# Railway operations



## AllenB (Oct 21, 2009)

I'm in the process of building a 1945-65 era layout (14ft x 18ft "L" shape). I'm trying to incorporate some of the operational stuff that went on. Questions I have are:
1. What types of services (fuel, sand, water etc) did locos get and what did that look like (garage?, fuel farms etc??)
2. Ore or coal...how did they load up? Was there a dead end line that they backed up and took on the material or was it always a through type siding?
3. I see a lot of "yards". What was the purpose? Is there a similar variable to these yards or were they all different? It seems some yards I see are a mess of lines with no real purpose (unless I'm blind to the operation).

Thanks!


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## sstlaure (Oct 12, 2010)

That was a transitional era (really at the end of steam.)

Diesels need fuel and sand

Steamers need coal (or oil), sand and water

Ore and coal are typically loaded via a coaling tower (engine drives under or next to it and the coal dumps down a chute.) Water tanks had necks that could be pulled down to load the water, and sanding towers are pretty small. You'll also need an ash dump pit for cleaning the engines.

coaling towers

http://www.walthers.com/exec/search?quick=coaling+tower

typical sanding house (older style)

http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/152-162

fuel depot (diesels)

http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/272-120157

cinder conveyor and ash pit

http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3181

Yards are used to classify cars according to where they are going next. switcher engines pull a string of cars off of an arriving engine and sort the cars into various tracks for departure (example: Northbound/southbound mainline freight, local industrial deliveries, etc. A lot of people don't use yard correctly and just keep a bunch of cars sitting there taking up space. A yard isn't for storage (although some cars do get stored there short-term) it's for keeping the freight moving to the correct destination in the most efficient manner.

If you really want to plan out your layout for operations, get this book "Track Planning for Realistic Operations." It's an excellent reference and covers yard design, engine servicing facilities, etc.

http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/400-12148

Hope this helps.


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Good summary, Scott!

TJ


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## sstlaure (Oct 12, 2010)

Why thank you TJ.....Operations is what I'm most interested in.


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## AllenB (Oct 21, 2009)

Excellent resources...thanks guys!


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## sstlaure (Oct 12, 2010)

Allen,
Take a look at my new build thread (link in my signature). I'm also building a switching style layout (not continuous run but rather point to point.)


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