clachnaharry Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 With the forthcoming release of the Farish J39 later in the year, my thoughts are turning to the possibility of a n gauge model of Eyemouth. The main problem is that the run round loop crossover was removed in the early 1900s and after that all run rounds were performed by gravity. This allowed the former run round loop to be used as a goods siding.Given the very cramped nature of the site, this doubled the roads available for loading and unloading to 2. The former loop siding seems to have been used mainly for coal traffic.There was a third siding, but this could only be used for storage as it was inaccessable to road vehicles, and appeared to be mainly used to store empty fish vans awaiting loading, and the spare coach used for Saturday trains. I can't think of a reliable way to reproduce the gravity shunting, and so intend to reinstate the run round loop crossover, but I would like to continue to use that road as a coal siding. Are there any known instances where a run round loop was used in this way? Of course, each time a run round is required, the loco with coach still attached has to reverse out from the platform, shunt any wagons in the loop into the storage siding, run back into the platform to run round the coach, and then replace the wagons in the loop. Great on a model for someone who enjoys shunting, but is there any prototype where this happened on a regular basis, or is it totally unrealistic? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Prism Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 It sound totally unrealistic to me, and such a situation would be where the prototype would use an auto-train. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted February 14, 2013 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 14, 2013 Hardly answering the question precisely as asked but on the GWR auto-trains were allowed to shunt with the trailer still attached to the loco (provided the trailer wasn't prohibited from the siding(s) being shunted of course). However what the OP is proposing definitely sounds rather unusual to say the least. It might possibly have happened 'somewhere' but I've not heard of it. Now an interesting aside to this is that on our local branch at the junction the cattle dock was halfway along the run-round loop and I've often wondered how they managed there if there were any cattle etc wagons spotted for loading/unloading. (and no, I don't know the answer and the, very good, book about the branch doesn't answer it either). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Prism Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 Mike - cattle loading and unloading durations were quite tightly regulated, and I get the impression that cattle wagons would therefore not 'hang around' for very long. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
90171 Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/46984-eyemouth-19612/ may be of interest Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Controller Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 Hardly answering the question precisely as asked but on the GWR auto-trains were allowed to shunt with the trailer still attached to the loco (provided the trailer wasn't prohibited from the siding(s) being shunted of course). However what the OP is proposing definitely sounds rather unusual to say the least. It might possibly have happened 'somewhere' but I've not heard of it. Now an interesting aside to this is that on our local branch at the junction the cattle dock was halfway along the run-round loop and I've often wondered how they managed there if there were any cattle etc wagons spotted for loading/unloading. (and no, I don't know the answer and the, very good, book about the branch doesn't answer it either). I can see that this might have worked with cattle or horses, as these would be loaded and unloaded relatively quickly. Coal would be another matter, though, as merchants tended to treat coal wagons as storage facilities, for use at their convenience. Somehow, I can't see them putting up with having to move every time a loco needed to run around its train. I have seen gravity run-round being simulated on a model (of Wellington, Salop, IIRC), by having a powered coach as well as the loco. Not impossible, even with DC, given carefully-placed insulating gaps, and easier still with DCC (or so its proponents would have us believe..) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
clachnaharry Posted February 14, 2013 Author Share Posted February 14, 2013 Thanks chaps. It looks like it may have to be a model of Ayemouth - inspired by Eyemouth! I think I could get away with using the loop for loading fish vans, but not for unloading coal, for the reasons suggested. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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