Not overkill

You could even add another industry or 2 in the upper right corner.

Jack

Jack, that is dood news for

Jack, that is good news for me. as I like to add something like a small lobster cannery.

This is what will be located on the lower right corner of the module.

View of area where turnout is on runaround track.

Agree, not overkill...

The plan reminds me a little of Peterborough (aka "Peterboro"), NH, on the Boston and Maine, in concept.  Peterborough didn't start as a terminus, but as time went on it became the end of a branch.  The town boasted a number of rail served industries - if i recall correctly there was a coal dealer, lumber yard and freight house - and a small passenger station on a runaround similar to yours.

If you are open to suggestions, I'd be inclined to add some more industry to your current module to give the branch terminal more of a reason for being.  Keep the siding that leaves the runaround for an industry (freight house, perhaps) and if you can shift the turnout left a bit to get another turnout in between it and the crossover on the right, add another siding or sidings to serve an industry in the upper right corner of the module - perhaps the cannery.

The lead to the turntable could come off the left end of the runaround via another crossover to the mainline and then curve off to the location you show above.  The supply track is definitely a great idea.  You could take the turntable lead and supply track off the main - as I recall the turntable in Peterborough came off the main, but I don't recall if it had any means to service a locomotive, only turning.

Iain Rice (no relation) did a great article and layout plan on Peterborough in the 2000 issue of Model Railroad Planning, I believe.  If you can find the article, might be worth a few ideas!

Looking forward to following this as it develops!

Great suggestions Alan

"The lead to the turntable could come off the left end of the runaround via another crossover to the mainline and then curve off to the location you show above.  The supply track is definitely a great idea.  You could take the turntable lead and supply track off the main"

I don't quite understand/having difficulty visualizing it.

I'll sketch it out...

it will have to wait until Monday, though. Right now sleep is a priority!

Very kind of you. Sleep

Very kind of you, Alan. Sleep well.

Look forward to your ideas.

In the meantime, some motive power that will soon come out of storage and displays that will be frequenting the branchline.

And the occasional visit from these two.

Promised Sketch:

Deemiorgos,

As promised, the sketch is below.  Two options are shown in the sketch. 

Option 1 is as described above in my earlier message with the turntable lead coming off the runaround where the runaround re-joins the main.  This forms a crossover (of sorts) similar to what you have at the right hand side of the module.

Option 2 brings the turntable lead off the main instead.

Both of them include new sidings and a possible extension of the existing siding.  The turnout for the existing siding will probably have to shift to the left to get the new siding(s) added.

I hope these helped.

Thank you kindly Alan. Much

Thank you kindly Alan.

Much appreciated and looks great. I didn't realize the options. I'm on my way out the door so will get back to you later...

...

What is more common is the mainline to be directly serviced by coal, water and sand.

Servicing from the main...

Servicing from the main is certainly an option. With a lead to the turntable, though, providing for the supply track adjacent to the lead would also be common, and provide some additional interest and work in the town.

Jim Six has a few very good postings about a small engine servicing facility he was planning for Sturgis on his layout.  The NYC terminated and turned there.  The particular images he provided were not of Sturgis, but represented his modeling plans. The posts start here [topic:id=14150], go to page 9 and continue on to the next page.

Should be good for a few ideas...

Ongoing modifications

As seen in Alan's drawing, I've extended the siding, but will have to move it farther to the left because as seen in my drawing, there is only enough room to back in a steam loco and three box cars. I now have room to put a track alongside the track to the turntable like Alan showed in option 2. Also have the track coming off the mainline to the turntable making it more than two feet long.

Note: Three squares equals one foot.

The more I look at the plan,

The more I look at the plan, I realize having a siding off the runaround track is not going to work. It originally was for a engine shed before I got the idea for a turntable.

Perhaps I can do without it and have a industry beside the track that is above the loco lead. Also I might be able to extend the loco lead into a closet on a hinged extension.

By the way, it was a section of Trevor Marshall's layout that inspired me over three years ago to come up with this the plan for my module.

Trevor's terminus:

Engine servicing

I could be way off base on this, but I wonder how common it was for engine servicing to occur at the end of a branch during the steam era?  I'm guessing it depends on the length of the branch, but in studying old track diagrams over the years, it seems like when a turntable is there with no associated roundhouse (as usually seemed to be the case in my observations), there's also no allowance for coal, dumping ashes, etc.

It seems so, Joe. 

It seems so, Joe. 

Terminus

Having a turntable without a roundhouse was common.

Having a water tower was very common.

A question would be how long is the branch, how far is it to another service track  and whether a train just turns or whether it dwells over night.  The terminal isn't big enough to have its own switch engine so there is no need to support that.

An engine typically needs more water than fuel, typically a tender has enough fuel to take a train the length of the run which would be somewhere in the 75-150 mile range.  If the terminal is at the end of a 80 mile branch then an engine probably couldn't make the run from the main line terminal to the branch terminal and back with one load of fuel.  Sand is used less than fuel. 

On my prototype there was a passenger train that appears to have run from Reading, down the W&N branch 25 miles then up the French Creek Branch 5 miles to the terminus at St Peters.  Based on the published ETT schedules it appears the train held over night and then ran out again the next morning.  St Peters had a water tower and there was a wye just outside the terminal.  As far as I can tell there was no coaling facility, no sanding facility, definitely no round house.

If I was to put a ranking on what the terminal would have it would be high to low:

Water (steam)

Turning facility

Water (diesel)

Fuel (steam)

Sand

Fuel (diesel)

If you had a steam fueling facility it would not be very big.  Its only going to fuel at the very most a couple engines a day and then probably only top off the bunkers.  Lets say one engine (freight local), and you put 3 tons of coal per trip, a 50 ton hopper would last over a half a month. 

Dave, thanks for the

Dave, thanks for the informative post.

I'm thinkng of a turntable like this:

and a water source like this or remnants of one at the terminus. I think someone makes flexible stones like this out of plastic. 

I really like the look of the stone base:

Stone base

 Water towers with stone bases were normally used in colder climates.  It kept the water feed lines from freezing, they might even have a small stove in the base to keep it warm enough to keep things from icing up.

Thanks for the info, Dave.

Thanks for the info, Dave. The area I'm modeling did get very cold in the winters; about -15C.

Thread will continue here:

http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/28481

I really like this model of

I really like this model of the stone water tower: