Location for ash hoist

Steam service structures would generally be located on the inbound track so that locos coming off the road could add coal, water and sand and also dump the fire prior to entering the turntable and roundhouse.  Here's a photo from my layout showing the outbound track from the turntable on the far right and the inbound track next to it.  Inbound locomotives pass a water plug (on the other side of the coaling tower), the coaling tower,  the ash pit/hoist and the sand tower.

Hi Don, I'm no RR operations expert, but I would say the ash pit should be near the round house, or in the maintenance yard.

I would also guess that the first stop is the ash host and then on to the coaling tower. Depending on your real estate the coaling station should be on a siding off of the main line. I doubt if all engines that needed coal would have to go through or over the ash pit to get it. I also assume the water tower would be on the same line as the coaling tower.

Thank you everyone. I appreciate the comments. Dave, hope all is well as i have not seen you in a long time.

Bob's photo shows a water tower/tank off to one side. It has no spout. Such a tank supplies water to a plug or plugs where locomotives take on water. This saves space in a crowded service facility. "Plugs" are still used in the yard of the East Broad Top Railroad, formerly a narrow gauge (3 feet) common carrier and now a tourist line, at Orbisonia/Rockhill Furnace, PA. There is no water tank there. Pumps push water through the plugs.

On the other hand, the big wooden water tank at the Cass Scenic Railroad in West Virginia originally had two spouts - one for Cass log trains and the other for trains on the C&O Durbin Branch.