Prototype inspiration for a 2 switch layout

[PhilM]

Check out the amazing number of switching moves required to serve this warehouse. The incredible range of different box cars including a GATX straight out of the box is also encouraging for those of us that cant stop buying. 

(495) OHCR 4098 shoves boxcars into warehouse & clickety clack to Newark with train formerly known as MVT - YouTube

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbA18TO9IWo

 

[PhilM]

 

[Regularity]

Thanks for that. Whilst I understand the reasons for the editing to remove periods of inaction, their removal takes away from the information provided: just how long is spent (un)coupling, and reversing, and for the conductor to get from A to B to do these or throw a switch?

 

[Keith Addenbrooke]

6 hours ago, Regularity said:

Thanks for that. Whilst I understand the reasons for the editing to remove periods of inaction, their removal takes away from the information provided: just how long is spent (un)coupling, and reversing, and for the conductor to get from A to B to do these or throw a switch?

 

Fair point - I did lose the thread of why some of the switching moves were taking place because of the editing.  That said, it seems to me be a very high quality film (as in: expensive camera, not just a phone) and the aerial shots, presumably filmed with a drone (based on the end sequence), are very clear and stable and that made for an enjoyable watch.

[Alcanman]

Not prototypical, but my R&N Industrial spur featured only 2 switches and was fun to operate.

[F-UnitMad]

5 hours ago, Alcanman said:

my R&N Industrial spur featured only 2 switches and was fun to operate.

Similar with the branch on my layout; one switch just out of shot on the right, second switch up there in the distance...

 

Talking of distance, longer track & spur lengths do help, I think. I built two 2-switch micro layouts in N gauge years ago, and they didn't hold the attention span as much as longer layouts do.

This was one, size 2ft x 6in...

 

[Regularity]

2 hours ago, F-UnitMad said:

they didn't hold the attention span as much as longer layouts do.

The EM gauge layout “Ruyton Road” was, allowing for adjustments to the respective scales, about half the length of Lydham Heath, and with the same track plan. The builder asked me many years ago if I got bored on LH, but I didn’t, as even simple manoeuvres took time for the locos to move over the distance (I also allow time in the fiddle yard to represent the loco going beyond the not-modelled turnout, and for the driver to brake and reverse, etc, the loco. Being “minimum space”, Ruyton Road lacked this aspect of verisimilitude, and hence the builder was getting bored!

[stivesnick]

It is a shame that the video did not include any captions or commentary to explain why this shunting move was so complicated. 

 

My first thought was that the yard crew had messed up when creating the train. Then I saw the second engine on the back of the train, which I assume was used to switch trailing spurs if there was no run round loop. With this in  mind, could the train have picked up some more cars at another interchange and used the siding on the right to help re-marshall the train?

 

Anybody got any thoughts on this?

 

The drone shots were really good and very helpful for anything  thinking about american scenery or detailing towns or industrial plants.

 

Nick 

[Gordon A]

On 29/09/2021 at 14:23, PhilM said:

 

An interesting sequence. I was caught out for a while as to where the second diesel suddenly appeared from. After watching the whole clip through I got an answer. 

Was there just one loco crew with the second engine being towed dead, or did it have a separate crew?

[dave1905]

7 hours ago, stivesnick said:

It is a shame that the video did not include any captions or commentary to explain why this shunting move was so complicated. 

They weren't complicated at all.  Pretty basic.

7 hours ago, stivesnick said:

My first thought was that the yard crew had messed up when creating the train. Then I saw the second engine on the back of the train, which I assume was used to switch trailing spurs if there was no run round loop. With this in  mind, could the train have picked up some more cars at another interchange and used the siding on the right to help re-marshall the train?

First off you assume there was a yard crew and that the yard would put the cars in the order they would go into the industry.  Not necessarily.

 

Since its a shortline, probably THEY WERE the yard crew.  They probably made up their own train.  They didn't spend the time sorting out the spot cars because they new they could do it just as easy at the industry.  They might not have had room in the yard.

 

 The first thing they did was set over the cars that were on top of the train, probably to make the train smaller and easier to handle.  They kept one car, the RBOX as a handle.  Then they got the spot cars together, pulled the outbounds and shoved in the spot cars. then got their train together and departed.  

Really basic moves.

7 hours ago, stivesnick said:

Then I saw the second engine on the back of the train, which I assume was used to switch trailing spurs if there was no run round loop.

They are using one crew and two engines because they most likely don't have a runaround (loop).  That's modern thing.  Back in the 1970's or 1980's when I was trainmaster, the superintendent would have chewed me out if I wasted an engine on both ends of the train (on the other hand we tended to have more runarounds).  The use of two engines is pretty much confined to those eras when engines are a dime a dozen, such as eras after the 1980's, 1990's when railroads were in merger mode and there were thousands of surplus old, low horsepower engines floating around.  Class ones normally buy more power new, that is more expensive, or lease higher quality engines that is more expensive, meaning it costs more to drag an engine around for the hour a day you will use it.  For a shortline, leasing cheaper engines, and not having to maintain them, not as much of a problem.