2 questions on operations


Hawkesburytrain

Well-Known Member
Question 1:

At the top right, you see a white building, if the train is coming from the right, it will back up the freight in the area, but if it's coming from the left, how does it drop off the freight? For that industry must the trains always come from the right? Or could someone describe how an operation would happen for that area or any other industry when coming from opposite entry to an industry?


View attachment 56375

Question 2:

When a load of freights are dropped at an industry, for example the cement factory (grey building in middle), who moves them afterwards? Do they have their own locomotives? Does the locomotive wait for the first car to unload then moves them for the second car to unload etc?

Does it show that the only contact I had to real trains was walking on rails and nothing else.......

Thanks
 
Question 1:

At the top right, you see a white building, if the train is coming from the right, it will back up the freight in the area, but if it's coming from the left, how does it drop off the freight? For that industry must the trains always come from the right? Or could someone describe how an operation would happen for that area or any other industry when coming from opposite entry to an industry?
First for terminology. To a train coming from the right that industry would be on a "trailing point siding". To a train coming from the left it would be a "facing point siding". There are several ways to switch a facing point siding.
1. The best way is for there to be a run around track close at hand. In this case the closest run around would be the set of cross overs to the extreme left. So the train would stop short of the first cross over. Break off the car to be spotted. Pull it up past the turnout and leave it there. Take the crossover to the other track, backup on the other track past the car, take the other crossover and come in behind it. Then it would push the car around and into the industrial spur. Picking up would be opposite.
2. Real railroads could do a running fly. In this move they would uncouple the car(s) to be spotted from the train pretty far back. Have a switchman standing at the turnout and a brakeman on the cars to be spotted. The loco would charge ahead as it approached the turnout the brakeman would uncouple the locomotive. It would continue accelerating away from the cars which are now on momentum only. The locomotive would hopefully put a gap on it and the cars as it went through the turnout. Just as it cleared the points the switch man would. Throw the switch to align with the spur and the momentum of the cars would carry them into their place. The brakeman riding would apply the brakes to spot them at the right place. As you can see many things can go wrong with this. In model railroading our cars don't have any momentum so to speak and this method doesn't work well at all.
3. The cars for the industry are arranged at the closest yard and shoved in front of the locomotive all the way to the industry.
4. Then as you guessed sometimes industries are only switched on trains going one direction. The cars are all taken to the next available yard and then sorted according to their final direction. Hence a car could end up going right back down the same track it just arrived on and past the industry to destinations to the right.


Question 2:

When a load of freights are dropped at an industry, for example the cement factory (grey building in middle), who moves them afterwards? Do they have their own locomotives? Does the locomotive wait for the first car to unload then moves them for the second car to unload etc?
Some have their own locomotives, some have track-mobiles, some just use a tired loader or tractor, others design the siding with a slope. With a slope the cars are all spotted to the far sided of the loading/unloading point. They then let gravity feed them in applying the brakes to stop each one over the loading area. Some larger industries that don't have their own loco, will actually call the railroad to send a locomotive out and do an "internal moves" just to rearrange the cars at the industry. There is a technical name for this that I can't think of at the moment.
 
Deliveries to the white building from the left would require a means of getting the loco on the rear end of the freight car to push it into the siding. Do that with a couple of cross overs in the vacinity of the industry.
For the industries you might consider an industrial switcher or an assignment from a local yard or loco facility.
 



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