Roundhouse/Turntable Alternatives?

Transfer table?

Millhouse River Studios makes a really nice one.

That's a thought Marty, hadn't considered that yet. Am curious about track plans for parallel sidings with perhaps a few turnouts and possibly a wye at one end. One or two engine sheds if room allows. Will be using Atlas track.

Ross makes turntables also.

@c.sam posted:

That's a thought Marty, hadn't considered that yet. Am curious about track plans for parallel sidings with perhaps a few turnouts and possibly a wye at one end. One or two engine sheds if room allows. Will be using Atlas track.

Grafton and Upton RR shortline here in MA had a similar set up.  A small yard in Hopedale MA consisting of parallel tracks with a lead to a Y switch and a two stall engine house.  The G&U is back in business but the Hopedale yard has been extensively rebuilt and the engine house demolished.

There is a pic on this facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/GraftonandUptonRR/

And there is a blueprint map here (if you scroll down the page to a post dated Jul 31, 2021:  https://www.railroad.net/graft...ssion-t391-3735.html

Thanks Joe, this is very interesting. I especially liked this photo with the handsome F unit. Would have just copied it but would need your written permission!

https://www.facebook.com/photo...62425897.-2207520000

@romiller49 posted:

Ross makes turntables also.

And transfer tables.

Thanks Ron, that’s what I meant to say.

@c.sam posted:

What would be some alternate track plans for a locomotive waiting or staging area facility in lieu of the traditional roundhouse and turntable set up?  Thinking of a mountainous situation with not enough width to accommodate the larger facility.

How about a wye?  With the judicious use of sidings, you could turn locomotives in any direction needed.

George

Elevator.    Think transfer table meets inclined plane.  4 or 5 servicing spots stacked up a hillside.  Way to expensive in real life but super cool from a modeling perspective.   ( You said alternative!)

Agree on sidings or passing tracks. Engines can go one way and allow another engine to pass or vice versa. You just need the width to accommodate several tracks.

For what it's worth, if you are operating steam locomotives, you will need a turntable, which generally takes up less room than a wye. A roundhouse would not be needed, with some parallel tracks for locomotive servicing (steam and/or diesel), but a turntable would be a must for steam locomotives and early cab unit, single unit diesels.

The smallest Ross table is 20x22, Millhouse 24x28, obviously they don't turn engines.

I don't know if this will help, but here are what I see as your options, not knowing how much space you have. There is a transfer table, 2 sizes of turntables and 3 sizes of Wyes. The transfer and wyes have 22" extensions to fit engines. Both the transfer and turntable could be a hand-built manual units if cost if a factor.

Another alternative is to model only the engine ready tracks instead of a whole engine terminal. You can divide 2-3 tracks into engine-length segments and park them head to tail. You could have one eastbound and one westbound track.

Due to space limitations, I had to forego the "big-3" layout items: tall bridges, tunnels, and a turntable.  They all require space I did not have, since almost all houses here in the Texas Panhandle lack basements.  If we could have found a house with a full basement, I would have had all of the big-3.

The freight yard tracks are stub tracks open to the west, and the engine house tracks are stubs that open to the east.

So, I have a wye, and inbound locomotives are wyed if necessary, upon arrival, so they can head into the engine tracks and back out of them.  That way, outbound engines can back out out, saw forward over to the yard lead, back onto a train, and depart westward.

For passenger service, it's different.  Passenger engines can come out of the house heading either west or east, as appropriate, because there is a double ended passenger passing track opposite the depot that can hold a passenger engine. while awaiting the arrival of its train  That way, passenger trains can change engines in either direction.  We are not on the transcontinental Santa Fe route, but we are still held to the same high standards of passenger service excellence, and cannot suffer extra delay when

we have to make an engine change.  Off again, on again, gone again -- that's the way we want our passenger engine changes made.  In the photo, you can see the passenger pass diverging toward us at the rear of the baggage car.  The wye switch is underneath the highway bridge, and the engine house is at the right side of the photo, with the tracks ending under the bridge.  The freight yard lead is at the bottom of the photo.

Here's a link to the Bay Line Sherman Yard in Panama City, Florida.  They use a wye and there is also a reversing loop.

https://www.google.com/maps/pl...IKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

At one time in the past they had both 4-6-2's and 2-8-2's and F3 diesels for passenger service.

Jan

@Number 90 posted:

Due to space limitations, I had to forego the "big-3" layout items: tall bridges, tunnels, and a turntable.  They all require space I did not have, since almost all houses here in the Texas Panhandle lack basements.  If we could have found a house with a full basement, I would have had all of the big-3.

The freight yard tracks are stub tracks open to the west, and the engine house tracks are stubs that open to the east.

So, I have a wye, and inbound locomotives are wyed if necessary, upon arrival, so they can head into the engine tracks and back out of them.  That way, outbound engines can back out out, saw forward over to the yard lead, back onto a train, and depart westward.

For passenger service, it's different.  Passenger engines can come out of the house heading either west or east, as appropriate, because there is a double ended passenger passing track opposite the depot that can hold a passenger engine. while awaiting the arrival of its train  That way, passenger trains can change engines in either direction.  We are not on the transcontinental Santa Fe route, but we are still held to the same high standards of passenger service excellence, and cannot suffer extra delay when

we have to make an engine change.  Off again, on again, gone again -- that's the way we want our passenger engine changes made.  In the photo, you can see the passenger pass diverging toward us at the rear of the baggage car.  The wye switch is underneath the highway bridge, and the engine house is at the right side of the photo, with the tracks ending under the bridge.  The freight yard lead is at the bottom of the photo.

Always love seeing your layout Tom! Do you have a track plan or some overview photos?

Google map search West Quincy Missouri and you’ll see a tight wye right next to the Mississippi River, where the Amtrak Illinois Zephyr engines used to turn in West Quincy.  (Now they stop in Quincy IL).  BN had an engine maintenance shed there south of the wye - google view still shows some engines stored on a siding.

It isn’t mountain terrain, but it is a small engine facility and tight wye like you requested.