A Runaround?

I hear you on OCD  I took a year off deciding whether to continue with my layout I started, knowing that I will periodically be consumed with the hobby   But I really enjoy the hobby and my local club.
That is my plan for returning passenger trains from my dead-end St Joseph town/yard.  Drop cars at station, engine runs around the consist and reconnects at the previous tail end.  (But I’m also eyeing a spot where I can squeeze in a small turntable just to reverse the engine before performing the run-around.)

Bob, the only problem with the runaround is the engine will be going backwards. Not a big problem with diesels, but don’t know if that might bother you.

Generally speaking, if you have 1 O-54 loop, you’ll need a 2nd one to turn the train back around at some point.

Both a runaround and loop will limit the length of your trains to whatever will fit.

Here are some relative sizes. Obviously, the runaround and loop can be expanded and the bottom of the wye might be lengthened for larger engines.

A runaround and a (passing) siding are similar but different.  A siding allows two trains to pass with the short taking the siding.  A runaround allows the locomotive to service both leading and trailing spurs (a single entry "siding").  If you have industries that are serviced by leading turnout then you need a runaround.  The runaround can be as short as one car length.  In operations the locomotive will drop the trailing cars behind the car to be switched; pull through the runabout dropping the car to be switched; back down the main to collect the rest of the consist; move forward collecting the car destined for the leading spur; and proceeding to the spur to drop off the car.

In real life the locomotive may be required push the car miles to get to the spur.

Jan

Bob,

The Panhandle has a run-around in the Weirton Junction yard.

There is a wye at the bottom of the yard lead in the Weirton Steel Yard.  The area to the right of the GREEN vertical line (a divider) is Staging.  I have designed a Loads / Empties track that runs through the divider into Staging and back out at the top (under the highway overpass).  The Staging operator can swap empties for loads and vice versa.  And the track can function as a reversing loop as well.

Food for thought.

George

Yards on a model railroad are never big enough. A runaround eats some yard space, about a freight car length on each track.

I have a couple of escape switches in my yard to allow pulling in with a string of cars and uncoupling the engine to back out on an adjacent track.  You can then reconfigure the switch and push the string in from the rear to fully fill the yard track.

Don't let the title of Armstrong's book, 'Track Planning for Realistic Operation' scare you.  Don't reject it because you have no plans to realistically operate, you just want to run trains.  The whys and wherefores of why real railroads are built the way they are, are covered in this book and even a simple loop of 027 can be enhanced with what you will learn between the pages.  This book can revitalize your interest, and give purpose to your railroad empire.