A question about distance

[AntonyVW]

I am trying to work out the throat of a station. The station in question is an 8 track terminal station. Access to all platforms for both departure and arrival. What I want to know is how long should the throat of the station be from a double track to entry into the station? Currently I have it at 800 feet (about 244m). Is that to long? to short? About right? The point work is long but Im wondering if it is too long? Or would it be much shorter as the trains traversing it would be at slower speeds?
Opinions please?

Thanks Antony

 

[4ndylloyd]

You could have a look at some of the UK's major stations on Google Earth and see what sort of area they use for the station throat. The distance that you would need would depend on the point work you use as shorter radius points will need less room and double slips will use even less but 800 ft doesn't sound like too much to me.

Andy

 

[bwfeldsee]

Typically, a higher speed crossover for main line running would be about 100 yards in length (i.e 50 yards for each turnout). You could drive over such a crossover at about 50 mph and it would look good.

Within yards and station throats where speeds of 30/40 mph are the norm, the length of the crossover would reduce to around 80 yards. On non passenger lines with an even lower speed you could use 60 yards per crossover (ie 30 yards per turnout) but below that looks more like a train set than a realistic installation!!!

I would say that if it looks Ok it IS OK.

Good luck

Alan

 

[cascaderailroad]

I will look in Google Earth and measure a station ... I checked a UK station (North Acton) and it appears that a 500' distance would nicely cover an 8 track yard throat ( @ 152m).

 

[AntonyVW]

Thanks guys. The more I looked at the station throat the more I thought it was to long. And judging by cascaderailroad's measurements - by about 300 feet. Thats good as I can now shorten that area without thinking its 'model sized'.