Thanks guys. I hear ya George; I'm getting familiar with selective compression as I'm planning my model railroad. Kind of off topic here but I've decided to model The Gallup and Clovis Subs during the 90's. The specific area of the Gallup Sub I want to model is...you guessed it, Abo Canyon.
I thought it would be about 33 feet, but it is exact. I was surprised at that. I was going to model San Antonio East Yard at one time; it is two miles long and 33 tracks across. Out of the question. Most scenes require a little selective compression even if you have a lot of space. Here is a SLSF model of one of their yards in H0 scale. It was used to train new operators. Of course it is shortened, but AFAIK, all the tracks in the yard throat are there. Old pictures; I don't remember where I found them. It would be a heck of a model. Also, IIRC, it did not operate electrically.
Wow, I would never have guessed that. 33 ft seems so far for an N-scale train. Just out of curiosity, how long would a long freight train be in miles.
Flash, that yard is INSANE! If I were in a club, I'd show them these photos and we'd be getting to work. I'd love to see that modelled in N scale!
My town is set up in a 1 mile grid and there is a crossing every mile. There aren’t any real long trains coming through like I have seen running through Barstow, but I have seen them coming through with 3 grossing gates down, so I was thinking maybe 2 miles long, but I don’t know for sure. I don’t know why, but I just never thought of trains in miles before.
Sort of depends on what era and where... Nowadays... it wouldn't be unusual to see 100+ car trains with many 70' to 89' rolling stock in the consist. That could easily translate to a 1 to 1.5 mile long consist. If you go back to the transition era or before... most freight trains were probably less than 100 cars long and the consists had mainly 50' or shorter rolling stock. Those trains probably were 1/2 mile to 1 mile long. Another factor would have been the length of sidings on the prototype road which would limit the length of the train. Elevation (mountain grades) also limited the length of a consist in many places. Even with helpers... some consists were limited to the available power to 'get over the humps'. Shortlines or branchlines of major railroads might only need to shuttle up to a couple dozen cars to their destination... that would be less than a 1/4 mile long train... about 8' in N scale.
There was an article about the Southern Pacific Victoria Division in Texas in the Fall 2000 SP Trainline magazine that mentions a train I would not have wanted to wait at a crossing for.
Russ,one of these days I gotta count how many there were,but I taped a train coming through Cresson,PA in 2001 coming down from Horseshoe curve that was just outa hand.There were probably 120 or so cars,with ANOTHER who knows how mamy empty intermodal cars,spine cars,flats,wells,ETC,all empty,tacked onto the end.The empties were a train all by themself,probably 60-100 cars..The train [NS] was doing a good 50 MPH plus,took probably 3 minutes to pass..
If my memory hasnt failed me....most trains are restricted to 1 mile in length. This of course is for trains that will be crossing major streets. Most cities, towns, etc are set up on a 1 mile 'grid'. The thinking is that if there is a 'situation' the train will not be blocking but one major street at a time. Highway traffic still has precedent over rail traffic. Railroads are just a small cog in the wheel of life *sigh*. .
I'm surprised that no one has given the obvious answer: an N scale mile is (drum roll please) 5,280 N scale feet long! Terry
In my town they had to build two overpasses 4 miles apart in case a train breaks down the emergency vehicles could still get through.
