My railroad: Passenger terminal operations in a limited space

Most mid-sized layouts have very limited passenger operation, unless the whole layout is designed specifically around this aspect of railroading. For the most part, full passenger terminal operations are the reserve of much larger layouts. This video attempts to show what can be done in a mid-sized space, without sacrificing freight operations. Note that the video only shows those freights that are relevant to the passenger trains in some way. To show an entire day's operation would result in a much longer video - a project for another day, maybe.

The layout represents part of a busy 20-mile branch-line to a harbor town somewhere in the Northeast. Note that many of the cars are inappropriately lettered (these are temporary placeholders, just like the foam-core structure mockups). The sequence shown includes five round trip passenger trains. I could run more, but my fiddle yard is too small. You will notice that the same local train appears more than once. This is deliberate. In other cases, I assume that the railroad owns many similar cars so make no apology for the same cars that I started with, returning at the end of the day.

The room is a little over 13' square. The main passenger track is approximately 64" clear length between the turnouts, which is about the length of a light pacific, one 50' head-end car and four full-length passenger cars. However, this does not prevent us from running some longer trains if we think ahead. Much of the interest in a schedule comes from seeing a wide variety of train lengths. In this video, you will see passenger trains ranging from 2 to 9 cars.

I am not an expert on US passenger train operations, but I think everything I do here is reasonably prototypical given the scenario I have outlined. If I have made any glaring mistakes, please feel free to educate me in the comments below.

For anyone interested in my thinking process regarding certain things, here goes...

Other than a water tank that I plan to position near the head of the wye, there are no engine servicing facilities on the layout. They are not needed as there is supposedly a full roundhouse facility at the junction only 20 miles away. Since a harbor terminal would probably want a switching locomotive available much of the day, I'm planning to have three freights (all hauled by 2-8-0's) each supply the switch engine for a few hours. This will not necessarily be 8 hours each - the actual time each crew is scheduled to spend at the terminal will depend on the amount of switching they must do en-route (ensuring that they can return to the junction well within the 12-hour shift limit).

When the morning passenger train arrives, the fish reefers are already back at the icing dock. They would have been taken down to the pier for loading and brought back up again by the overnight freight engine (the one that was waiting to depart when the sequence started). I'm arguing that the 4-8-2 is not permitted on the harbor incline because of sharp curves and tight clearances. Also, returning the reefers to the ice dock gives an opportunity to top off the ice bunkers just before departure (and the minor problem of the fish pier not being built yet doesn't prevent me from running this service).

The fish reefers are put next to the engine intentionally to simplify switching later. When the 4-8-2 arrives at the junction, it will work a fast freight inland, adding the fish to it's consist.

Using a 2-6-0 on the local passenger trains was not my first choice (but it was available at the right price and I don't have a 4-6-0). I'm going to argue that the frequent stops this train makes doesn't give it much opportunity for high-speed running, so the 2-wheel leading truck is not a problem and makes only a minute or two difference over the run.

The same 2-car local set (60' coach and combine) makes three round trips per day, since it's only a 20-mile journey.

Using both light and heavy USRA mountains in the same roster is unusual. I've read that no railroad received both light and heavy mountains from new, but there's no reason why the light mountains couldn't have been acquired through merger.

Sit back and enjoy the show. Please comment, like, and subscribe.

For those who are interested, this layout will be on tour during the NMRA WLD meet in October 2016. If you are in the area, feel free to stop by.