"Typical" German Station / Goods Shed Arrangement?

[justin1985]

I've been working on a plan for a Z gauge layout, to "finer" standards, with a small station and passing loop next to a single track viaduct over a typical Black Forest valley. Loosely inspired by the Hollentalbahn. More details in the thread here: 

I've bought a very nice little station building kit from MBZ which is based on Kollnau, on the Elztalbahn. Like most German stations, it has a small goods shed directly attached to the station master's house. From what I can deduce from pictures, it was typical that a goods siding would approach from that side , with a buffer stop overlapping the station building (but not blocking the door) so that a wagon could get directly adjacent to the goods shed. 

 

 

But trying to squeeze my layout plan onto the board I want to use, I'm left with either not really enough room for a meaningful length of siding, OR a loop that is too short to really pass meaningful length trains.

 

However, I've seen some photos of stations where the goods siding crosses the front of the station building entirely - such as in these photos of Emmelhausen in the Rhineland in 1990. 

 

So, my question is, how typical or unusual was that kind of layout? Could I get away with running my siding across the station entrance to make my track plan work in terms of both a longer station loop and a siding that can hold at least two wagons, without pushing the station building too far to the centre of the layout? Two versions of the track plan:

 

 

Cheers

Justin

 

[David C]

Sidings as such were not all that common at such small stations up to the 1960s on minor lines, when a certain amount of rationalisation took place. A more frequent arrangement was a loop, which ran in front of the station building and served the adjoining goods shed. What sidings there were were usually short spurs off this goods loop leading to a loading dock or even an industry of somekind. . With regard to your plan above, you can simply extend your siding (the long one) and add another point to turn it into a loop. German passengers were used to stepping over such goods only loops to get to the trains - so were Austrian ones, come to that. There were usually timber crossings to save them walking over the ballast. Platforms in those days simply consisted of gravel banked up by about a foot or so against a concrete or stone block.

 

http://www.kbaystb.de/kbaystb-kbaystb/kbaystb-bahnhoefe/kbaystb-bahnhoefe_fahrenberg-furth/kbaystb-bahnhoefe-fladungen/kbaystb-bahnhoefe-fladungen.html

 

This website is very useful as it has photos of a great many Bavarian stations, but from memory, stations in Baden Wurttemmburg were not that different.

 

David C

 

 

 

 

 

[brigo]

I don't think with the station building you have that you would get away with running all the way across the front. The track would be too close to the station doorway and in real life there would have to be bigger space between them. However there is no need for the station building to be in the centre of the loop, in fact if you are having two platforms it would be common to position it off centre. There would then be a crossing outside the building to the far platform so that it was accessible if the near platform was occupied. Another alternative is to reverse the crossover into the goods track so you have a headshunt and back the wagons up to the goods shed. An end loading facility at the end of the headshunt would be typical. Sometimes the two goods tracks would have their own point onto the running track and cross each other on a diamond crossing, imagine a letter X sitting on a line ___X___

 

Brian

[Allegheny1600]

Yes, I can't add anything to David C's post above, except to say that small stations all across Europe seem to have pretty much this 'loop' design so if you follow this, you should be fine.

Cheers,

John.

[D9020 Nimbus]

Strictly speaking, the main building is the reception building, not (just) the station-master's house.

[justin1985]

Many thanks for everyone's comments - really appreciated! I'm a bit of a beginner when it comes to the details of German railways. I was pretty good at reading German back in school days (although never as good at speaking). Are there any quite general books anyone would recommend?

 

I just thought to myself "I wonder if there is a relevant MIBA Special issue?" - I looked at their online store, and sure enough a recent special on branch lines seems to have a nice little feature on "Typische kleine Bahnhöfe an Nebenbahnen" on p.8 here: https://shop.vgbahn.info/media/pdf/Blick in diese Ausgabe/12012119.pdf . It looks like my prototype photo is much more like the third example down, but I see what you mean about loops!

 

2 hours ago, David C said:

Sidings as such were not all that common at such small stations up to the 1960s on minor lines, when a certain amount of rationalisation took place. A more frequent arrangement was a loop, which ran in front of the station building and served the adjoining goods shed. What sidings there were were usually short spurs off this goods loop leading to a loading dock or even an industry of somekind. . With regard to your plan above, you can simply extend your siding (the long one) and add another point to turn it into a loop.

 

So this would effectively be a second loop on the top side of the layout - I'd definitely want somewhere I could leave wagons while still passing through trains on the main loop. The second plan actually uses A5 turnouts for the goods siding (rather than B6 for the rest) so I guess I could accommodate this without too much trouble.

 

2 hours ago, brigo said:

Another alternative is to reverse the crossover into the goods track so you have a headshunt and back the wagons up to the goods shed. An end loading facility at the end of the headshunt would be typical.

 

I like this idea - a nice simple way of keeping room for one wagon by the goods shed without a loop, and without forcing it too far across the layout. But perhaps less prototypical?

 

I'll have a bit more of a play in Templot and see how the options look

 

J

[roythebus]

A book I happen to have to hand, published by Alba Modellbahn Praxis, "Modellbahn Gleisplaene" from 1982 is very useful. ISBN 3-87094-537-0

 

Virtually all the branch layouts shown in there have loops.

[brigo]

Give the station building you have, if it were my layout, I would move the station to the left hand end and have the bridge on the right. The "simpler" end of the station would then be up against the tunnel with the single point perhaps in a short cutting. You would have more room around the station building, particularly behind it and the sidings area could be a little longer extending towards the bridge.

 

Just a thought, Brian

[HSB]

There are loads of German station trackplans on this site (look under 'Lagepläne'):-

 

Eisenbahn-MV.de

[Sir Madog]

On 19/01/2020 at 16:17, David C said:

Sidings as such were not all that common at such small stations up to the 1960s on minor lines, when a certain amount of rationalisation took place. A more frequent arrangement was a loop, which ran in front of the station building and served the adjoining goods shed.

I beg to differ!

 

A station in Germany is classified as a place, where trains can either start or end, requiring a passing loop as a run-around or at least a stub track. Whenever a station had a passing loop, it was uncommon to block it with a goods van parked at the goods shed.   Of course, there are exemptions to that rule, which you could find in Bavaria and Wuerttemberg, but, hey, that´s not all of Germany.

[justin1985]

Many thanks for the suggestions and links. 

 

It seems like, in reality, the goods shed being attached to the main station building was no way near as common as depicted by the model kit manufacturers (go figure!)

 

Having a siding crossing between the station building and the main platform doesn't seem uncommon (e.g. http://eisenbahn-mv.de/lageplan/lpl243.pdf ) , but certainly not typical. I think for my model the decision will be practical - a longer siding might give more operating potential, but Z gauge wagons seem so light that the Microtrains couplings struggle to couple up without pushing against a buffer stop (uncoupling works well). So that pushes towards a shorter siding ending in front of the station building, rather than passing right across it.

[Guest Jack Benson]

A simple guide to small stations in English with photos and plans

 

Cheers