Finally got the track laid and a few building built for my new 8X5 N layout. Being Googling trying to find a photo of what trackside refueling station look like today…most fueling equipment you can buy also has the sand tower or the coloum type refueling facility and I know that’s not right…so anyone can help? Thanks…
There are some decent shots of the fuel racks at Union Pacific’s (nee Espee) Kirby yard near San Antonio. I have done quite a bit of railfanning here. Great place for it!!
Are you talkingabout refueling/service facilities in a yard engine terminal? Or the mainline refueling ‘pad’ systems like used on the UP and BNSF?
There are a lot of the former type facilities available in HO model form. The mainline fuel pads will have to be custom fabricated using lot’s of the parts in the engine terminal facilities. These facilities have multiple fuel/sand recepticles on each track to speed up sevicing…
Jim
Around here, the fueling facility is a contract fuel truck (semi-truck or bobtail) that comes into the yard.
I don’t have the photo, but a couple months ago, in Trains Mag, they showed a trackside refueling operation, that was just a tank car on a siding next to the mainline, with a fuel hose hooked up to it, and simple gravity feed.
One of the page that came up in my research was a company doing exactly that! Very interesting, must be cheaper for the railway to do that. That particular company will even roll up their truck anywhere on the line to do refuel!
Hi JIm,
To be honest, I don’t even know the difference on the two types you mentioned…haven’t seen much of either at all…the one I want to do is what seems a roll of pumps and lights alone-side the entry to an yard. I am starting to realise that I will have to custom fabricate that or kit bash for N scale.
I noticed the same thing in Danville, KY. NS has a fuel truck come into the north part of the yard and fills up trains heading south bound.
Iceman,
Once the snow melts around here, I know where there’s a road that I can get right next to the CSX fueling platform of the Collinwood yard. The road runs parallel to the track (E–>W) and is quite accessible to traffic - with no fence. I’ll see what I can do. Maybe this weekend…
Tom
Did you see the facility in the pics from the link I provided above? It sounds like that is very close to what you are looking for. If you go to the last page of the album in the link, there are several more photos which are a little closer and give some more detail.
Thanks for that buddy! Even though I realised that I have to custom make some but if I have close-ups of the prototype, it would make my life a lot easier! 
Yes I did thanks! It’s very similar to what I want but the piping seems hard fo N scale…so I might just do the ones that just have the pumps…sort of like the ones in gas stations but without the counter if that mnakes sense…
I understand what you are saying. The example in the photographs would have a large footprint if you did it to scale. There are fuling facilities at the “east” and “west” end of Kirby yard. It all seems elaborate to me, and would make for a heck of a scratch build in N scale (or any scale for that matter).
Good luck on your project, and keep us updated on the progress.
I am planning to put it at the entrance to my intermodal yard so hopefully it would be as easy as putting in a few lights and a few scratch built pump…
Kibri makes one of these, what do you think? Do you think I can sneak that in as ‘modern’?
I don’t have photos but if you want to buy a diesel and sanding kit you can look at Heljans webpage http://www.heljan.dk/faste_filer/modul.asp?vis=varekatalog&doo=vare&vareid=1742&gruppeid=17
On my scanner, I often hear dispatchers asking engineers what their fuel situation is. I don’t know what they have in mind, but it sounds like they might be trying to arrange fuel delivery down the road somewhere.
Here is one of a CSX and NS in action:
Cool!
One question, are those fueling tower or sanding tower? I always not sure which is which…
Those silver towers are sanding towers. Fuel would be pumped into the fuel tanks on the engine at about waist high level. The photo show a terminal engine service facility. Engines would be uncoupled and moved to this facility for servicing.
Jim
MR has an online article about a service facility. Here is a link:
http://www.trains.com/mrr/objects/pdf/op0407_bonus2.pdf
Jim