Are These Reversing Loops?

Jim:

I've driven that yard in the past with MMA personnel to look at possible railcar storage tracks and don't recollect a turning loop. That said, it sure does look like a balloon track near the turntable.

Curt

Hi Curt

 

I started off by looking at MapQuest with the information you guys gave me in my "Bangor Railfanning" topic thread. It seems those three loops are/were all tracks .... at the interchange of the different railroads.

 

I could not figure out how to post a Mapquest map. Here is the link to it ....

 

http://mapq.st/11rFG8Q

 

Thanks

Jim

 

Jim:

I can't say for sure.  There is quite a bit of brush and small trees at NMJCT and it is difficult to have the same perspective on the ground that the satellite photo gives.

Curt

I just took a Cub from Bangor to Sand Point.  I saw a number of balloon tracks.  There is one in the vicinity of Porterville Ca that is actually an oval - have no idea what a real railroad does with an oval.  It has been a long time, but I think I saw an oval in Illinois or Indiana in the 1970s.  Durango uses a balloon track daily to reverse trains.

There were tracks in those locations as shown in the topographical map from 1979.  You can view it at historicaerials.com  Illinois did indeed have at least one circle; it was a mile from my house.

 

Brendan

Reversing loops are also called "balloon tracks," as bob2 posted. A junction of three railroads probably kept those loops and that turntable busy.

 

The grand excursions between Lewistown and Gallitzin with 765 and two NS Heritage Units turned on the balloon track after climbing Horseshoe Curve. That track had been used to turn helper engines.

 

Balloon tracks are also used on both levels of Grand Central Terminal, the City Hall Station, and the South Ferry Station.

Google maps shows the turntable gone...

 

 

the reversing loop looks like it is still tracked, but in bad repair.

 

turntables were fine for positioning a locomotive, but some trains like to keep their car order intact (head end cars in front, observation car at the tail) and that's where the large reversing loops come into play.

Followed the link using my iPad (larger screen than the phone).  The tracks are labeled on the Mapquest map.  Looking at this, I believe these are actually the Pan Am / MMA interchange tracks although, the MMA track probably could double as a balloon track.

 

Curt

Jim:

 

Update on this.

 

I fired a note off to one of my contacts with the MMA and he confirmed that they do have two balloon tracks in service at NMJCT, Maine.

 

Curt

That's the prototype for the Lionel Lines railroad

 

Aw come on! You knew this was coming.

Return loop in Portland, Oregon around a grain elevator.

 

Coal transload loop in Ardoch, ND.