Iron Horseman
Well-Known Member
And oh by the way.... The out and back track plan you have here is, in my opinion, the ultimate solution for a small railroad. Three thumbs up. You can get all the operation of a point-to-point, plus the rail fan effect of an infinite number of loops on the main without HAVING to stop, switch, and go back the other way. And no need for a second space wasting reversing loop.
I presume you know your yard only really has three classification tracks, because so much of it is sucked up with the locomotive escape on the arrival track (green is all wasted), and the switchback tail for the ladder bypass.
It is possible to reclaim that whole escape track for a classification operationally. First the train could just pull in and let the locomotive sit there until the yard engine works the train off of it into the yard. The yard engine could sit waiting on the ladder, the ladder bypass track, or the turntable lead. If you think the train is going to be too long and blocking one of those turnouts, you could add a switcher pocket (blue).
Second, is what I've done on my son's small yard. I use the yard ladder as the arrival track. The ladder bypass tail track becomes the locomotive escape track (pink).
So that.
I presume you know your yard only really has three classification tracks, because so much of it is sucked up with the locomotive escape on the arrival track (green is all wasted), and the switchback tail for the ladder bypass.
It is possible to reclaim that whole escape track for a classification operationally. First the train could just pull in and let the locomotive sit there until the yard engine works the train off of it into the yard. The yard engine could sit waiting on the ladder, the ladder bypass track, or the turntable lead. If you think the train is going to be too long and blocking one of those turnouts, you could add a switcher pocket (blue).
Second, is what I've done on my son's small yard. I use the yard ladder as the arrival track. The ladder bypass tail track becomes the locomotive escape track (pink).
So that.
- switcher positions itself on the ladder bypass track.
- train pulls in and through the ladder
- switcher pulls out behind
- switcher couples on to rear of train and pulls it back of the locomotive to clear the ladder bypass turnout.
- road engine reverses out of the tail track onto the bypass. (changing the leads to the turntable slightly could let it go straight in. (aqua or maroon(
- otherwise switcher starts working the train until it gets it sorted enough that the road engine can clear to the turntable track.
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