Yard scene suggestion

Deem,

I don't know how much space you have for your diorama so here's my suggestion. Have a raised rear track to simulate the hump of a hump yard with the office ( a building flat, if needed) and a lower front track with a water column for your steam engines. You can change them out as the mood hits you.

Remember, this is only worth what you paid for it!

Tim Moran Akron, OH

Yard

Engine tie up track behind the or next to the yard office.  Crate of brake shoes (switcher go thru a lot of those), maybe a rack with MU hoses.  Have a building with 2 or three exterior doors, Yardmaster, crew room/lockers, carmen.  On the carmen end put a rak with blue flags, cases of brake shoes, maybe an acetylene torch, oil tank and long spouted oil cans

Track would have lots of oil soaked sand on it. 

By the way, on a short branch they might use an SW to run the local.  Bert Pennypacker had a story about the steam engine failing at Coatesville on my line and they took an SW from the yard and ran the passenger train on into Reading with an SW pulling it.

Repair in place

Yard Office

A RIP track won't have engines.

Here's kinda what you are asking about, this is Ogden, UT on the UP.  Several engines lines up behind a yard office that's a little metal building, you can substitute whatever design fits your era.

This is the street view:

By the way, that yellow thing in the background is a shifted load adjuster.  I've only seen one at Ogden, its a big "guillotine" with bracing on the legs and the "blade" is a big metal plate.  They would lower the metal plate in line with shifted load, then an engine would push the car against the plate and shove the load back onto the car.  Evidently they used to have a lot of problems with shifted loads of poles and lumber out of Oregon and Idaho going east.

Tim,My space to work with is

Tim,

My space to work with is about 10 inches by 3 feet.

Dave,New terms for me to

Dave,

New terms for me to look up like "rip" and "tie up" track.

Thanks for the info on the track side details, and I just notice the aerial.

Thanks Mark, I'm looking up

Thanks Mark,

I'm looking up to find out what a RIP track is.

@DEE

Repair In Place

RIP - Tie up

Repair in place, its the car repair facility at a yard.  They do running repairs on cars, that is they fix things needed to keep the cars moving to destinations and they will do some inspections.   They are not contract shops and generally do not do major overhauls of cars.

A "tie up track" is where engines are "tied up" at the end of a shift.  When the work shift ends the yard crews have to put their engines someplace, if there is a specified track they put the engines while they are on break, at a meal or between shifts, that is called the "tie up" track.  Many of the transportation terms come from horse drawn wagon days (teamsters, team track, hostler, tie up, etc.).

may be not following the real thing

I use a lot of pictures to build up little details in scene or on my models.

But I also take inspiration from existing layout.

The FSM is an excellent source for detailing yards and a how to do by using little details and some funny little buildings like shanties or small piece of materials which are left along the track; the overall effect is incredibly real and give a lot of character of a lone track yard

Knowing many of the FSM details comes from real pictures, the way they are arranged is a real lesson.

Just my opinion

@Dave, Thanks for that fine

@Dave,

Thanks for that fine description.

@Marc,

I found this image of the era I model that should be a good guide in regards to ballasting/track conditions.

Different thought

Hi,

you stated you are looking for ideas regarding the display of some engines.

As an alternative to the suggested yard setting, a loco repair shop might be worth a thought. There are some specialist repair shops that are not attached to major railroad yards, which offer heavy maintenance. For example there is the steam engine shop in Meiningen (Germany) which is about the only place to go nowadays (at least in my portion of the world). Meiningen is far away from any major rail yard.

You could set up a similar shop that specializes in boiler replacements/diesel engine rebuilds/repaints/...? It would make a nice setting to display both badly weathered and newly painted locos and might actually be attached to your existing layout. This kind of shop can be anywhere, probably a converted former shipyard?

Have fun!

I'm with Dave...

I'm with Mr. Hussman. Model the tie-up track and a small yard office. Your space is perfect. Diesels on one track in the rear, yard office, and the 0-8-0 up front and proud, taking water from water column.

Be sure to light the office and power the tracks... this would make a dandy "night light" or "sleep machine" with a warm glow in the office and lights and ambient sounds coming from engines at rest. 

Actually... that's a pretty neat idea and a cool way to get a small bit of modeling into the bedroom... Oh! the dreams you'll have! 

R

Ryan, Indeed a great

Ryan,

Indeed a great idea.

I'm hunting fthriugh my books and on the net, biut so far no luck with finding images of CNR yard offices.

So I'm curious

Why don't you think switchers are appropriate for a small branch line terminus? Sure they might not live there permanently, but when I think branch line terminus an old yard goat almost always comes to mind . . . .

dark2star, A unique idea; if

dark2star,

A unique idea; if only I had the real estate though sounds promising for a future layout.

Rebuild shop

A "rebuild shop" is a fairly new idea.  If you are modeling the 1950's, early 1960's the concept was fairly limited to industrial engines.  The class one railroads did their own repair and rebuild.  It wasn't until the 1970's-1980's when the class ones had the ability to consolidate shops and sell off excess shop facilities, and the concept of leasing companies owning fleets of engines,  that the rebuild shops began to take hold.

A Suggestion -- Lindenwood

The shop at Lindenwood Missouri shows up in many images of diesels parked for service.   I think that you could maybe construct one bay (partial building against backdrop) and the side of the building on a diorama, and include the fuel tanks: 

My guess there are a few more shots of this structure at:  http://frisco.org/mainline/

-Bob T. 

Shop

You could use DPM modular wall sections (DPM 30111) to build a background plain brick wall and then put one or two greasy tracks in front of it and more or less replicate the bottom picture.  If you wanted to frame it more, DPM has large rail door openings (DPM 30132), you could put those on each end and frame it.

Basically darkstar2's suggestion, whether its a railroad shop or contract shop doesn't matter.  I have seen numerous similar pictures at other shops.  

Geographical variations

Hi,

Dave Husman said "a rebuild shop is a fairly new idea." Well, it depends on where you are. The previously mentioned shop at Meiningen in Germany used to be a regular railroad-owned shop, which might have been used for engine assembly during the war.

After the war there were many damaged or just plain worn out steam engines, but there was very little chance to replace them. So they started to rebuild the steamers shortly after the war. In Eastern Germany they actually built some new ones and rebuilt a lot of old steamers. A common rebuild was to add a new boiler to an old loco. Eastern Germany ran mainline steam into the 1970ies and narrow-gauge steam is still running.

Due to regulations every steam loco in passenger service has to have a "full inspection" including a certification of the boiler every few years. Which is what the shop still does. Depending on the loco's condition, it might amount to a full rebuild and occasionally a new boiler...

Long story short, the facility was set up out of the need to haul trains after the war. It would have been in full operation by the end of the 1940ies.

Yes, Deemiorgos is building a layout located in Canada, so this would be irrelevant. I was just surprised how everyone went all-out for a yard-office setting... So I wanted to offer just something different, for the sake of adding some variety to the discussion

Have fun!

@kcsphil,I presumed that CNR

@kcsphil,

I presumed that CNR 0-8-0s and 0-6-0s were for yard service only.

I noticed the 0-8-0 has smaller drivers than that of a 0-6-0, but don't know why. So much to learn.

@Bob T A partial bldg

@Bob T

A partial bldg backdrop and a couple of tanks would not take up much real estate. A nice option.

@ Dave, I like the idea of

@ Dave,

I like the idea of the walls.

I found these two yard office kits, but I think they are more for a smaller yard in the boonies.

The bottom pic looks like the style of structure seen in the area I model.

Tough google image subject...

This is a tough google search... but here are a few scenes and scenarios from other eras and railroads for inspiration.