The "I can't believe its actually prototype" design thread

Here is something only a modeler would do, switching a scale test car with passenger cars on badly hand laid track.

This is the west yard lead of the Great Western Railway, Loveland CO, December 2005. On the head end were two ex-SP SD9s in GW and NWP livery. The SD9's truck equalization got a workout. I don't know of a model that would run through track this bad.



Some years ago this track did receive a little attention.

 

Anytime you're trying to figure stuff like this out (at least in the Northeast) go to MyTopo: Historical Topographic Maps and dig out the old USGS quads. This is the Ridgeway / Johnsonburg area around 1945. It shows B&O, PRR, and Shawmut, much of which is gone, but identifies how they 'swapped sides of the valley' in Johnsonburg with the high bridge.

http://historical.mytopo.com/getImage.asp?fname=rdgy44nw.jpg&state=PA

I find all kinds of wierd stuff in old topos that I can't even image how they did, let alone why.

Check out the wierd balloon track/wye with diamonds on the Buffalo & Susquehanna / B&O / later the WAG at Galeton:
http://historical.mytopo.com/getImage.asp?fname=gltn47nw.jpg&state=PA

I was wandering through the thick weeds on the WAG in 1974 and literally fell over a diamond in the Galeton yard and couldn't even figure out what it was doing there or see far enough to tell. They made a junction and threw it over itself like a figure-8 model track plan. I tried to take pictures but all you could see was weeds.

 

I remember this! A big curved wood trestle, correct? I used to deliver to the OAB years ago. Close by, there were some stored rr equipment, one was WP F7 918.

 

The Hiwassee Loop on the old L&N line near Farner, TN is unique as it loops around a hill a couple times to gain elevation before heading out across a trestle bridge. I thought this would be fun to model sometime. The Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum has excursions to the Loop.

 

I've heard about that loop but it's a whole different ballgame from the air. Wow! It looks just like an Atlas track plan! In a basement setting, the steel support column for the house goes in the middle of that mountain, right?

 

I think this is my new favorite site of all time, lol.

Its like Cheat Junction on drugs!, lol. Really good ones!

I love the round and round the hill in TN, I wish I knew more about this stuff, lol.

 

Speaking of 1:1 loops, here's another one.

http://alaskarails.org/historical/the-loop/index.html

Brian

 

Are you talking about the John Amos power plant? It's in Nitro. Your map only shows the state level.

 

I have always been a fan of "weird" trackage and have seen alot of it in my career.

At Janesville, Wisconsin in the 1970s the CNW (in order to speed the turning of bi and tri level autoracks for their GMAD automobile business) replaced a turntable with a loop/wye addition. There were two yard leads one for the North yard and one for the South yard. They pushed the North yard lead out into a bean field producing a "buldge" in the track in order to accomodate a balloon track(reverse loop) along with a wye on one side. The movement to get autoparts cars down to the GM plant was even more interesting involving a triple switchback. You can see it all on Goggle Earth.

In addition, up the main north to Madison about half way is a new, single, reverse loop south of Evansville for a rather small grain facility.

Barry

 

Here's High Falls Curve south of Elkins, WV on the same exact line that Cheat Jct was on, just south of it. This is just how sharp a 33-degree curve is. I snapped the tool measurement on it.

Works out to about a 13" radius curve in N.

This is now on the West Virginia Central, and you can ride their excursion down to it. This is the curve we derailed on with the hirail.



With that 180-degree, you just put the backdrop up on the hillside as a scenic divider and there's your peninsula.....

 

A bit of a urban tunnel. C&NW Line That Traveled on a Trestle over the River and Through a Building!

 

To PPUINN that is the Medota Sub of BNSF. That is a grain elevator on a loop.I never did get a train out of there,but I did out of Galva. Over on the Santa Fe had one at Ransom Il and Ruff Brothers grain ( cant remember the town it was near) Common operation was to pull in around the loop and lock up the main line. Then the elevator people take over the train and load it out.Takes about a day or so depending on how quick they are.


Over at Deere in E Moline the BN in their infinite wisdom tore out a switch to a runaround after a derailment.So now when pulling combines you have to back out on the main.Shove the cut ahead over a crossover switch. Line the crossovers and drag back up a tail track ( part of the old runaround) you have room for one loco and 8 flats.Then line the inside crossover and shove ahead. Now this is a pain if you have more than 8 cars sawing away back and forth. Plus on the tail the weeds are so deep you cant see the rail and its a wobbly ride.Plus your going over a busy crossing 3 times and at shift change the workers dont lookout for you.

 

Yes that is it.

 

Here, I also had these over on the N side:

A curved, self-guarded frog switch, with the points nearly in the street: Petaluma, CA on the old Petaluma & Santa Rosa; so that's a 'main line' turnout on the wider curve side. Note that isn't some ancient design, thats new material there folks:



P&SR was a hotbed of wierdness....another odd feature was the only place I've ever seen a classification and switch yard in the middle of a street - "First Street" in Petaluma, featuring three parallel tracks the entire distance of the street, with crossovers, and not only that - self-guarded frogs that gave every vehicle a pounding to within an inch of its life. Never seen anything like that before or since in street trackage!



There's more P&SR wierdness/goodness, too.

 

You know, I was sitting here thinking, "What's so weird about the trackage at the John Amos plant?"

Then I went to Google and switched to map mode. HOLY COW! Spaghetti Bowl City!

Actually, that would make a pretty cool NTrack Module...

 

I'm going to have to look for this. I work in Petaluma!

 

There's been a lot of development - at least up until the real estate bust - on First St. The Google Earth photos show a lot of new construction and I'm not even sure those tracks are still there.

I do know that the pier with the track on it, complete with the Worlds Worst Kink in it, is still there. If you haven't seen that, it's an Ohhh...Mannnnnn....moment. The mud under the pier slipped out, took the pier out about 18", and there is a very visible kink in the track now.

Bring a telephoto lens.