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Siding allocation in Hump Yards


jamie92208

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Having recently spent many hours watching the live webcam feed from the ginat Union Pacific Bailey yard at North Platte Nebraska (Yes I do know this is about UK prototype so be patient.) I have been wondering how the sidings in the bowl area of a marshalling yard were allocated. 

 

I realise that it's some years since we had working hump yards here in the UK but I'm sure that someone out there know the answer to my question.

 

Say you had 32 tracks in a bowl, would they all serve different destinations or would trains be built up on an as needed basis.  Did these allocations stay relatively constant, say sidings 1 to 8 for destinations to between north and est, 9 to 16 for destinations east to south etc.  Or were theye allocated according to known traffic densities.  preumably keeping track designations constant would make the working out of hump cut lists easier.

 

I would be interested in any light that can be shed on this subject, and this interest has been stimulated by wtaching two humps in constant use on the webcam.

 

 

Jamie

 

PS I was probably told the answer to this at Kingmoor aged 13 when I had a tour of the yard but have slept too many times since then.

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I'm sure it varied but in some yards it depended on the time of day and what was being sorted, especially for secondary sorts (which were often done at the flat end of the yard in some places.  So what tended to happen was that regular busy destinations had an allocated road or roads and the less busy ones could be and would be changed over the period of the day or as traffic levels dictated.

 

Depending on the control equipment in some places the automatic allocation system could be changed by altering the way pin configurations were read if a punched tape was used to drive the point operation.

 

So it really was horses for courses but it's important to remember the bit about secondary sorting sorting - for example at Margam one of the primary sorts when I was there was 'West Wales' and, although there wasn't much traffic by my time what there was had to undergo a secondary sort to get wagons in the right order for the train to be able to work the various locations it served. 

 

We had just the same situation in flat yards where I worked - certain sidings for regular flows were allocated but others changed as the day went on (or as the week progressed and the 'Sunday turn fiddle' was brought into play by the Shunters - it basically being to increase the number of wagons needed to transfer to the Up side to shunt; early in teh week those wagons went one way but come Wednesday night they began to be shunted into the transfer roads.  Once we got TOPS in it was amusing watching the way certain wagon cards moved round the yard!).

 

At another (flat) yard where I was for a while several roads in the Down Yard had one function by day and a different one on the night turn because the Down pilot was shunting completely different traffic at night.

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Here's a start..post-4034-0-31980300-1388572935_thumb.jpg

 

DaveF seems to be the only one who captured a sequence of photo's of a train arriving at the north end of Whitemoor Yard.. Note the train is signalled into the up hump reception by a miniature arm with no route indicator. He could be heading into any one of the ten reception roads.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/34800790@N04/9107331911/in/photolist-eSMstZ-bsFHYS-fTjX1x-bFAFsZ-bFAzzZ-aaQzAh-8gZqsq-9TqS6g-gLL82t-bjsweT-bFAGGr-bFADEP-bsFKS5-bsFJCA-bFALyP-bFAHNi-bFAKkz-8gZqjf-gDXwhC-baH7qP-aroUuu-hq1ut7-e14A5z-bevNsr-8RwxhP-8f2StT-9bJDcA-dhJpk9-9RmZkh-9GC5HY-bVehXg-7YoTEk-bbHpup-bbHpjr-fieZ8R-ct3Pbh-9Q8mvx-af6qiH-aDfbsd-8TkXM1-8TkYqy-7GFaJU-dvr7Ft-8GUWgt-8Tm5ph-c992wm-9UochJ-a7PeRy-9oGqcf-9oGqHf-ccFyAs

 

In the background an 08 is shoving a train over the up hump. Once this is done the 08 will run back via No1 road, 29 and 17 signals into the short headshunt in the foreground.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/34800790@N04/9107332401/in/photolist-eSMsCr-eSYSCC-eSYSub-eSMskM-eSMstZ-bsFHYS-fTjX1x-bFAFsZ-bFAzzZ-aaQzAh-8gZqsq-9TqS6g-gLL82t-bjsweT-bFAGGr-bFADEP-bsFKS5-bsFJCA-bFALyP-bFAHNi-bFAKkz-8gZqjf-gDXwhC-baH7qP-aroUuu-hq1ut7-e14A5z-bevNsr-8RwxhP-8f2StT-9bJDcA-dhJpk9-9RmZkh-9GC5HY-bVehXg-7YoTEk-bbHpup-bbHpjr-fieZ8R-ct3Pbh-9Q8mvx-af6qiH-aDfbsd-8TkXM1-8TkYqy-7GFaJU-dvr7Ft-8GUWgt-8Tm5ph-c992wm-9UochJ

 

No16 disc has been cleared to allow the 08 to close up to the rear of the newly arrived train..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/34800790@N04/9107331435/in/photolist-eSMskM-eSMstZ-bsFHYS-fTjX1x-bFAFsZ-bFAzzZ-aaQzAh-8gZqsq-9TqS6g-gLL82t-bjsweT-bFAGGr-bFADEP-bsFKS5-bsFJCA-bFALyP-bFAHNi-bFAKkz-8gZqjf-gDXwhC-baH7qP-aroUuu-hq1ut7-e14A5z-bevNsr-8RwxhP-8f2StT-9bJDcA-dhJpk9-9RmZkh-9GC5HY-bVehXg-7YoTEk-bbHpup-bbHpjr-fieZ8R-ct3Pbh-9Q8mvx-af6qiH-aDfbsd-8TkXM1-8TkYqy-7GFaJU-dvr7Ft-8GUWgt-8Tm5ph-c992wm-9UochJ-a7PeRy-9oGqcf-9oGqHf

 

If there is any interest i'll carry on..

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Here's a start..attachicon.gifTwenty Feet River.jpg

 

DaveF seem to be the only one who captured a sequence of photo's of a train arriving at the north end of Whitemoor Yard.. Note the train is signalled into the up hump reception by a miniature arm with no route indicator. He could be heading into any one of the ten reception roads.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/34800790@N04/9107331911/in/photolist-eSMstZ-bsFHYS-fTjX1x-bFAFsZ-bFAzzZ-aaQzAh-8gZqsq-9TqS6g-gLL82t-bjsweT-bFAGGr-bFADEP-bsFKS5-bsFJCA-bFALyP-bFAHNi-bFAKkz-8gZqjf-gDXwhC-baH7qP-aroUuu-hq1ut7-e14A5z-bevNsr-8RwxhP-8f2StT-9bJDcA-dhJpk9-9RmZkh-9GC5HY-bVehXg-7YoTEk-bbHpup-bbHpjr-fieZ8R-ct3Pbh-9Q8mvx-af6qiH-aDfbsd-8TkXM1-8TkYqy-7GFaJU-dvr7Ft-8GUWgt-8Tm5ph-c992wm-9UochJ-a7PeRy-9oGqcf-9oGqHf-ccFyAs

 

In the background an 08 is shoving a train over the up hump. Once this is done the 08 will run back via No1 road, 29 and 17 signals into the short headshunt in the foreground.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/34800790@N04/9107332401/in/photolist-eSMsCr-eSYSCC-eSYSub-eSMskM-eSMstZ-bsFHYS-fTjX1x-bFAFsZ-bFAzzZ-aaQzAh-8gZqsq-9TqS6g-gLL82t-bjsweT-bFAGGr-bFADEP-bsFKS5-bsFJCA-bFALyP-bFAHNi-bFAKkz-8gZqjf-gDXwhC-baH7qP-aroUuu-hq1ut7-e14A5z-bevNsr-8RwxhP-8f2StT-9bJDcA-dhJpk9-9RmZkh-9GC5HY-bVehXg-7YoTEk-bbHpup-bbHpjr-fieZ8R-ct3Pbh-9Q8mvx-af6qiH-aDfbsd-8TkXM1-8TkYqy-7GFaJU-dvr7Ft-8GUWgt-8Tm5ph-c992wm-9UochJ

 

No16 disc has been cleared to allow the 08 to close up to the rear of the newly arrived train..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/34800790@N04/9107331435/in/photolist-eSMskM-eSMstZ-bsFHYS-fTjX1x-bFAFsZ-bFAzzZ-aaQzAh-8gZqsq-9TqS6g-gLL82t-bjsweT-bFAGGr-bFADEP-bsFKS5-bsFJCA-bFALyP-bFAHNi-bFAKkz-8gZqjf-gDXwhC-baH7qP-aroUuu-hq1ut7-e14A5z-bevNsr-8RwxhP-8f2StT-9bJDcA-dhJpk9-9RmZkh-9GC5HY-bVehXg-7YoTEk-bbHpup-bbHpjr-fieZ8R-ct3Pbh-9Q8mvx-af6qiH-aDfbsd-8TkXM1-8TkYqy-7GFaJU-dvr7Ft-8GUWgt-8Tm5ph-c992wm-9UochJ-a7PeRy-9oGqcf-9oGqHf

 

If there is any interest i'll carry on..

 

Yes there is - but slightly OT - is (was) 13 released by 10 from either position?  The reason for asking is that the diagram gives the impression of a very short distance between 13 and the LoS - which then leads to asking if that was provision in order to set back out of one of the reception roads with something longer than just the hump pilot?

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Following the introduction of TOPS it was possible to create an automatically generated shunting instruction on shunt lists.

Each road in the yard could be allocated to a specific traffic, destination or shunting tag.

 

A shunting tag was an instruction for the routing of traffic.

For example a 21t hopper of coal  for Exmouth Junction CCD ( TOPS code 83441) stood at Toton, would have a tag of 760 (Severn Tunnel Junction)

On arrival at Severn Tunnel Junction the tag would become 830 (Exeter Riverside), then on arrival at Riverside would have a local shunting tag (eg 92c).

 

In Bristol we did not use automatic shuntlist allocation as the largest yard carrying out sorting, KIngsland Road, was too small.

There were more trains and destinations than there were sorting roads available. Even so one road was always allocated to the major traffic flows,

no. 1out was for East Depot Engineers, 2out was cripples for Barton Hill, and I think 9out was for the daily Swindon service.

 

cheers

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Yes there is - but slightly OT - is (was) 13 released by 10 from either position?  The reason for asking is that the diagram gives the impression of a very short distance between 13 and the LoS - which then leads to asking if that was provision in order to set back out of one of the reception roads with something longer than just the hump pilot?

I think the headshunt could cope with a couple of 08's waiting their turn to push trains over the hump. I'm sure Andy Rush posted something about pilot allocation throughout Whitemoor Yard somewhere but i can't find it. I think Up Hump Reception had two pilots allocated at certain parts of the day. There was provision to pull short cuts up to 13 disc or go just beyond to the LOS. Longer cuts had to go over to the Down Joint.

 

This arrangement with the new box came about to enable the Down Hump to be closed. All down trains requiring hump shunting were drawn up towards 32 signal and set back using 8, 7A and 7B into Up Hump Reception. If the pilot headshunt was occupied the train loco would need to come off and go to at least 13 disc before being allocated a route for disposal.

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Following the introduction of TOPS it was possible to create an automatically generated shunting instruction on shunt lists.

Each road in the yard could be allocated to a specific traffic, destination or shunting tag.

 

A shunting tag was an instruction for the routing of traffic.

For example a 21t hopper of coal  for Exmouth Junction CCD ( TOPS code 83441) stood at Toton, would have a tag of 760 (Severn Tunnel Junction)

On arrival at Severn Tunnel Junction the tag would become 830 (Exeter Riverside), then on arrival at Riverside would have a local shunting tag (eg 92c).

 

In Bristol we did not use automatic shuntlist allocation as the largest yard carrying out sorting, KIngsland Road, was too small.

There were more trains and destinations than there were sorting roads available. Even so one road was always allocated to the major traffic flows,

no. 1out was for East Depot Engineers, 2out was cripples for Barton Hill, and I think 9out was for the daily Swindon service.

 

cheers

Same for when I was at Arpley, certainly from the late 1990s we would use the long electrified roads for the likes of 6M27 Mossend to Willesden, the shorter roads for the local trips, the extension sidings for engineers trains (so that the ballast trip locos could do their own shunting if required), the through roads to Arpley Jct for trains going off via Latchord. Cripples and long term stored wagons would find their way 'round the corner' into the least accessible part of the yard. Northbound trains, once formed, would be either dragged onto one of the shunting necks or up to Walton Old Jct. The road allocation from TOPS would be routinely disregarded in favour of operational need at the time.

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Following the introduction of TOPS it was possible to create an automatically generated shunting instruction on shunt lists.

Each road in the yard could be allocated to a specific traffic, destination or shunting tag.

 

A shunting tag was an instruction for the routing of traffic.

For example a 21t hopper of coal  for Exmouth Junction CCD ( TOPS code 83441) stood at Toton, would have a tag of 760 (Severn Tunnel Junction)

On arrival at Severn Tunnel Junction the tag would become 830 (Exeter Riverside), then on arrival at Riverside would have a local shunting tag (eg 92c).

 

In Bristol we did not use automatic shuntlist allocation as the largest yard carrying out sorting, KIngsland Road, was too small.

There were more trains and destinations than there were sorting roads available. Even so one road was always allocated to the major traffic flows,

no. 1out was for East Depot Engineers, 2out was cripples for Barton Hill, and I think 9out was for the daily Swindon service.

 

cheers

 

Ah  'son of geometric blocking' which was a marvellous piece of TOPS cleverness which came along in 1974 and sort of did not only that but a lot more as it would (if told) monitor the number/length of wagons going into each road and give an alternative once the road was full.  One of the Regional TOPS Implementation Team members tried to explain it to one of the Yard Chargemen at Westbury only to be told that as a Head Shunter he had been expected, and able, to do all that in his head - with about ten times as much traffic ;)

 

But apparently Riverside Yard at Exeter did try geometric blocking - for a whole month!

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I'd love to know more about Tinsley. There is very little out there that tells how it really worked.

 

Just talking about this is bringing back the nights in the 60's and 70's parked up in the diesel depot car park just watching things happening, nothing fancy or fantastic, just a railway facility going about it's business.

It's a bit tricky to explain properly without access to trackplans, as there was a main yard and secondary yard both with their own humps, private sidings for the many steelworks, not to mention the express freight yard and of course the reception sidings all working in perfect harmony. The main yard had more than 50 sidings and the secondary 25.

I can reel off the siding allocations if you think that is the way to go about it, you can even have signal numbers if you like!, don't know how you would like it presented.

In the middle of all that lot of course were two diesel servicing facilities also.

 

Mike.

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i hope these pics arent out of place in this thread but i took them a few weeks back in bescot, the shunter was explaining how they had removed the hump signals during the closure of walsall box and the down tower but had left one in situ

 

looking from the hump towards the sidings (with new led ground signals)

DSCF5678.jpg

 

hump signal

DSCF5679.jpg

 

down tower

DSCF5676.jpg

 

DSCF5681.jpg

 

hump cabin

DSCF5680.jpg

 

not sure if this part of the hump sidings?

DSCF5682.jpg

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Hi all,

 

I have a British Railways Eastern Region guide to Tinsley marshalling yard dated 1965. It has a description of how it works and a siding allocation for the main and secondary yards. As my scanner isn't playing ball today. I'll type it out. The numbers are the siding number with no.1 starting at the M1 motorway side and no. 53 finishing on the TMD side.

 

1 - Toton unfitted

2 - Toton fitted

3 - chapeltown south. Stations to Barsley

4 - Norton junction fitted

5 - norton junction unfitted

6 - Mas S.S. (inc westgate bch, Holmes, C.H. Gas, I&I walker, SYCC).

7 - park gate I & S (rawmarsh)

8 - barrow hill, sheepbridge, stations to stantongate.

9 - washwood Heath unfitted

10 - washwood Heath fitted

11 - Treeton, Orgreaves, woodhouse mill

12 - healey mills fitted

13 - healey mills unfitted

14 - Chaddesden unfitted

15 - stourton unfitted

16 - Feed Road - traffic for Derby St.marys, Chaddesden fitted, stourton fitted.

17 - empty unlabeled hyfits

18 - Lincoln

19 - Hull fitted

20 - Hull Mineral

21 - York Mineral

22 - York fitted

23 - feed road - traffic for Lincoln fitted, New England fitted, frodingham fitted, Goole

24 - Parkway, Leicester, Brent, St Pancras, kings cross, Carlisle, sighthill.

25 - New England unfitted

26 - frodingham unfitted

27 - Rotherham road. ( inc. kilnhurst, roundwood 11" mill, aldwalke new mill).

28 - empty unlabeled vanfits

29 - empty unlabeled steel carrying wagons

30 - empty unlabeled mineral wagons

31 - harvest lane, neepsend gas, oughtybridge

32 - grimesthorpe sundries

33 - grimesthorpe full wagon loads (S to S)

34 - Barnsley jct.

35 - South Wales

36 - deepcar

37 - wadsley bridge

38 - Darnall C & W shops

39 - mottram fitted

40 - mottram unfitted

41 - guide bridge/ Birkenhead

42 - Brunswick

43 - Feed road - fitted traffic for Colwick, Doncaster, whitemoor

44 - Colwick unfitted

45 - broughton lane, ecclesfield east, smithywood

46 - Ickes (inc. meadow hall, wincobank station yard)

47 - Doncaster unfitted

48 - Whitemoor unfitted

49 - brake vans for main yard west

50 - mechanical feed road

51 - emergency feed road

52 - E. S. C scrap

53 - E.S.C other

 

While typing this I noticed that the unfitted and fitted sidings for one destination are very random, they aren't order in any way? The other unanswered question is some of the destinations such as the ones on siding 6, 7 & 46. What and where are they?

 

Happy new year

 

Vin

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6 = ex-Midland lines around Rotherham, off the Old Road or north of Rotherham itself

46 = similar, but off the Sheffield-Rotherham line.

 

This is I admit off the top of my head. They would have probably departed in opposite directions - 6 eastwards via Treeton N Jn, 46 probably west and reversing at Brightside.

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6 - Mas S.S. (inc westgate bch, Holmes, C.H. Gas, I&I walker, SYCC).

7 - park gate I & S (rawmarsh)

46 - Ickes (inc. meadow hall, wincobank station yard)

 

 

While typing this I noticed that the unfitted and fitted sidings for one destination are very random, they aren't order in any way? The other unanswered question is some of the destinations such as the ones on siding 6, 7 & 46. What and where are they?

 

Happy new year

 

Vin

 

Thanks, saves me part of a job.

 

The siding layout may seem random, but they were laid to effect the easiest and simplest shunt of incoming trains, if a train coming in had mixed traffic then it would probably be for sidings which were adjacent to each other to save time and effort. This was worked out when the layout of the yard was initialised.

 

On to your queries;

 

6. Masborough (Rotherham) Sorting Sidings. Rotherham Westgate branch, ie Booths scrapyard and any wagon load traffic for Westgate itself. Holmes junction, along the Sheffield line, entry point for scrapyards. Isaac and Israel Walker, manufacturers of foundry blacking, private siding to the north of Masborough Station. C.H. Gas, EMGB gas depot? (why it should be called CH Gas I don't know), north of I & I Walker. SYCC, not sure of this one, too early to be South Yorkshire County Council, could be the small private siding at the west side of Masborough station, could also be the South Yorkshire Chemical Company, but I don't know where their siding was, unless it was the aforementioned.

 

7. Parkgate Iron and Steel. Sidings around Parkgate and Rawmarsh station adjacent to Aldwarke Junction.

 

46. Ickles, (not Ickes). On the GC bit of Rotherham between Central station and Tinsley yard. Meadowhall would be traffic for EMGB and Yorkshire engine company, Wincobank station yard was overspill traffic for Medowhall and the Chapeltown branch.

 

Bear in mind the construction of Aldwarke junction was some way off, so splitting of sidings to GC and LMS was necessary at this time, once it was constructed the siding allocation changed somewhat.

 

Mike.

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I cannot add anything to this discussion, but have always been fascinated by the workings of marshalling yards. I would just like to say that, for me, this is one of the best threads that I have seen in years - so thanks very much to all the contributors for their efforts in typing out lengthy explanations.

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I cannot add anything to this discussion, but have always been fascinated by the workings of marshalling yards. I would just like to say that, for me, this is one of the best threads that I have seen in years - so thanks very much to all the contributors for their efforts in typing out lengthy explanations.

Can I add to that.  This started off as a bit of idle curiosity while watching a webcam of a vast modern marshalling yard still busy humping trains in both directions 24/7.  However it has brought some fascinating facts outinto the open.  Vin's Tinsley info is fabulous and answers a lot of questions.  presumably the fitted/unfitted sidings meant that traffic could either be sent out as 2 separate trains or a combined one with a fitted head depending on the amount of traffic.  It also reminds us of how many freight destinations we have lost.

 

Jamie

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Tinsley used state-of-the-art 1960s automation:  

 

Bill

That's a fabulous bit of film Bill thanks for posting it.   I saw the addo system in use at kingmoor but it makes more sense to see the whole thing explained.  I believe that gerard Fiennes was a great fan of the Dowty system.   It's certainly a lot safer than the system I saw in action at Toton in 1971 where the primary and secondary retarders were operated from the cabin by a man pulling levers with the force being applied relying on his judgement.  The cust were then followed dwon the sorting sidings by men with brake sticks.  Not a very safe system.  I've seen somewhere that there were so many accidents there in Midland railway days that they ahd an ambulance van ready to transport casualties to the nearest hospital by special train.

 

Jamie

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