I have been doing some prototype research into some of the small branchlines in New England in the 19th century.
One thing I have not found on many of these single line branches is a way to turn the locomotives or trains around. Am I not looking very hard or was it customary to run the trains “backwards” up to 20 or so miles along these single line branches?
Thanks.
-Britton
From what I’ve seen (and I haven’t made an extensive survey) turntables seem popular. They often aren’t that noticable in the background of pictures because the photographer was shooting the station and there is no engine house or other structure next to the turntable.
Enjoy
Paul
It wouldn’t be uncommon for the engine to run backwards either going up or coming back down the branchline, but a turntable wouldn’t be uncommon either. Engines were pretty small back then, wasn’t too hard to fit in a small ‘armstrong’ turntable to turn the engine. I know the branchline I grew up alongside (in Minnesota not New England) originally had a turntable at the end when it was built (c.1908). After they started using diesels on the line in the forties they took the turntable out.
The easiest way to turn an engine (or train) is a wye. Very low cost, minimal maintenance.
Turntables were only used where they HAD to turn the engine and there wasn’t room for a wye.
In most cases you wouldn’t turn the train, just put the caboose on the rear and run back with the engine backwards.
Trains were operated backwards. Very little documentation of it because film was expensive and nobody wanted to “waste” a shot of an engine going backwards, very unphotogenic. Same reason most shots are taken from the south side of the tracks (and modelers put the aisle on the south side of the tracks), because that was the side that had the best lighting and made the best picture.
Dave H.
I live near Fort Myers, in southwest Florida. In the early 1900s, when the Atlantic Coast Line first built its line here, they had a wye at Bonita Springs. The line continued another 20 miles or so to Naples. The passenger trains were turned at Bonita and ran backwards to Naples.
There was an article in the Narrow Gauge & Short Line Gazette some years ago about a Maine shortline that had a small ‘armstrong’ turntable…it was turned by hand, by the train crew. They used a metal plate to ‘index’ the bridge. The plate was cut to lie in the web, between the rails, so that it lie on top of the spike heads. When the bridge was aligned with the approach track, the steel plate was kicked into position, half on the approach and half on the bridge.
Craig Bisgeier had an article in RMC years ago, in which he used a headphone jack and plug for the pivot of an armstrong table. If you do a search for his name you will find his website about his Housatonic RR…well worth looking at.
A few months ago I read an article where the author used an old CD in a CD case as the pivot for an armstrong table,
One gentleman I know who models the 1906 era had a turntale that was near the edge of the benchwork. He attached a 33 1/3 LP to the pivot and it protrudes through the fascia so you move the edge of the record to rotate the turntable. Pretty slick.
Dave H.
That’s a neat idea!! Of course, I wonder how many forum members own LP’s ?? [;)]
Course I still have 45’s…and 78’s…and eight-track tapes!!
Thanks for the info everyone.
Scouring over a couple of small local branchlines had me really scratching my head. The fact that the trains could run with the locomotive faced in either direction makes a lot of sense out of what I have seen.
yeah, I ran into Craig Besgeier’s website a few months ago and I have kept close tabs on it every since. He has some great information there and I really likes how he chooses to model.
Add 1 member to the total.
… but I don’t have any LPs that I want to sacrifice like that. [:(]