Motive power allocation

[Guest Jack Benson]

Hi,

As a group we attempt to run a portion  of a daily time table for our layout, the timetable is based on a similar cross country secondary line in the mid 50s. The term 'orginating elsewhere' describes trains that use the line merely as a route.

 

Daily*

Three passenger turns

One goods pickup

Two non stop goods orginating elsewhere (milk and refrigerated products to London)

Every other day*

One ballast train orginating elsewhere

 

*Note that will be reciprocal traffic - empties etc.

 

May I ask how many locomotives would be allocated to depot to work the timetable? It is not just a matter of one loco per train as the availability of motive power in the mid 50s was not much greater than 75% due to routine maintenance, the occasional failure etc.

Our line has a MPD at each end but both depots primarily serve the mainline not the secondary line traffic.

 

Thanks for your help

 

Stay Safe and Tuck in your Vest

 

 

 

 

[Jeremy Cumberland]

You will need four locomotives to work the local passenger services. Two locomotives are needed for the goods. Obviously if the depot services other routes that use the same class of locomotive, then the locomotives for your services will be drawn from a larger pool. I think your 75% is about right, but I am a lot less sure whether locomotive departments planned around such low availability, and one locomotive per duty plus about 20% rounded up seems more likely.

 

Providing two locomotives for one service is obviously wasteful, so the second locomotive for your goods turn might be from a class that has other duties at the shed. Alternatively. the locomotive might be provided by a parent shed with a weekly changeover turn, in which case the size of the pool it is drawn from depends on the number of duties there are at the parent shed. Larger sheds are also likely to have locomotives steamed as spares, and one of these might appear on your trains.

[black and decker boy]

A lot of local diagrams / trip working would be covered by engines on layover - perhaps an overnight long distance freight or parcels working where the loco would sit spare during the day.

[Guest Jack Benson]

Hi Guys,

 

Thanks for your responses. As stated elsewhere on the Beaminster Road saga, I am not a collector of locos, instead I have six fiddleyard tracks - six trains - six locos plus a couple of spares.
 

Thankfully the Southern was ‘careful’ with expenditure and most (not all) locos were able to ‘double-duty’ on goods and passenger.  The other theme was that of the early 50s period, presumably as the D&E is an additional line, the loco department may have been forced to retain enough locos that would have otherwise been withdrawn, let’s say a dozen locos didn’t get withdrawn, the fun is deciding which were retained to run the line.........maybe the last four Adams A12 Jubilees survived a few more years beyond ‘48 or maybe an excuse to buy that Craftsman T1 if only as a foil to the lovely Kernow 02.
 

Again, thanks once more.

 

Stay Safe