Over on the N forum we've been talking about small layouts, and switchbacks, and tight curves. In my job I've seen some really insane situations in the field, things that aren't ever supposed to be done, and found even more that USED to be there in the past. Whatever you've seen and can show examples of - that 'conventional wisdom' says simply isn't done - post it here. We all know about Tehachapi, that doesn't count, but there are thousands of situations out there that we've all been told 'aren't prototype' and are done all the time. Bring us your wierd, your improbable, your questionable designs, your 'track most like a bad model railroad layout'.... and find a welcome home here. Photos, maps, Google Earth views, we'll take 'em all. 1) You can never have too many switchbacks - look right under the map title. This is in central PA just north of Bellefonte on the PRR (not a logging railroad!), and was a legend in its time. Who needs a helix? http://historical.mytopo.com/getImage.asp?fname=blft09nw.jpg&state=PA 2) Also in PA: Two perfect prototypes for the roundy-roundy, also in the Clearfield coal district: a) It's not two railroads, its a big reverse loop, and its still there today: MSRMaps b) Everything but the Christmas tree in the middle of the 4x8 oval - you know you've seen this layout somewhere, with the town in the middle and two crossings on the same track?: MSRMaps Hmmm. I need a stubby short-ended storage yard....built over a creek, with a whole bunch of deck girder bridges!.... Let's do Akron, OH! MSRMaps C'mon people, lets loose the fear of being laughed at on our track plans. Laugh at the real stuff!
No Run-around? I don't have a prototype; I have a model question. I had a friend who failed to create a run-around for switching a town. He always had to switch on the main line to get the work done. It was wonderfully modeled, scenicked, etc., so he didn't want to go in and tear it out, but he was always so embarrassed that he had failed to consider a run-around in this location. I told him that there were probably lots of places where the main was fouled during switching because of something like that. No worries! Was this a correct statement? My friend always felt so bad about that, I hoped there was a prototype for that somewhere. Good topic.
Flash I have switched some towns off the main. Washington Iowa comes to mind.There are a few spurs there right off the main with no run around or passing tracks.
Before "casting in concrete" the track w/ ballast, scenery & structures loosely tack the track down. That way you can ID switching problems w/ your track plan w/o having to tear everything down or regretting all that damn concrete.
Look up Murphy's Road or something to that effect...the standard guage line up to Crown King Arizona. It took something like 8 million dollars to build, but it made 33 million or so with all the metal they hauled out...the roadbed is now a dirt road.
San Antonio East Yard Lead The Espee Sunset Route runs left and right across the top of the picture. The East Yard has/had about 30 tracks south of the main line; the longest was about 9000 feet. Real estate was at a premium on the west end, so Espee built a 180 degree yard lead at the west end of the yard. It is pictured below. The curve has approximately a 450 foot radius (140 meters) and 30-50 cars are pulled at one time to be classified in the yard. I first saw this East Yard lead in 1972. It is the old Espee lead that used RSD5s, GP9s, and SW-types to switch the yard. Union Pacific uses the yard now and I have seen two UP tunnel motors switching a string of cars using this lead. The steel wheels were really screeching! Switching here will/is probably a thing of the past. I have modeled this on my layout using a 24 inch radius in N scale although an 18 inch radius would be more prototypical. I would suppose that a 180 degree curve for a yard lead is unusual.
Yeah, that's what I'm talkin' about! That's NUTS! I'm not picking on the PRR. Really. Just seems that way. But here's another one right off of somebody's layout where the guys are snickering about the design of this one: That's main line, by the way - Oil City, PA - coming up the Allegheny River with the wye in the middle; left to Titusville, right to Olean. The bridge is still there. For modeling purposes, the aisle goes in the river! Uh, can I put a reverse S curve on the main line in a river with a switch on a bridge? What triggered this memory was switching on the main... the line in that shot extended up the river and was truncated between Warren, PA and Olean NY in 1965 with the construction of the Allegheny Reservoir. That line north from Oil City only had two customers left on it, my fathers sawmill at West Hickory, and a lumberyard at Tidioute. By PC years, everything at Tidioute was gone and they unloaded the cars on the main, with a once-a-week trip. All switches were gone. If they had a load and empty in the same week, they had to double-trip nine miles south to the nearest passing siding, and repeat the move. A 36-mile car exchange for the lack of a turnout!
We Pennsylvanians are an inventive lot aren't we? I've been through Burnside once. I will have to make a trip up to Oil City this summer when I'm in Clarion to take a look at that bridge, or whats left of it most likely. Another PA one. I don't have a picture, but I've always thought it odd that in Ridgeway, there isn't a bridge over the river connecting the line from Brockway to the line from St. Marys. I've seen the same train on both lines, and to do so it has to go over 10 miles upstream to Johnsonburg where they meet north of town, and another 10 miles back down. I ate my lunch leisurely and got gas at the Sheetz in that amount of time. http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&c...code_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CAoQ8gEwAA
At Ridgeway, that's at least the legacy of three different railroad companies merged (BR&P/B&O/CSX with PRR/PC/CR) They are putting in a new connection at Johnsonburg as it is so awkward. Chris has put a ground level 50's shot of Griffith, IN in for worst grade crossing/diamond situation of all time, I can't beat that, but can't find it either. I think we counted 17 diamonds in the 50's shot.
Overpass at old Oakland Army Base I don't have a good ground level photo, but this is from Google Maps The red line I drew is a curved up / over / down track at the entrance to the big Oakland yard, at the old Oakland Army Base. Something close to or greater than 10%. Someone else here might know the specifics, it just always amazes me when I drive by on the freeway.
There is a rather new concrete plant beside the UP line near Hockley, TX, that has a rather cool roundy-round. Rail cars of rock and sand switch off the main, go around the circle, through the unloader and back to the main. It's in a flat open field and can be seen from Hwy 290. I could not find it on google maps, it's too new to be on there.
Here's another one of my lifetime favorites. This is from a steel mill in the midwest. This was a rolling mill building. If you look around the center, you'll see a track parallel to some long buildings, with what looks like a very small passing siding bumping into the side of one of the buildings, across a road. What's up with that? From the ground, this kinda dropped my jaw. Each spur track reverses into opposite ends of the building, in the SIDE of the building, with two switches AND a diamond. And as you can see from the sky view, this is UNDER THE ROOF. This seriously looks like a really bad attempt to build in hidden staging yard in the side of a building. Wouldn't you laugh if you saw this on a layout with a train coming out of it? Or two in opposite directions? No, I won't identify where it is, or confirm your guesses. I wasn't tresspassing, but they don't want these kind of pictures published. Just enjoy the track design insanity.
Your description of the concrete plant sounds a lot like the mile long loop of track near Meridan Illinois: This loop of track is adjacent to the BNSF main (Mendota Sub) and usually has a mile's worth of covered grain hoppers on it. It is located near Meridan Illinois, just to the east of Interstate 39 MP72 and about 10 miles north of MP79 on Interstate 80. Edit: A big Thank You to Fireball Magee for identifying the RR and material.
This is for all the guys that get stressed out on perfect tracklaying.....or straight poles. (this was the ACTIVE Texas transportation company track in San Antonio, about 1993-4, one of the last electric common carriers. It also had the absolute worst track I've ever seen in active freight service.... This is beside the SP main line in San Antonio. This was the electric common carrier between Sunset Station and the Pearl Brewery. Pearl was the only customer, with boxcars of beer. This is the 'backwards' shot from that curve above, looking back up the grade. I saw them running over this track later the same day. Yeah. Beer. Glass bottles. Shaken, not stirred. Sadly, gone now. But I've never even seen pictures of a logging railroad that bad. In N scale, use bacon as subroadbed.
Wow! Looks like they didn't even bother to GRADE it, let alone build anything that could be called a roadbed...
Often Mapquest has more up-to-date images than Google Maps: Map of Loop near Hockley, Texas by MapQuest
Here's on AEP power plant in charleston wv http://www.mapquest.com/maps?state=WV&country=US&latitude=38.703281&longitude=-80.7313&geocode=STATE
Well when I get my hands on Mike Zollitsch's BR&P books (I'm hoping next week), hopefully that will be detailed in Vol. 2. Or i'll have to wait for vol. 3, lol.
