How did American railroads turn passenger trains around at the end of a line?

[JonMyrlennBailey]

Many American passenger trains of old were not bidirectional. Steam locomotives at least had to be flipped on a turntable or a wye. It wasn't customary to have a pair of steam engines and tenders coupled back-to-back and facing in opposite directions push-me-pull-you style as it is with diesel electrics where running around the train on a siding was simple. Some older style passenger cars as Pullman heavyweight observation cars were on the tail end of the train with the porch at the end of the train. Long haul passenger trains were often put together in a very specific car sequence. Often the post office car and express baggage car was toward the front of the train.

Some modern-day excursion trains have an engine on each end of the train for total bidirectionality. The one at Niles Canyon in Alameda County, California has a Pacific class steam engine on end and a Geep diesel on the other end of the train. The Napa Valley Wine Train in California has a pair of ALO carbody engines coupled back to back: a simple runaround at each end of the line. There are no special unidirectional passenger cars like observation cars with rear porches.

Did they use a loop at the end of the line the flip an entire passenger train which could be about 1,500 feet in length? Did they have to cut the passenger train up at the end of the line in a yard with a turntable or wye to reconfigure it in proper sequence to travel in the opposite direction? Modern commute trains are much more bidirectional. Sometimes they just pull the train one way and push it backward.

I also think about the days of the caboose. Having to deal with that exclusive end car when trains were assembled and broken up and also having to deal with intermittent locomotives in long freight trains.

 

[DARTrider]

Simple. What you do is when you get to a stub-end terminal, you get a switcher to pull the coaches out and turn the entire consist on a wye. Then, you back the locomotive(s) out and turn them either on the turntable or a wye if needed. The switcher (when authorized), will switch the coaches back into the terminal. Finally, the cab units or steam engines will back in and couple up, then leave.

 

[JonMyrlennBailey]

Simple. What you do is when you get to a stub-end terminal, you get a switcher to pull the coaches out and turn the entire consist on a wye. Then, you back the locomotive(s) out and turn them either on the turntable or a wye if needed. The switcher (when authorized), will switch the coaches back into the terminal. Finally, the cab units or steam engines will back in and couple up, then leave.

I found this on YouTube. They don't unhook the engine even. The whole kit n caboose turns on the wye in town. For a 1,500 passenger train, that would be a lot RR real estate needed for wye right of way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cLUMOFAd8g

 

[JCitron]

They used balloon loops at the end of the lines in larger terminals. These are still evident today in some locations such as Boston's South Station.

https://goo.gl/maps/xBm3tPtUaisQamng6

The Southeast Expressway, aka Interstate 93 loops right around the loop outside edge near Frontage Road.

There used to be one at North Station as well but that was replaced by the new engine and commuter train maintenance facility. Inner Belt on the map is where the loop used to be. Part of that still exists as a spur for the industries there.

https://goo.gl/maps/BMFmbYxfssMb2KPTA

The Boston and Maine (B&M) used to have turning-facilities at the ends of its multitude of branch lines and due to the cost of this extra maneuver, they were quick to adopt doodlebugs and eventually Budd RDC cars which were run in multiple units on these lines. The cost savings and quick turnaround of the trains made the Budd Liners a welcomed investment that kept things rolling and these trains lasted until the 1980s as standalone units and lived on as coaches pulled by diesels in push-pull fashion. The B&M was also one of the early adopters in general of diesel locomotives and quickly got rid of steam early on. All steam was gone by 1955-56.

There are other such loops such as one found at Sunnyside yards in the Queens in New York City.

In some locations, the engines escaped down a side-track and were turned on the turntable while the seats were flipped for the return trip in the passenger cars. If there was an observation car, that was also turned on the turntable as well.

 

[pitkin]

Denver Union Station had a balloon track

 

[frogpipe]

Depending on the period there can also be cars where some seats face forward and other rearward so they are bidirectional. Still others had seat backs that flipped. Strasburg simply moves the loco from one end to the other and the loco backs up for the return trip (or at least used to) WMSR turns the loco and then runs around.

This is one of those "there's a prototype for everything" situations.

 

[JonMyrlennBailey]

On my scale-model Trainz layout, there is a hidden staging area at each of the opposite ends of the two-track mainline. The trains go in and come out of a heavy forest at either end. There is just a simple big loop at either end in the staging areas for turning the trains around. It's anybody's guess in the spectator area of the layout as to how passenger trains are perfectly sequenced in either direction with the tail end of the observation car in the right place with vista dome cars in front of them and so on. It could be done in the physical world by a balloon loop, a long wye or a terminal yard with a short wye and/or a short turntable. For the latter possibility, it would take a lot of cutting up the passenger train in little pieces and a lot of switch engine maneuvers to put the train back together again with each and every loco and car in the proper order and facing the right direction for the return trip. A lot of time and money for the RR. Generally, express baggage cars are near the engines up front. Class 1 railroads in America with long-haul city-to-city and/or interstate passenger trains have specific arrangements of passenger cars. Even an Amtrak train has cars arranged a certain way. Commuter trains for local passenger service often have simple bidirectional coaches. When SP was still running peninsula commute service between San Jose and San Francisco, California in 1985, they always had the smoker in the back of the train. They had to run the engine around as well as this rear smoker car to boot at each end of the line. Then Caltrain took over by 1986 and trains on this line became push-pull. They ended allowing smoking on trains as well altogether. No more smoker car to deal with.

 

[JCitron]

You might want to take a look at this regarding turning passenger trains and the reason why the Boston and Maine went to RDCs.

How the Boston and Maine uses Budd Rail Diesel Cars
Automatically generated PDF from existing images. (squarespace.com)

The big extensive coach yards, engine terminal and 24-track terminal have all been pared down. The old hump yard is a mere siding or two and no longer a hump yard, the engine terminal is a new facility that can fit where the old roundhouse, cleaning shed and engine facility were located, and the big 24-track terminal is longer that size. Today, it's about 10 or 12 tracks that are squeezed in between highway off ramps and office buildings.