maintanance of way, cranes, odd-ball cars are certainly interesting to look at or even build, but how practical are they on a typical model RR?
they don’t fit in a normal train and take up space on the layout. I even dislike having my track cleaning car on my layout because it takes up a spot on a spur. (need to move it to the display case)
yes, i’ve heard that on some layouts, that during operation, a MOW train is dispatched when there’s a derailment.
Greg,
I’m a big time MoW guy. I’m in between layouts at the moment but my new design has included at least two yard spurs specifically set aside for this stuff. Actually, I’ll likely not have nearly enough room for all of it as my roster includes a rotary with tender, a spreader and flanger just for my non-existent snow. That’s on top of a crane and more than a dozen other units. Occasionally I might run out a consist to a far corner to sit for a spell. But MoW consists are by no means normal traffic, anyway. There may be other opinions out there, but if it’s well done, it functions plenty well enough to just sit there and look strange and wonderful. It’s always an eye-catcher. And that’s not bad. After all, how much effort on a nice pike is laid out to make scenery, buildings, and yard fixtures look good. They do nothing but sit there, too.
John
I agree, Geg. My MOW trains run once and a while, and nothing sits out, but I have a small layout, with limited space.
I would guess if you have a huge layout, plenty of track space, and a designated MOW area, equipment sitting on a track would be appropiate.
Mike.
Hi Greg:
I’m a bit of a nut about MOW equipment. I love modelling them, and since I have put a lot of work into kitbashing and scratch building a lot of various MOW pieces, I also want to run them. At the very least, I want to see them parked on my layout. Some of my favourites are the unfortunately now discontinued Roundhouse 3 in 1 kits. I guess I am obsessed with the ‘neat’ factor that so many MOW cars have.
Dave
Well, you are right in that MW equipment can be very interesting to research, build and see. Most WM equipment was custom made from older cars and therefore usually one of a kind or at least unique. Yes, they do take up a lot of space if you do a full MW train.
I guess a lot depends on the size of your layout and yard. A smaller layout would certainly bring up the questionble need for a full yard track for a lot of equipment that would only see very limited use. Even larger yards often don’t get a MW track. Same with a RIP track, scale track, caboose track, etc. We seldom have the luxury of enough room in our yards to do what we would like so all space is dedicated to car storage.
Personally my small 14x16 layout will use one 5 1/2’ yard track for a MW train. I will still have 6 tracks to use for the yard, caboose track and a working scale track. I like all the MW equipment and I model the Western Maryland Ry so they had (like most roads) unique cars in their MW trains with lots of modified troop sleepers & kitchens. I doubt if my wreck train will ever leave that track but having it makes me happy and will show off some neat cars. They always generate questions and comments.
If you aren’t a fan of the odd stuff then don’t model it and save that space for more general freight cars. Pretty simple.
oldline1
I have a MOW crane and flat car on my layout along with a crew of guys that are replacing ties…
Well, I think you have to look at it as 2 different types.
You have the regular maintenance doing things like spraying weed killer to keep back vegetation, and depending on era replacing ties or delivering ties to the section gangs, etc. No reason you can’t schedule these as this stuff is done on a regular basis. It doesn’t have to be to a destination on the layout, they could just be passing through.
Then you have the emergency equipment for things like derailments. While you wouldn’t schedule these, you could have a random factor that causes these to have to be run from time to time. Not neccessarily to a destination on your layout, again they could just pass through on their way to the accident.
Sure the railroad business has been transporting freight (and for earlier times passengers), but these other things do have to be done, even if not every time you operate your railroad. You could also schedule the company business car as a special.
Paul
That’s what off-layout storage is for here. I do keep the wreck train and some often used cars on the layout all the time, like side dump cars for rip-rap, etc. The rip-rap and ballast actually is worth working it into your car card scheme of you operate; these cars circulate as MTs to the quarry, where they are then loaded and sent to various locations, or sometimes just to sit in the terminal until needed. On the standrad gauge, the Difcos similarly circulate.
I managed to squeeze in a spur for the wrecker and its train in the Durango engine terminal, in part to get it off the roundhouse finger tracks.
When I do get the wrecker on the road, it’s a challenging run, but looks great.
I have several Centerline track cleaning cars for both standard and narrowgauges. They go in a box on a shelf when not in use, as they’re just too weird IMO to leave in the layout, plus the fact that the roller on them is a potential source of shorts.
I’m also a MOW nut. Many years ago I picked up a Walthers 12 car SP work train set at my LHS. I added an Athearn snow blower and 200 ton crane with a tender a few years later. I have two dedicated storage tracks in my yard for my work cars and a storage track next to my roundhouse for my Athearn snow blower and snail ready to go quickly.
When I was in the design stage for my current and last layout I made a “must have list” and the work train was high on the list. Number one was a turntable and roundhouse capable of handling my Cab Forwards. Number two was a double crossover and number three was storage tracks for my work train.
All that plus mountains, 36” wooden trestle and 12” Howe Truss Bridge on an HO 14’ x 10’ layout.
I’ve still got my old Tru-Scale work train I bought back in the sixties. I added a water tank car. The train is weathered now and has Kadees and metal wheels. I run it around now and then, or park it on a siding.
I just like seeing it.
Practical?
There ought to be a Clint Eastwood quote I could use for that like deserves in Unforgiven. Practical has nuthin to do with it.
It’s your vision for your railroad. A snowplow doesn’t fit in on Broadway Lion’s subway any more than a Climax or a covered hopper. If you are modeling Cass WV, you don’t need any vista dome passenger cars.
Maybe I assume, wrongly, that some of the pics I see of an engine being worked on in a roundhouse are a static display, diorama on a model railroad. Maybe people do temporarily arrange people and locos just to have a photo for the Monthly picture thread.
If you don’t have room for that, you don’t have room. Similarly, if you never expect to see a MOW running occasionally on your railroad, you are not going to run those trains. You don’t need MOW
I’m not into the modern rail laying MOW, but I have a Tichy Brownhoist crane and decals that has been waiting 20 years for me to build it. As soon as I solve a problem with my latest DCC conversion, I am going to start on it.
Well, more of a snowblower/rotary plow really. NYC TA Snow Blowing Train
Put me down as having some MOW - a Walthers American crane and a idler gondola I made for it using an Athearn BB gondola (lots of sanding involved - hooray for rivet decals, futzy as they may be). I also have a Walthers side dump car that’s been sitting on a shelf for 25 years, and may well remain there since I have no great idea why I even purchased it in the first place…
I like running my MoW trains to mix things up a little bit. In the winter, when ever it snows in real life I run my snow fighting equipment on my layout. 
!http://www.trainweb.org/lonewolfsantafe/cafe05.jpg
In the spring or fall I run a Jordan Spreader and a set of ballast hoppers to do some maintenance.
And when there is a major derailment I send out the big wrecking crane. !http://www.trainweb.org/lonewolfsantafe/sf50a.jpg
To me running that type of stuff is just added fun. I use the spreaders and flangers as track cleaners by attaching WS Dust Monkeys to them, so they get a lot of use. !http://www.trainweb.org/lonewolfsantafe/sf369.jpg
The crane and it’s tender and a boxcar that goes along with it usually stay in a box until they are needed. They come from a location beyond the basement. Same with the rotary snow plows and the flangers. The spreaders usually stay on a short track in the yard. I don’t run cabooses (except for MoW or Railroad Police) 
so I don’t have any taking up a track. And the ballast hoppers vary between being used, being sent to the quarry for a load or being in a storage box. I have more cars than my layout can hold so I shuffle the
Whenever they had a major work project, SP would install a temporary siding and connect it with a temporary switch, which would be taken out after putting the work cars, leaving the work train (sans loco) on an isolated section of track.
I used to do that had four RR cranes on my railroad now the railroad uses side booms to clear derailments.
I’m looking for a couple of cats to build a couple of those. You can buy the heavy duty pipe laying cat with the side boom, but they are expensive.
Mike.
Hey, Mike, get in touch with LION. He has lots of cats, maybe even a few to spare.
[(-D]
John
I enjoy MOW cars so much that I have built an analog to the old Walthers MOW set using the Athearn 250 ton crane, a Derrick following car, a tool storage-converted box car, a renovated work caboose and a welding car built from a flat car. Don’t use them much at all, but they fit into my scheme and give some breadth to the rolling stock inventory.
Cedarwoodron
I have quite a bit of MoW equipment, but seldom have it all on the layout at the same time. I park various pieces of equipment where they don’t look out of place, and change them around from time to time, too. Every once in a while, I’ll run a train of them, perhaps for some weed spraying or track maintenance work, and sometimes just to move some equipment to where it’s “needed”…
Wayne
Hello all,
My pike is a 4’x8’ tabletop sitting on the bed in the spare/computer/train room.
Along one of the 8’ sides is a siding running the entire length, linked to the mainline oval by a crossover made from four Atlas Snap Switches.
I have other smaller sidings but none of this length.
Because of the limited space I “fiddle” entire trains on and off the pike.
My favorite M.O.W. train is the snow plow consist.
From the head-end there is a rotary plow with an F7B; that I powered, a steam generator car, a M.O.W. water tanker car, an RS11, a bay window caboose; converted to crew quarters, a transfer caboose; used as a tool car, a 65-foot flatcar with a wheel loader and a tracked backhoe, a BL2 with a second rotary plow on the tail end facing rearward.
The reason for so many locomotives is not only for pushing/pulling power for the rotary plows but also if the head-end plow gets stuck the train can be split into smaller trains.
If necessary the cars can be parked on a siding and all three locomotives; F7B, RS11 and the BL2 can be consisted to pull out the stuck rotary plow.
A boom crane and tender are also at hand in case of derailments or other heavy lifting duties.
There is also a fire fighting tanker car which can be used to douse any fires on the historic wooden sprial trestle along with the M.O.W. water tanker.
I also have a Difco side-dump car and a 70-ton Hart ballast car. I hope to someday include these in a track M.O.W. consist.
Hope this helps.
