Getting Started in Garden Railroading by Allan W. Miller

Author:Allan W. Miller
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2011-03-07T00:00:00+00:00

Point-to-point track plan.

Illustration by Dennis Auth

An inherent problem with the point-to-point scheme, at least as far as model railroad operators are concerned, is the inability to conduct continuous running. Operators of a point-to-point rail line can’t just sit back and watch the trains run around and around. They must be in control of their trains at all times, particularly when the train approaches one end of the line or the other. The railroad must also be equipped with some means of actually turning the locomotives around at the end of the line, unless the operator is content with having trains operate in what is known as a push-pull fashion (seen in real life on a number of commuter lines, where locomotives or locomotive control units are at each end of the train).

In the days when steam power ruled, a turntable at each terminus, and even at service points in between, was used to turn locomotives so they would be facing in the right direction. Even diesel-electric locomotives were turned in this way. An alternative to the turntable, in areas where sufficient real estate was available, was a long Y-shaped network of track, called a “wye”, which could be used to turn either the locomotive or an entire train around. A train heading up the stem portion of the wye would move into one or the other of the branches. When it neared the end of the branch line, it would reverse direction; a switch would be thrown; and the train would then back through a “saddle” route that connected the two branches. After it had moved fully into the opposite branch, and had cleared the opposite switch on the saddle, that switch would then be thrown and the train would head back onto the stem en route back to the main line.

In model railroading, either the turntable or the wye, or perhaps a combination of the two, offers a lot of fun and challenges for those who truly want to operate trains in a realistic way. However, a good many model railroaders, including many garden railroaders, still prefer the comfort and ease of watching their trains operate in a continuous and uninterrupted manner, and neither the turntable nor the wye allow for much lemonade sipping when you reach the end of the line!

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