How do i make the perfect Yard?

kcdowdy

TCR Mod, TheKoolKid :)
Small, Big, Huge, Old, New, Zig-Zag, Bumpy Anything. What would be your perfect yard. (I could use the help.)
 
I like my yards to be large. It would include a receiving, departing, hump, and classification yard. I also like my yard to run along rivers.
 
There's a built-in hill at one end of the classification ladder. Cars are released at the top and roll down by gravity while points are switched to sort them into separate trains. This saves the time and expense of shoving them back and forth with a small fleet of switchers. One engine just pushes the train to the top of the hill and lets the cars go.

:cool: Claude
 
@kcdowdy

Go into google earth and type in Vietshocheim, these are the freight yards just outside of Wuerzburg, they were abandoned in 2003 I think and are just rusting away, I can make you a DEM of the area if you want.

WileeCoyote:D
 
powelly,
The air tanks are bled to prevent the brakes from setting. The cars are pushed over the hump edge and released to let gravity move them into the yard. The yard operator remotely controls the switch setting to sort the cars. Cars are slowed by retarders. Here is a link to Wikipedia article on hump yards. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_yard

Bob
 
Wouldn't the brakes lock on once the carriage is released, as asafety mechanism??

Aren't the brakes held open by air pressure?
I think they close the air valve before disconnecting the lines to hold the pressure. That prevents the air brakes from locking. Otherwise the brakes lock as soon as you disconnect the air hose.

:cool: Claude
 
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I have been laying out yards in Surveyor for which general and prototypical schematics and prototype pictures are shown in a book called The Model Railroader's Guide to Freight Yards by Andy Sperandeo, copyright 2004. He also describes prototypical yard operations. The book's available for under $20 at your favorite on-line bookstore -- or maybe in a nearby hobby shop.

Dick
 
I see I didn't respond to your question.

Seems to me that there is no such thing as A perfect yard - the one you build has to fit your layout and what you want to do with it. A hump yard is for a major sorting and classification operation, receiving and sending out many trains serving many cities and industries over a large area. With several portals, this might make a layout all in its own right, with sorting and classification being the main challenge to the player.

On the other hand, if you are working with a regional, mostly rural layout, you will still need the arrival, classification, and departure parts of the yard, but probably on a small scale.

From time to time, I work on a layout with local industries and with a couple of portals, the idea being to receive through trains from one portal, take some cars off, add others, and send it out the other portal. Then, in the yard, make up consists to go out on branch lines to various industries, and assemble cars from those industries to go out with a through train or be sent to other local industries. A yard of whatever size and configuration it takes to do these things on my particular layout would be my idea right now of an ideal yard. Maybe it'll be something else tomorrow.

Dick
 
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