The tracks in the back are the interchanges with the PRR and B&O and the King St Branch, curving to follow the Christiana River :

Across from the roundhouse area is Harlan and Hollinsworth, ship and passenger car builders. To the right is the connection to the Delaware River Extension, crossing the Christiana River and going through an industrial area to a car float to Carney’s Point, NJ.

The King St. branch and the Del River Ext are treated as branches with their own switch jobs, they are actually staging tracks. The PRR, B&O, King St and Del Riv Ext all go behind the backdrop and have connections for cassette staging to swap out custs of cars (when my car fleet becomes big enough to support that.)

18

Dave –

Thank you for the tour of Wilmington!

I like the way you have used fairly short industry spurs going off in different directions to give the look and feel of a crowded city scene.

In particular, I really like the Maryland Avenue part - a very nice use of that shortish wall segment. How long is the part the Maryland Avenue tracks are on - about 2 1/2 feet?

You mention team track, freight house and three industries. I can only see two industries from the angle the photo has been taken. One at the end of the track behind the team track, and one at the end of the second track in the front of the freight house. Or is the building in the foreground (at the end of the team track) also a rail served industry?

Like the way you can spot two tracks of cars in front of the freight house, so you can spot up to 4 cars for the freight house.

In the area by the engine facility:

Trying to orient myself - the fourth track from the left (ie directly to the right of the engine facility) is the runner, with the fifth track being what up by the yard throat is the main. Is Wilmington conceptually at the end of the line for your railroad, so the main (for your railroad) ends there?

Nice (and interesting) crossover arrangement between the runner/Maryland Avenue freight house track/station track one and the main/station track 2. Makes it possible for one operator to rearrange a passenger train for departure from station track 2 while someone else is switching Maryland Avenue, and still is flexible enough to allow one passenger train to arrive on one track while another is ready to depart on the other track. Nice work!

Are those freight cars in the pictures mostly 40-foot cars, or were cars shorter in 1905? How long

19

This first photo is my layout at the point where the double mainline accesses the yard through crossovers beginning at the signal bridge. The third track from the right is what I consider the arrival-departure track with turnouts into the engine servicing facility and the freight yard. The first three yard tracks are reserved for classification, the fourth yard track is my caboose track, and the fifth yard track is an engine runaround track for the switchers to reach the other end of the yard. You can see the extension of the A/D track beyond the turnouts near the bottom of the photo. I consider that extension as my drill track and use it as such. The other inside tracks at the bottom left of the picture lead to an industrial siding and my passenger car yard.

This second photo is the other end of my yard connecting once again to the double mainline at the point of the other signal bridge. You can see the extension of my A/D track (my other drill track) heading up in the photo with the three reefer cars sitting at the end. On the left side of the photo is a 5-track siding on the return portion of the double mainline.

Be nice, it is still a work in progress.

Rich

20

Rich, that is a very impressive layout, I really like it!! And the yard looks good too.

How do you reach the back part of your layout? Any reach length issues? I see you use ground throws for the switches?

I noticed your rails are brass colored, what kind of track/switches are you using?

Thanks,

Michael