station sidings ?

[gregc]

is it actually realistic to have parallel station sidings, or should the spacing between tracks vary making room for water towers or just taking advantage of available real estate?

here's an example
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=40.823183,-74.413024&spn=0.003045,0.005&t=k&z=18

 

[Rico]

Sidings vary quite a bit depending on the situation.
I can't see the picture too clearly but it looks like there may have been a track removed which would leave the remaining outer tracks spaced farther apart.
I've been on station tracks that were spaced for a double spouted water tank and sidings that had close clearances due to obstructions.
Hope that helps a little?

 

[Selector]

I don't think I understand your question. In any location where yards are found and passengers de-trained, tracks must generally be parallel. Where there is sufficient traffic to warrant it because the stops are longer, yes, there would indeed be a siding for the station/depot. On the other hand, on small rural whistle stops where the train gets flagged down, it stops right there on the main.

-Crandell

 

[weekendrailroader]

I could be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure that your aerial photo is of an outdoor train museum, not an actual train station. I think I can see the water tower you are talking about though, and I think the answer is: it all depends. It depends on whether that water tower and those tracks are in a historical location, or were placed there by the museum. If they are in their original location, then it must be prototypical. If they were placed there by the museum, then it might not be prototypical. I'd suggest to keep trying for more aerial photos, or find a book displaying medium-sized railroad stations and their track set-ups, and go from there.

 

[dave1905]

Most sidings are roughly parallel to the main track just because its easier to do.

It is quite common to have sidings swing out at the ends to clear signals. If there was a some other structure they might go around them. I would think that having the station between the main track and and the siding would be less common, because it would "trap" the staion between two trains (don't confuse a house track with a siding).

In the picture I would consider the siding roughly parallel to the main anyway. The track with the equipment on it that swings around the water tower isn't the siding anyway, as far as I can tell. There is a track with a train on it that i would say was the main track, a track next to it that I would say was the siding, then the water tower, then the curved track that was some sort of house, yard or industry track.

Dave H.

 

[gregc]

the station in the map link above is in whippany, nj on a very short line called the morristown & erie. it had been that way since i was a kid (60s), and had a steam engine ride and museum. i had never thought that maybe it was taylored for that use.

my question was motivated by my attempts to use XtrkCad and how it seems to be easier to use if everything is neatly arranged with straight and fixed radius curves (i know there are easements). i assumed it would be easy to use flex track and just specify a set of points to connect.

where i live, i am surrounded by the old main lines of the pennsylvania, reading, lehigh valley and central jersey railroads. nearby is yard of shorts, that i believe is where the reading and lehigh valley lines had merged (or at least ran next to one another) before merging with the CNJ in boundbrook. i believe is it also an example of where at least some tracks seem to wonder where they could have been parallel.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=40.546976,-74.575946&spn=0.003057,0.005&t=h&z=18

 

[NYC_George]

Passenger siding

The photo below is a model of the tracks and station in Pawling, NY. Two of the siding was used for passenger trains and the third & fourth for both passenger and local freights. Notice that the water tower has no water sprout. Two filling sprouts were at the north and south ends of the platform between tracks 1 & 2. In the early 50’s 3 trains stayed over night and in the morning left for New York City. My bedroom was only a couple hundred yards from the E7’s that idled through the night.

NYC_George