Hi Everyone
What is the consenus for making a yard on a curve? The yard would consists
of three tracks for an ethanol yard.
Thanks,
Chris
There are many examples of curved industrial tracks and switching facilities…or yards if you will. The road and customer agree on what needs doing, and then they do it. So should you…?
I think curved yards look fantastic, and their are plenty of prototype examples.
.
I will intentionally curve the yard on my next layout, about at a 12 foot radius.
.
Straight tracks are boring.
.
-Kevin
.
Curved yards are a pain, track center lines need more width, magnetic uncoupling and coupling (I use Kadee #5 and #58) is not the best. I have curved yards and would not change a thing about them, like the S&G said above, ‘‘Straight is boring’’.
I think it’s fine, as long as you don’t have the ladder on the curve as cars will not coupler easily. Also leave a bit more spacing than you normally would to account for overhand of longer cars. Otherwise it should look fine, and be quite visually interesting.
Hi PC101,
Great response! After reading the first sentence I figured you were going to be another ‘nay sayer’ and you were about to start spouting rules! Fooled me!!
Thanks for the laugh, and, by the way, I totally agree - straight is boring.
Cheers!!
Dave
I had a curved yard on my last layout because I had to. I really had nowhere else to put it. I will concede that it is visually more interesting than a straight yard, and my only real problem was trying to couple or uncouple on a curve. One other problem though was derailments that mostly occurred through my own fault. But, trying to rerail cars on a curve can be a real challenge. So, in my experience, they are best avoided if alternatives are available.
Here is a photo of my curved yard on my last layout. It was a double ended yard.
Rich
While I would avoid a curved yard, it certainly can work (and add interest) if the curve is “small”, as in Richhotrain’s beautiful example earlier. Tighter curves will fight coupling and uncoupling for sure.
The OP suggests his is for a 3 track industry yard. Well, will that be utilized a lot, or infrequently? If its more for “show than go”, then I would leave it be.
D&RGW had a curved yard in Helper UT so they are prototypical.
I have designed a layout with a curve in the yard but there are long straight sections on either side of the curve that will facilitate coupling/uncoupling.
I put curved tracks in my large NP yard on my South Carolina layout, and it looked great! Here it is:
It didn’t get much beyond this point before being taken down, unfortuantely.
The curves were large radius (for HO) - the inner-most track, the mainline, was 80" radius. The third track in, which was the first body track, had a radius of 85 inches. Each track after was 2" larger radius. Because of the large radius, I had no need to separate the tracks in the curves more than my standard 2".
An ethanol yard requires switching.Hoppers of corn come in and they have to pass over the scale and then be emptied and then moved out of the way.
A train of empty tank cars comes in and if they are smart (they seldom are) they will take the empty hoppers away.
The ethanol plant in tow has two long tracks that loop around on themselves for storing empty cars. The loop is simply because they could not buy land in a straight line.
Tank cars are brought a few at a time to the filling post, and then pulled further west for holding. The Red Trail locomotive would be hard pressed to move full trains of anything.
ROAR
What everyone has been warning of is particularly important for an ethanol facility. The tank cars are generally pretty long, so you may have problems with coupling and uncoupling. The need for extra space between tracks will be more apparent, too.
Hi Chris,
I thought the (free pdf) Model Railroader download supplement, “Freight yard design and operation” by Paul J Dolkos was a good example of a Yard on a graceful curve, especially enhanced by handlaid Turnouts. I certainly found it inspiring. Paul
On my tiny layout, I had to improvise, my two A/D tracks are a 180 curve and while my yard ladder is straight there is a balloon track around my roundhouse that doubles as my yard lead.
My Dads Cousins use to be railroaders in the Canadian Rockies and even as a youngster I remember the shop talk of convoluted rail yards they had to deal with through the passes due to the impossible terrain that was presented to the planning dept.
.
Yes, that is a great example.
.
I hope my 144" radius curve for the yard is large and graceful enough to be appealing and not have trouble with coupling or uncoupling.
.
-Kevin
.
My last layout had a yard on a curve, it worked fine.
My next layout will have a straight yard, but the ladders on both ends will be sweeping pinwheel curves.
Sheldon