Hello all. After several years away from the hobby I am returning to model railroading and looking to build a new layout. I have a question about a facing point turnout and a single locomotive. On the prototype would a single locomotive train ever be able to work a facing point turnout without a runaround track? If so, how would they handle it? It seems that you might be able to pick up cars and push them ahead of the locomotive, but would never be able to set out cars because you can't get back around them to get back to the train. In case my terminology is wrong, in the link below if the train were approaching from the west and wanted to set out cars in that siding and only had one locomotive at the head of the train, how would they do it? https://www.google.com/maps/@36.0129602,-88.3903751,213m/data=!3m1!1e3
1988 - just before health and safety was invented... That’s an astonishing manoeuvre - how does the guy hanging off the rear platform get the coupling unhooked? Donald Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
The loco slows down briefly , the brakeman lifts the lever , and then the loco accelerates ahead so the switch can be thrown before the cars get there .
That's how they used to do it at a factory spur next to where my wife grew up in the 70's. They always made a point of clearing out all of the kids from the vicinity due to the risk. When the maneuver was no longer allowed, they had to proceed further into town to the next (passing) siding. The car(s) for the facing point switch were at the end of the train - they would either cut them off the end and run them back to where they belonged, or they would leave them on the siding, then pick them back up on the return and drop them off then. That spur sat idle for many years but then started being used again recently as a transload location for drill pipe. It was often the last drop-off destination on the line - the only industry beyond it is a propane storage facility requiring infrequent service. Initially the railroad would put a loco on both ends of the train to handle the maneuver. They did that for about two years and then eventually tied the other end of the spur back to the main so that they only needed to use one loco.
