Yard office / yard tower
- Thread starter rgeiter
- Start date
rgeiter
Conrail Quality
Selector
Well-Known Member
Modern? https://www.walthers.com/modern-yard-office
Transition and earlier? (This is what I'm currently using on my transition layout)
www.walthers.com
Transition and earlier? (This is what I'm currently using on my transition layout)
Industry Office -- Kit - 4-3/4 x 6-1/4 x 2-3/4" 12.1 x 15.9 x 5.1cm
The Walthers Cornerstone HO Scale Industry Office is typical of small buildings found at the entrance to large factories like steel mills and assembly shops. It's also ideal for use as a great free-standing small business, yard office or crew room. Structures like the Industry Office can be...
www.walthers.com
rgeiter
Conrail Quality
I used that building for another project. ( older one) This is the one I bought.Modern? https://www.walthers.com/modern-yard-office
Transition and earlier? (This is what I'm currently using on my transition layout)
Industry Office -- Kit - 4-3/4 x 6-1/4 x 2-3/4" 12.1 x 15.9 x 5.1cm
The Walthers Cornerstone HO Scale Industry Office is typical of small buildings found at the entrance to large factories like steel mills and assembly shops. It's also ideal for use as a great free-standing small business, yard office or crew room. Structures like the Industry Office can be...
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D&J RailRoad
Professor of HO
The yard tower on the D&J Railroad handles all the business of the classification yard.
There are switch control towers at each end of the yard as well.
There are switch control towers at each end of the yard as well.
santafewillie
Same Ol' Buzzard
A yard office and a yard tower are two different things. A yard tower is usually a centrally located multi-story structure (tower) that is a combination switch tower and control tower. A yard office is generally a small one story brick or metal structure located at one or both ends of a yard that serves as a temporary shelter/lounge for the yard workers while waiting for their next assignment. Prior to the transition era, many were wood. A yard office may have vending machines and lockers in them.
D&J RailRoad
Professor of HO
Yeah, but mine has an interior.
otiscnj
Well-Known Member
This is a nice kit and very similar to the structure that used to be at North Yard, in Denver, for years, and perhaps similar designs used elsewhere. As I recall however, at least the earlier version was just a bit undersized in terms of it being a 1/87 scale model. As long as you don't put 'average height' HO people right next to it, it should be OK. The doors and windows give these types of things away. As I recall it used to be a Faller, or Vollmer kit, from Germany. I have a tower for my passenger station/terminal, very similar to the 'new' control tower in Hoboken, NJ, which was built a long time ago, in the 1980's. It was of a sort of cantilever design. I also have the Suydam Yard Tower kit, that's based on a Southern Pacific prototype, from the 1960's that's like an airport control tower from the 1950's to some extent. The good old Atlas, Bachman, as well as Railway Design Associates/Ertl concrete tower I've used in spots, also.
rgeiter
Conrail Quality
I know that.
Thats exactly what I am looking for! It’s big enough to be both yard tower and office all in one.
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rgeiter
Conrail Quality
So you guys get an idea of what I’m looking for, the brown building in the unfinished area of the wye is my placeholder for a yard tower/ office. (I don’t have space for two buildings). Yard lights will be next. Found some cheap China LED lights on Amazon that will fit the bill.
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cv_acr
Well-Known Member
No, the yard office is where the yard master and clerks manage the yard from. In a large yard other managers's offices, train crew lounges/lockers, break/lunch rooms, etc. may all be in the same building, but a crew rest building isn't a "yard office".
In a large yard, the office may be in an elevated tower so the yardmaster has good visibility over his yard, and/or also be able to control some signals, hump switches/signals/retarders (if it's a hump yard), etc.
In most yards the yard office is just a small building. Only in the larger more complicated yards is the yard office a "tower". Yard tower is just a two or more story yard office with a good view.
Switch and manual interlocking towers are not to be confused with yard towers, although as mentioned some signals may be controlled by the yardmaster. (And such a control panel doesn't necessarily require a "tower".)
rgeiter
Conrail Quality
So this is what I eventually settled on. I couldn’t find a decent two story building to work as a tower(on top) and a yard office (on the bottom). I just went with a single floor building. I’m happy with this.
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logandsawman
Well-Known Member
rgeiter
Conrail Quality
I wanted to show you what I did with the building you suggested. I needed it for my cement plant office.Modern? https://www.walthers.com/modern-yard-office
Transition and earlier? (This is what I'm currently using on my transition layout)
Industry Office -- Kit - 4-3/4 x 6-1/4 x 2-3/4" 12.1 x 15.9 x 5.1cm
The Walthers Cornerstone HO Scale Industry Office is typical of small buildings found at the entrance to large factories like steel mills and assembly shops. It's also ideal for use as a great free-standing small business, yard office or crew room. Structures like the Industry Office can be...
Attachments
rgeiter
Conrail Quality
Thanks!
otiscnj
Well-Known Member
fwiw, the lines of your trackwork look very 'clean,' like the rr has money, and isn't bankrupt. Rix, used to make a 2 story steel walled 'Butler Building,' is very similar to the building you've chosen. Depending on the importance, and traffic at this location, you could always combine 2 of the buildings you've got, into a longer one, for additional offices, or crew locker rooms, etc.....
I think on the old LV, prior to Conrail, at Niagra Jct, near Buffalo, NY, all they had was a couple of single wide trailers, for offices, and crew space.
