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Goods yard location?


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Hi all, long time lurker and complete beginner so please be gentle

 

I'm, very slowly, building my first layout. It's a single line OO gauge GWT layout running along a shelf. 

 

I was thinking of a yard/sidings at one end with line leading from that across the rest of the layout before existing to a hidden fiddle yard at the other end,

 

I'd like to have some kind of activity on the line before it disappears and was thinking of a goods yard.

 

Something like this:

 

[hidden fiddle yard]-------------- Goods Shed --------------<=== two lines being a siding.

 

I know it's not much of a layout but I purposely want to keep the track work simple as I'm more into scenery modelling. 

 

My question is did goods shed ever live on a through (running?) line, with the trains stopping, unloading and carrying on their way up/down the line or did they only ever live in sidings?  

 

Thoughts/suggestions appreciated and forgive me if I'm being stupid.

 

Paul

 

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I can't think of any locations where the goods shed was located on the main running line.  This suggests that trains would normally just pass through.

A goods shed was used to unload wagons which was a long process. This would delay main line trains unacceptably.

I suggest that in every case, the goods shed would be situated on a siding or loop line.

Ian

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Engines were usually prohibited from passing through or entering goods sheds as well. In cases where there was no capstan system or similar a barrier wagon would be used to shunt loaded wagons into the shed.

A short siding with a wagon turntable to access a shed or end loading dock or both would fill a corner with the running line behind it if you were looking for a view blocker, in situations where space was tight a trailing connection to a wagon turntable was occasionally used. You wouldn’t need the turntable to be functional but it would add operational interest. 

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In the UK, railways are largely operated as ‘running lines’, with all the paraphernalia of signalling, facing point locks, and so on, on which the booked timetabled trains, along with duly authorised specials or excursions, run, and yards or sidings, where the trains are made up or broken down, stored, maintained, or freight loaded or unloaded. 
 

In the case of freight handling yards, which is where goods sheds and other transhipment facilities are found, these are always given the status of sidings and not running lines.  There is no signalling except at the point at which the running lines are joined, and train movements are controlled by hand signals (sometimes backed up by whistles) by a shunter or guard on the ground under the authority of the yard foreman.  As in marshalling yards, carriage sidings, or loco yards, sped is restricted to 15mph maximum, and movements that involve shunting stock in to goods sheds or hauling them out are undertaken with extreme caution as the driver cannot see what is going on in the shed and for all he knows men may be loading or unloading vehicles in there. Goods sheds live in sidings. 
 

You are most certainly not being stupid; how will you know if you don’t ask!  The only stupid questions are the ones you didn’t ask, but if you frequent the site long enough you’ll see some pretty daft answers...

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Others on here will know better than I, but I suspect that the nearest to having a goods shed on a through road wood be an arrangement, at a very minor station on a very minor line, where there is a lock-up shed for small goods (I guess the one-time "sundries") a little way down the passenger platform. It was done in continental Europe a fair bit, but I don't know whether any examples existed in the UK. 

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Running lines through Goods sheds were just about non existent but there was a biggish goods shed beside the running line with a loading platform in front of it at Trouble House Halt on the Tetbury branch.  Locos were often barred from goods sheds as Goods shed roofs were often wooden and steam locos produced sparks,   In later years locos had to run through Cinderford goods shed in order to run round goods trains.

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22 hours ago, Paul Doncaster said:

My question is did goods shed ever live on a through (running?) line, with the trains stopping, unloading and carrying on their way up/down the line or did they only ever live in sidings? 

 

 

As others have said, having a goods shed on a running line isn't practical.  There were goods sheds which were on through lines, Lechlade on the Fairford branch being an example

 

http://www.fairfordbranch.co.uk/Lechlade.htm

 

But point work allowed access from either end, so there was no need to attempt to run a loco through the shed.

 

Adrian

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Thanks for the feedback all.

 

On 28/09/2020 at 22:20, devondynosoar118 said:

Engines were usually prohibited from passing through or entering goods sheds as well. In cases where there was no capstan system or similar a barrier wagon would be used to shunt loaded wagons into the shed.

A short siding with a wagon turntable to access a shed or end loading dock or both would fill a corner with the running line behind it if you were looking for a view blocker, in situations where space was tight a trailing connection to a wagon turntable was occasionally used. You wouldn’t need the turntable to be functional but it would add operational interest. 

 

A view blocker was an objective for this. Not sure I have space for a trailing connection / turntable but it's got me thinking. Thanks.

 

On 29/09/2020 at 01:46, DavidCBroad said:

Running lines through Goods sheds were just about non existent but there was a biggish goods shed beside the running line with a loading platform in front of it at Trouble House Halt on the Tetbury branch.  Locos were often barred from goods sheds as Goods shed roofs were often wooden and steam locos produced sparks,   In later years locos had to run through Cinderford goods shed in order to run round goods trains.

 

That might work, I'll have look into it. And a railway line just for a pub? That could make a fun, interesting, little layout one day.

 

On 29/09/2020 at 00:29, The Johnster said:

In the UK, railways are largely operated as ‘running lines’, with all the paraphernalia of signalling, facing point locks, and so on, on which the booked timetabled trains, along with duly authorised specials or excursions, run, and yards or sidings, where the trains are made up or broken down, stored, maintained, or freight loaded or unloaded. 
 

In the case of freight handling yards, which is where goods sheds and other transhipment facilities are found, these are always given the status of sidings and not running lines.  There is no signalling except at the point at which the running lines are joined, and train movements are controlled by hand signals (sometimes backed up by whistles) by a shunter or guard on the ground under the authority of the yard foreman.  As in marshalling yards, carriage sidings, or loco yards, sped is restricted to 15mph maximum, and movements that involve shunting stock in to goods sheds or hauling them out are undertaken with extreme caution as the driver cannot see what is going on in the shed and for all he knows men may be loading or unloading vehicles in there. Goods sheds live in sidings. 
 

You are most certainly not being stupid; how will you know if you don’t ask!  The only stupid questions are the ones you didn’t ask, but if you frequent the site long enough you’ll see some pretty daft answers...

 

Thanks for the clarification, very useful!

 

On 29/09/2020 at 01:32, PatB said:

Others on here will know better than I, but I suspect that the nearest to having a goods shed on a through road wood be an arrangement, at a very minor station on a very minor line, where there is a lock-up shed for small goods (I guess the one-time "sundries") a little way down the passenger platform. It was done in continental Europe a fair bit, but I don't know whether any examples existed in the UK. 

 

I was hoping there might be a minor line somewhere that had a shed on the line; a small halt with a goods shed but a loading area might work too. 

 

Thanks all, very helpful replies!
 

 

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From the very earliest days of railways, goods handling facilities were carried out away from running lines.  The Acts of Parliament that authorised them stipulated that a government set minimum ‘mileage’ rate of carriage was available; railways were regarded as ‘common carriers’.  Mileage traffic was loaded and unloaded by the customer or at least by labourers he employed, so road access for their vehicles had to be provided.   
 

The railways did not make big profits on this, so were keen to promote services for which they could charge more, where railway employees loaded and unloaded the wagons under cover, and the goods could be stored securely, called for, or delivered.  These services, along with later additions such as containers, covered vans, tarpaulins, shock absorbing vehicles, insulated, ventilated, steam heated and so on, incurred extra charges, and meant that under cover lockable accommodation had to be provided wherever there were goods facilities, which was at virtually all stations except halts. 
 

In addition to this at many locations, and certainly all the bigger yards, would be an end loading dock (in the early days the great and the good travelled in their horse drawn carriages on carriage trucks, eventually covered to become Covered Carriage Trucks, CCTs) and a section of open platform with a small hoist or crane for handling heavy items.   Coal, being dirty, was handled on another road, usually at the back of the yard.  
 

A very common feature was a distance of 18 feet between sidings or pairs of sidings, the turning circle of a horse drawn cart, and also of the famous Scammell ‘mechanical horse’ that appears on any layout set between the grouping and about 1980. 

 

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