Well, as some of you know I’m rebuilding my yard, which was Concord, NH. I was talking with some friends however, and they suggested I combine the classification and staging yards. On the ride home I got thinking about that. Here’s my new operations plan for you to critique, the actual yard track plan is coming after that.
The yard will be located in White River Junction, actually across the river in Lebanon, NH. The track to the West will go across the river, and in my plan, trains will just run North on trackage rights bound for Montreal. To the east is my mainline to Concord, NH.
Those who are familier with my layout will note that this is changing a lot, as the yard is on the West end of the modeled section, instead of the Eastern end. Now the modeled trains will head through New Poland first, which used to be the last town before the staging yard. Part of the new yard is located on the former location of the staging yard.
In sessions, any train exiting the West end (bound for Montreal) of the layout out of the yard will reappear as a train from Concord, to the East, and vice versa. There will probably be one mixed train in each direction, and a steady flow of bare-table intermodal trains in one direction. (The loaded cars go a differant route, I’m using modeler’s license here because I don’t have sufficient funds to buy trailers) The local will still be a turn, running from White River Jct. (I abbreviate it to WRJ) Eastbound (yes, in the opposite direction out of the yard that it used to) to Stude, NH where it runs around on the passing siding and goes back. The pulpwood yard just east of Stude is also served by this train.
I would like to have transfer runs from the other railroads serving WRJ, but I lack staging capacity for these trains west of the yard, unless I carry over the location formerly known as West Concord (where the pulpwood yard is) to the WRJ end of the railroad and add a siding to visibly stage a transfer run from NECR. Remember that my yard
I would have set up the yard differently… I know you don’t have a huge amount of disposable resources…
The yellow is the mainline, the green is engine facilities, the red is your A/D, and the blue is the classification tracks. Westbound trains pull in, uncouple the lokz, run around on the track between the A/D and Classification tracks, and into engine servicing. The switcher would then drag the cars back onto the lead, and sort them on the classification tracks…
Looks good, but I don’t know about a few aspects of your design.
What is that large black box in the upper left area?
The locomotive facilities may have to be moved around a bit, but they should work. Remember that that area is on a pretty tight corner.
The switcher will work the East end, is that correct? That would mean the current yard throttle position wouldn’t work for the yard operator, as it’s located for no-movement access to the West ladder.
How many trains are you originating and terminating in the yard?
If its not too many lose the “A&D” track and just make them all “tracks”, all on the same lead. Only large yards have A&D tracks, with only 3 class tracks (one of which may be an intermodal track), you aren’t going to be doing much switching anyway.
I think I’ll do away with the factory, I think it will just confuse operators. I have a port to plug the throttle into, but it’s a bit buried under the benchwork… I’ll bring it out to the front where it belongs. That will defeat the purpase of the yard throttle, unless I have a switcher on the West end as well.
The A/D tracks weren’t just for arriving and departing trains, they’ll probably be used for classifying cars. I should have labeled the other ones “storage”…
This yard will origanate and termanate one local turn, and take blocks off one through freight in each direction for the local.The yard will have to be able to handle the cars off the through freights and work on the local. I haven’t yet figured out the schedule, but I’m fairly certain that there won’t be any more than one train in the yard at a time. Run-through traffic will be an intermodel train, but that just bypasses the yard on the mainline.
I’m planing to control trains with “crew-change” points just outside of the yard, to control traffic so that the yard and/or the single track pass just east of the yard don’tget swamped with traffic. The dispatcher will have to tightly control traffic, because I don’t have too many sidings if things get bad… I’m going to miss my staging yard… Would you reccomend adding more siding capacity on the curve just east of the yard? That’s the current location of the staging yard. (I haven’t torn it up yet, although I’ve almost finished the yard.)
I think I’ll probably go with Alex’s design (a little modified to remove the random factory and add some more locomotive/freightcar servicing facilities), unless anyone has a better one?
It will still be a long time before I can start building, as I’ve only got almost all of the classification yard up, and there’s still the staging yard to go, although none of that is sceniced, so I won’t have to scrape up the ballast and pull up th
For such a small yard you probably don’t need an engine shop, just a setup for fuel, sand, and a small mechanic’s shack for lube oil and service parts. The engine lead can also act as a switcher pocket if you need one. I would keep the A/D function of the siding, as you don’t want to ever block the main and incur the wrath of the DS. The idea of the separate tail for a drill track has merit, but if your siding is long enough, the drill is not necessary. Overall, a neat little yard, enjoy! jc5729 John Colley, Port Townsend, WA
You’re right, such a small yard wouldn’t need a large locomotive facility. I was thinking this is the railroad’s main locomotive facility. I’m modeling a freelanced shortline running from Concord, NH to White River Jct, VT, a distance of about 75 miles. The railroad’s shops have to be at either Concord or WRJ, and I thought they’d be neat to model.
I’m going to have one track for basic locomotive servicing, and a longer track into a building (probably one of the Walthers buildings, if I can find a cheap one) for locomotive and freightcar repair. I have a single Impack unit (this one car doesn’t match the rest) that I’ll have up on blocks, and I’ll also have a long track for my MOW equipment. I’ll probably also provide a track for all the “junk” that a typical shop gathers, such as old freightcars and locomotives as parts sources.
Structures I’ll have to buy include a fueling facility, some sort of shop structure, and possibly a sanding tower. I already have a shed that will work great for the parts and lube shed.
I don’t know what you mean about the A/D function of the siding so as not to block the main. This yard isn’t connected to the main except for the crossovers at the end of both drill tracks. That wouldn’t really clog up the main. I’m going to keep all three A/D tracks for extra capacity, especially if I need to cram two trains in the yard at the same time. It can hold three trains, but it would start to feel a little tight.
Actually, I would remove the A/D tracks. A good yard master should be able to use just the class tracks to sort trains. It would also add some interest in operating, kind of like a puzzle for the yard master to solve. I think you’d be able to get by with one large class yard, and a much smaller separate yard for your TOFC trains, or maybe even the last track in your yard could be used for this. You only have 3 classification tracks, and 3 A/D tracks, your A/D probably won’t be full all the time, but your Class tracks might get filled up quick. I would also recommend that the drill track be completely separate from the siding. It’s not fun when you have a east bound train in the siding, with your yard engine in the hole waiting for a west bound freight, when you have to get 2 or 3 trains to get sorted…
Had a look around your blopspot web site and read what you posted here, but I suspect that I still haven’t understood quite what you are saying about your needs and what you have available.
To see if I have understood you, based on what I have gotten from things you have written here and on your web s
Well, the blog hasn’t been updated yet to show the new operating scheme…
The yard design is totally freelanced, but I’m locating it in Lebanon, NH. White River Junction is just across the river. I was naming it White River Jct. so that visitors who aren’t familier with the area won’t get confused.
The yard is located on the Western end of the layout. The tracks go west towards White River Junction, but in reality the trains reappear as trains from Concord, to the east.
The yard lead goes West to an unmodeled crossover, in reality the crossover is in Stude, after the trains reappear.
The track goes east through New Poland, over the pass, through Dooley and Stude, and eventually they reappear as eastbound trains in White River Junction/Lebanon.
The yard functions as a place where I can take blocks off through trains for local delivery, making up locals from those, and sorting cars from the locals into Eastbound and Westbound blocks to put on the next through train in that direction.
It also holds blocks of cars off the local until the through freight arrives, and holds blocks of cars off the through freight until it’s time to put the local together.
The yard also houses as the main maintanence facilities for the White River Southern Railroad.
Here are the answers to the rest of your questions:
How big is the area available for the yard? The new location is both the former yard location as well as the old staging yard. The old staging yard was on a curve, so it won’t work well for a yard ladder. That’s the servicing facilities.
Are you planning to also use the double ended siding for train meets or can it be used exclusively as a switching lead/yard approach track? The yard has a drill track on either end, and it will be used for arriving trains to pull in on as well as the yard switcher. No through trains will be held on it.
Normally a yard would have a caboose track. It may not be a reasonable or practical thing to have in your situation, but I thought I’d mention that I don’t see one. If your era is after 1975 or so, I suppose it doesn’t matter.
Oh yeah… My railroad is set in 1997, but the local turn still runs with a caboose, as do a few through trains. I’ll probably add one of those near the locomotive facility.
While the A/D tracks aren’t necessary, I added them to sort of keep a organised operation… A freight comes onto the A/D track, sets out its cars, and continues on its way, or cut off, and if its a westbound head directly into servicing, but if its an eastbound, can runaround on the track betweent the A/D and classification tracks… The switcher can drag the cars off the A/D onto the lead, and break them up in the classification tracks, then when he has assembled a train, can place it on one of the A/D Tracks. A Locomotive(s) can then come off the Servicing tracks and couple right onto their train… If you were going to do the intermodal track, you might consider extending the last classification track as far as it will go, and put a parking lottish thing there…
Tyler, you’ve got the right idea, but the prototypes rarely would sit still for stub ended tracks.
Why not move the diresel shop (a single track) to the rear, near the backdrop, and make your classification tracks double ended. If you can only get two classification tracks to be double ended, then so be it…the third could wind up being your caboose track or a rip (repair in place) track.
By making yards double ended, railroads could work either end for maximum efficiency. Trains arriving and departing were generaly kept out of the classification tracks, and a shortage of those tracks means nothing, since railroads frequently used a single track for classification and holding of cars for multiple destinations.
Also, by using the same switch geometry, i.e., all No. 5’s on both ends, etc. then the yard track spacing will be identical and the yard should then look “right”.
If your yard is intended only to add or remove blocks of cars from through trains, then the size would be correct, but it would be imperative that switchers could work from both ends.
You could easily designate the “A/D” tracks as the “Eastbound Arrival/Departure” and the “Westbound Arrival/Departure”. A yard tower or single story yardmaster’s office would sit near them.
I’ve worked many a night in a small yard like this on the SP, and currently I run past a small yard in San Antonio, TX that has only three tracks for classification of cars, but the men and women who do the work seem to get it done with little problem.
I could go for double ended classification tracks, but I don’t think they’re really neccisary in my case. My previous yard had them, and to tell the truth I always worked from one end. Those switches on the East end were pretty much untouched by the yard job.
I don’t think I have enough traffic (I couldn’t get enough operators anyway) to have two switchers. This is a pretty small yard. The old yard had a bit of activity at the beginning and the end of each session, but during most of it the yard sat idle. This is going to change of course, with the addition of another through train, but I don’t think it will increase traffic enough to require another switcher.
A backlog of classification work is actually good, in my opinion, because after the through freights leave after dropping off and picking up cars, there’s really nothing to do until the local gets back with local cars. A backlog of cars to be sorted would keep the yard operator from getting bored.
Currently the locomotive shop location (only the lead is in so far though) is on a curve where I couldn’t put a yard ladder even if I wanted to. I’m happy with where it is right now. Moving it wouldn’t give me any advantage.
The switches are salvaged from my last yard, and are standardized by track type. The A/D tracks have #6s, as do the leads, while the classification tracks have #4s, as I really didn’t want to have to invest in more #6s. My last yard had #4s on the A/D tracks too, and it worked fine.
Well, you didn’t actually answer my question about how big the area available for the yard was (as in how many inches deep and how many inches or feet long), but here is an attempt to sketch out your friend Alex’s plan, after making these assumptions:
Your cars are on average 50-foot cars, not 89-foot cars …
You would like to hold a couple of 5-6 car cuts and a 10-car cut without fouling the main
Turnouts are mostly no 6, with a few no4 for the topmost single ended tracks
So - do you have 16-18 feet of length for the yard scene ?
Here is another yard in that size range - based on the Vermont Railway’s Burlington, VT, yard:
Quick explanation of design parameters for this yard, quoted from a post I made in the thread “modern modelgenic yards” back at the end of July 2008:
Vermont Railway’s Burlington, VT yard could be compressed quite a bit and still retain a fairly prototypical feel.According to information I received from a forum regular very familiar with that yard a few months ago, it handles two kinds of trains - 30 car trains and 10 car trains.
At least half of the yard’s capacity is used for local industries and off spot storage, including team track handling of different commodities. It has a small engine facility, and MOW & RIP tracks.
Those points are basicly correct. I actually have almost finished laying the yard, so I’ll post photos and see what you guys can do for modifying that plan. I like the way it looks and it should be easy to operate.
I may add switches on the ends of the single ended tracks, as it doesn’t decrease how long they are, plus I don’t want to feel limited to one end of the yard. I’m going to work on the yard some more tonight, when I’ll get photos for you.
All the way back against the wall. Switch to locomotive facility is in the foreground, as is the tail track for the DDWH interchange on the other side of the backdrop. The hole in the backdrop for that will be covered by a building, which I’ll have to kitbash or something to make it fit. The Chessie U23B (currently WRS 2306) is in the locomotive servicing facility, which hasn’t been added. I’m waiting to finish the track there till my Pikestuff engine house comes in.
Furthest East end looking West. The second track by the backdrop is the yard lead, which joins the mainline about a foot off the right edge of the photo. The Chessie U23B can give you a good idea of how long the yard lead is when you compare it to the photo of the unit and the yard.
Just playing around with my new yard and my new unit (freshly repainted, anyway) as the yard switcher. This unit will probably either work the yard, a mainline train, or the local turn.
Just wanted to BUMP this up… I’m hoping to start working on scenery in this area soon, but I want to make sure I won’t want to change anything before I go ahead and make the trackwork semi-perminant. I think I’ll order some stuff for the yard tonight, like my Pikestuff 1 stall enginehouse and Caboose Hobbies ground throws… Not to mention finishing the ceiling above the layout with plastic sheeting.
