Engine Mantinance Yard

Nick8564

Member
What is located in the Engine Mantinance Yard in real life. I know they have to fuel and probably have a building they are worked on in, but what else? I have seen a sanding bin, are these located there?
 

2-8-2

Member
Roundhouse
Used for locomotive storage and minor daily repair andmaintenance.

Maintenance Shed
Performed total disassembly (which took about a month) and major engine overhauls. Equipped with in-house blacksmith and machine shops capable of repairing and fabrication.

Sanding Facilities
If your layout will have some rough terrain, sanding facilities will be needed. Consider a sand pit and/or sanding tower. Often sand arrived at the yard wet, so a sand drying facility was used.

Ash Pit
"Clinkers", the byproduct of fired coal, and ash were dumped here.

Water Tower/Watering Facilities
In later years...water, coal, and sanding towers were combined into 1 structure.

Coaling Tower
Depending on the era you're modeling, these structures varied greatly in appearance and materials.

Fueling Station

Not all steam engines used fuel. Some even used propane.

Turntable
Self explanitory.
Click me - Nice pics of a model RR service area
 

brakie

Active Member
Nick8564 said:
What is located in the Engine Mantinance Yard in real life. I know they have to fuel and probably have a building they are worked on in, but what else? I have seen a sanding bin, are these located there?

Kind of a loaded question with many different answers. :D
First we need to know what era,type of layout,ie division point,out laying yard for a branch line or is it a short line?? Steam diesel or both? Then we can give you some sound advice. :D
 

Nick8564

Member
Thanks, Umm I am going to build my layout using the modern era, or present day. The yard will have diesel engines. The Yard will be to the side of the main line. But also I am including a line that is dedicated to a Steam engine. This will have its on yard and line seperate from the main line. I wanted to use this line as a tourist ride in honor of the old steam engines. Just alittle something extra
 

Russ Bellinis

Active Member
Nick8564 said:
Thanks, Umm I am going to build my layout using the modern era, or present day. The yard will have diesel engines. The Yard will be to the side of the main line. But also I am including a line that is dedicated to a Steam engine. This will have its on yard and line seperate from the main line. I wanted to use this line as a tourist ride in honor of the old steam engines. Just alittle something extra

The tourist line would probably run separate facilities from the modern era class one railroad. For the class one, you would need a fuel stand for diesel fuel, a steel "Butler" type building (like Pike Stuff) for engine repair. I think the sanding facility is part of the fuel island. For the tourist line, you could use a turntable and a small two bay engine house built or bashed long enough to house your steam engine. Most tourist line are running small steam engines like mikes and consolodations. In the West at least, most tourist steam engines are running on fuel oil rather than coal. The tourist lines seem to use old fashioned water tanks for the water, but a modern fuel hose to add fuel to the tender. I'm not sure the tourist lines would use sand. The only one I can think of that runs up heavy grades in slippery conditions would be the Durango and Silverton, but there may be others. Most run on an out and back type run of 5-10 miles or less.
 

Ralph

Remember...it's for fun!
That was a great photo tour Chris. Loved that cab shot with the EMD control stand!
Ralph
 

wjstix

Member
Kalmbach publishes "The Model Railroader's Guide to Locomotive Servicing Terminals" by Marty McGuirk, it should be at your local hobby shop now. Good place to start.
 

jetrock

Member
A modern-era engine facility that has been around for a long time might still have remnants of steam-era equipment: the old Central Pacific Shops in Sacramento, CA were occupied and used by SP and then UP until 1999, even though some of them date back to the 1870's. I know that in a few places in the East Coast there are still old coaling towers, because they were built so well and so strong that you would practically need an atomic bomb to take them down! And many older yard/division point facilities still have turntables.
 
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