Comments wanted for switching layout

[rdemattio91]

Originally Posted by Selector

You are thinking more of walking or driving, maybe, but in the prototype rails and on our hobby layouts, it is merely a siding with a turnout at each end that allows the engine to escape, including via the track on which it first dragged the cars with the engine leading.

Suppose you come to what are called 'facing points', where you have to drop off some cars trailing you. It might be a sawmill, say. It is a small operation, and there is only the one spur into the property, and because you are leading, you must tow all the train into the spur....hopefully nothing too long because you don't want to confound your work in the property, but you also don't want to have to leave a chunk of your consist out on the main blocking traffic.

For our purposes, it is you, the locomotive, and six cars. You leave the main by taking the facing points diverging into the sawmill's spur. If there is just the one in-and-out track leading from the main via that facing point turnout, how will you drop the cars and get back to towing the rest of the train to points beyond? The solution is to have a 'run-around' track. Think of a smallish siding paralleling the track on which you entered the property, but this one has a turnout at each end allowing the locomotive to enter that siding at either end. If you lead cars in, you drop them between the turnouts on the runaround, but on the parallel spur, proceed past the far turnout, back down that run-around, through the first turnout, line the points for the through route once more, and shove the string of cars you just dropped forward toward hoppers or loading ramps.

Note that the need for run-around functions is critical in large classification and switching yards where there are often long strings of cars being coupled to form long mainline trains. Often this can be done by backing out to a ladder lead and taking the next free track over. Sometimes there really are short run-around tracks meant to be left clear for just that purpose.

Thanks alot, that cleared it up tremendously!

[Iron Horseman]

A good reminder of how jargon we throw around every day is meaningless or even confusing to new comers.

[cuyama]

Originally Posted by Iron Horseman

A good reminder of how jargon we throw around every day is meaningless or even confusing to new comers.

... and how important a basic foundational text like Armstrong's Track Planning for Realistic Operation is for anyone planning to design their own layout. Runarounds, facing and trailing points, etc. are all explained in the first chapter or two.

[railfan]

Glad I tuned in for the lesson on runarounds. Makes a lot of sense now.



Mike

[Mr. Switcher]

Hey Chris,
thanx for your feedback. I guess my ambition to make the layout a bit prototypical is a little far fetched. Given my restricted space I guess I prefer to squeeze in fun operations rather than go strictly for a prototypical operation (not saying that prototypical operations are not fun!). Model railroading always involves some kind of reduction, of course, and I guess that in this case I will also have to reduce the prototypical aspect. I wanted to be able to do some puzzle solving (like John Allens timesaver) since it's an easy way to add operational principles to a layout immediatly when you're no expert. But I also wanted to not be restricted to only making puzzles - I guess that's where the challenge lies :-)

Regarding the trackplan I'll try to prolong the spurs - as you suggest - in order to have more options to spot cars :-)

[Burlington Bob]

By cuyama:

... and how important a basic foundational text like Armstrong's Track Planning for Realistic Operation is for anyone planning to design their own layout.

This book is more important than any locos or rolling stock that anyone new to the hobby could buy. It is an excellent primer on the how and why of prototype track arrangement and how they are operated. Without this book you will be guessing at the way things are done in real life.

[rdemattio91]

Originally Posted by Burlington Bob

By cuyama:

This book is more important than any locos or rolling stock that anyone new to the hobby could buy. It is an excellent primer on the how and why of prototype track arrangement and how they are operated. Without this book you will be guessing at the way things are done in real life.

I actually have that book but it seems way to in depth and I get bored of it real quick. Maybe I need to chain myself down and read a few pages every day. I also have HO model railroad from start to finish. I read that one, its a little easier.

[Beachbum]

A recent proto example of an industrial park with no runaround was Progressive Rail at Airlake (?) Park in Minnesota. They did use two switch engines. (Details were published in Model Railroader a few years ago along with a trackplan. You can probably Google it.) I think I read though that they've since added a runaround somewhere.

If you don't want a runaround, don't use one. But I think it would be very difficult to operate without DCC in that case - DC blocking would probably be a PITA.

[Burlington Bob]

By rdemattio91:

Maybe I need to chain myself down and read a few pages every day.

I never sat down and read it front to back, but rather skipped around and read a little here and there. Pretty soon things will start to click and what was cloudy and unclear will start to make sense. I would especially recommend the chapters on yards and operations, but the whole book is really a "must read".

[Burlington Bob]

One way of switching an area with a mixture of facing and trailing point spurs is by doing a Dutch Drop, but this is impossible to do with model trains and was frowned upon in the best of circumstances on the prototypes. I've seen it done a couple of times in my hometown back in the late 60's and early 70's but not since.