# Locomotive service yards



## Shdwdrgn (Dec 23, 2014)

I've been doing some research lately while trying to redesign the yard coming into my turntable and roundhouse and thought I would share a bit. The one thing that strikes me about the yards featured in magazines is that they always appear so *functional* even when there is a minimum of support, and that is something I really want to reproduce.

So the first thing I was looking at was the idea of a roundhouse. Many yards have straight-through buildings for the locos and I worried that a roundhouse might not have been appropriate for my time period. It looks like roundhouses actually started making an appearance in the US in the early 1880's, and after that the only consideration was the available space for buildings.

The biggest part to work on is the services you plan to offer in your service yard. Are you going to offer a one-stop shop or will you be focused more on specific items? For steamers you will need a fuel supply (wood and coal are common, oil came in around the 1920's), a water tower, and if you are modeling mountains then sand is essential. An ash pit is needed (I believe the ash comes from the firebox?) and adds a neat aspect to the yard. Each of these would also need a supply line. It is not uncommon to see a couple of hoppers loaded with coal sitting on a dedicated spur in the yard, and you might even have another spur for sand. Water can come from a tower or be pumped from an underground well. Oil would be delivered in tankers. Everything needs storage space and the equipment to deliver it to the locos.

In addition you may have buildings for different services. An inspection pit, a wheel shop, maybe even a place for doing a complete rebuild of a loco. I see a lot of yards with hoists out in the open, presumably for repairing large parts or lifting the loco to repair wheels. There might be a paint shop or a place to wash down the loco.

Finally there is the layout of all the services. From what I've read, there was no standard for any of it. The location depended on the terrain, what order each building or service was added, and so on. The choice between straight and round houses also depended on the available space. When there was room, separate incoming and outgoing tracks seemed popular. The turntable was essential for the steam era but once you get in to diesels they were no longer needed and service yards could fit into a much narrower space. There were places where the turntable provided access to a number of different tracks in the yard, but also times when only a single line went across the turntable and only provided the option of turning a steamer around. I've also seen turntables set at the end of the line in the mountains where only a single track came in and dead-ended on the turntable.

I have been trying to think about how each of the services are used and what items might require close proximity. A lot of things happen hidden inside the buildings but you still have some signs on the outside. Perhaps a pile of rusting wheels and trucks, maybe some barrels of paint or grease. Fuel water and sand would ideally be grouped together but perhaps the water well is at one end of the yard while the spur for coal hoppers is at the other end. There seems to be no 'wrong' layout for anything but the more scattered the supplies are, the longer it will take for a loco to get stocked up before leaving the yard, and this can be reflected in your timetables.

I'm sure I have forgotten at least a few things, and since I'm not running any diesels I don't know much about their requirements so perhaps others can fill in more details. Not everyone will have service yards but if you have the space for one it can add a lot of interesting visual appeal.

As examples, here is a well-organized large full-service yard for steamers:









Here is a much smaller yard which only seems to offer the essentials:









And one more yard with a lot of services packed into a small space:


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

You are so on it. A very complete analysis of what you
would want for a layout. A loco service area is one of the most
fascinating scenes on a model layout. It also needs fresh
materials and disposal of others, as you note. This
is another 'industry' for your switching operations. Delivery
of sand and fuel and picking up empties from my two
loco service areas is always a major part of my switching
operations.

The larger loco service area in your attached pics is very
well done but it is far too neat. There should be
all sorts of metal parts, wheels, loose rails, unidentifiable pieces
of rusty junk, ties, defunct signal stands, weeds,
standing water, just about anything one would not
want in his front yard. And, of course, a yard office.

It can be fun to construct your own loco facilities...I made
my sand towers out of miscellaneous plastic parts from
the junk box...the same with my diesel fuel platforms and
delivery systems trackside. If you've had trains for a long
while you have collected boxes of interesting pieces of
plastic and metal. You can use these, tinker around, be able to piece together the service area gear. It's all a part of the hobby...letting your creative juices flow as you enjoy time between those
really important chores that are not all that amusing.
Or you could just go to Walther's and spend a lot of
money buy it all and say the heck with it.

Don

Don


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## Shdwdrgn (Dec 23, 2014)

I agree about the large service yard pictured... it looks like something that was completely planned out from start to finish, but it feels very sterile like they just opened their doors this week. For me a well-used facility should have almost a junkyard feel to it -- tools scattered where they were last used, little piles of things left forgotten behind a shed. I especially love the repurposed box cars and cabooses being used as offices or storage sheds. To me all that stuff gives it a feeling of using what you have available, never throwing anything away that might be re-used later, generally a place that puts function over form and is too busy getting things done rather than bother with a manicured lawn. I really hope to create a lot of scenes like that when I start building my layout.


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## Shdwdrgn (Dec 23, 2014)

Here's another one I really like. Lots of work being done out in the open, an interesting scene to really grab the eye...


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## Stumpy (Mar 19, 2013)

Great thread! Especially since a service yard is pretty much going to be the focal point is my layout.

Another view of the last yard pictured in the OP - lots of spurs.


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## Stumpy (Mar 19, 2013)

Here's an interesting ash pit.


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## MichaelE (Mar 7, 2018)

That's an interesting photo.

I really like the first and third photos in the OP.


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## Vincent (Jan 28, 2018)

An informative thread that provides some good ideas for improving my own layout.


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## Mark VerMurlen (Aug 15, 2015)

Great photos from some fantastic model railroads. Some very impressive modeling!

Mark


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## UP-Railroad (Apr 18, 2018)

Thank you so much shdwdrgn some amazing knowledge.


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## Dennis461 (Jan 5, 2018)

*boxcar storeroom*

I worked for SEPTA at a small yard beyond 30th Street station. We had a boxcar on a short siding setup as a storeroom, rickety steps up to a door built into the partially open sliding door. No other facilities.


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## ebtnut (Mar 9, 2017)

Roundhouses date back at least to the 1850's. This link is to a well-known George Inness painting from 1855, named "The Lackawanna Valley". Clearly seen in the background is an enclosed roundhouse, very similar to the one at the B&O Museum in Baltimore: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg...he_Lackawanna_Valley_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg


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