Hi folks! I have settled upon a sleepy C&O / NYC branch loosely based on the NF&G in West Virginia as the prototype I will follow. My decision was reached by the numbers of C&O locomotives i own (2 mallets and my ongoing K3 Mikado project) and on the following photo. This is a perfect little roundhouse and engine facility to fit at the edge of my layout, and has enough structures and detail bits to keep me busy for a long while, and provides a perfect starting point for operations to the "branches". So, this is where I will start. Now, I have a question though... what is that thing in the foreground on the left, over the stack of 1478? Is that some sort of cinder-catching contraption? I have not seen anything quite like that before. Does the row of hoppers on the right also look like they have cinders in them? I cannot quite tell what it is!
Also, there is a water standpipe, so that makes sense! With regards to coaling the engines, would such a branch perhaps load the tenders with a clamshell shovel of some type? I do not have the room for massive coaling towers and things. I know on some such branches, locomotives coaled from one of the tipples they'd serve, with the railroad being billed for the coal, but all engines couldn't possibly do so all the time (I am looking at you, little 0-8-0 on the left!)
My guess is they are cleaning the boiler flues of cinders. The picture was taken from the coaling tower and the hoppers on the right have coal for the coaling tower. 1478 is being prepped for her run. That turntable barely fits the 2-8-2 and doesn't seem long enough to handle an H6 2-6-6-2.
What a fantastic photo! My guess is that the hoppers on the right are loaded with coal. They lading looks a little chunky for cinders and the location of the track places it well for a bucket conveyor (out of sight) to load the coaling tower. Hard to say with certainty though.
The mike still has some room on either end, and is equipped with the massive VB-16 tender. In my modeling studies, I have learned a K series Mike with that huge VC16 tender is almost as big as a 2-6-6-2! The fact a 2-6-6-2 (from the walkways, an H4) is sitting on one of the outside storage tracks already means it likely fits, I think? Also, doh! It makes sense that the photo was taken from the coaling tower! Eeps. And yes, it is a wonderful photo! It's from the C&O Historical Society's excellent 2-8-2 Mikado book by Karen Parker - I hope it's ok I posted the photo to ask the questions?
If you have ever been near a steam engine when the fireman sanded the flues you would understand why they were doing this. The fireman would put a shovel full of sand next to the peep hole of the boiler and the draft would suck the sand in. The sand effectively sand blasted the carbon deposits and any other build up from the flues and ejected it out of the stack. Fine when you are on the road, but a sudden rail of carbon and sand in a servicing area would be...unwelcomed. Back in the 80's (1980's) SP 4449 was in the SF bay area and some EPA guy got up on a overpass or signal bridge with the intent of checking the 'emissions' from the engine and the fireman choose that time to sand the flues. After all the dust settled (literally and figuratively), 4449 didn't return to California for 10+ years but the EPA never tried checking the emissions again.
This makes sense! Thank you guys! So the hoppers are there to catch all that crud and carbon. That will be neat to model, I think!
But the 2-6-6-2 No. 1478 (an H6 according to its number) has what appears to be a full load of coal in its tender. How can that be if it came off of the turntable and hasn't reached the coaling tower? One possibility is that it was backed down the coaling track, loaded with coal under the coaling tower then backed further down to the water spout and the flue cleaner. This would be the opposite way of readying a loco for service and is feasible if the locomotive was too large for the turntable. Also note the caption identifies the locomotive on the turntable as K2 No. 1198, a Mikado. It also says that Mikado's of the K2 and K3 classes were standard power on this division. According to the C&O locomotive classification website H6's had 12000 gallon tenders while K2 could have either 16000 or 12000 tenders. The K2 on the turntable could have a 120000 tender also. One would need the erection drawings for both locomotives and tenders as well as the length of the turntable to have a definitive answer.
I'm pretty sure the k2 has a 16000 gallon tender; I do not believe any 12000 gallon Vanderbilt tenders on the c&o came with triple axle trucks. And the h4 on the outdoor tracks certainly had to fit on the turntable, unless I am missing something? You are right about the position of the h6, so perhaps it had already been turned to head back to Kentucky? Regardless, I'll make sure the turntable can fit 100 feet of loco; big enough for all 2-6-6-2s I believe. So much to discuss in one photo!
Interestingly, the H4 on the storage tracks seems to have the tender apart from the engine. I cannot imagine they'd do any really serious repairs at a place this small, would they?
Here's a neat photo by Dave Oroszi taken at Cheviot in newer times, but from the other side looking back toward the coaling tower. You can use the tall water tank as a reference in both photos. I believe that this portion of the C&O's main west of Cincinnati through Cheviot Yard was removed in the late '70s or early '80s. It was located on a notoriously challenging grade and it made sense to abandon it in favor of other routes like the former B&O.
Okay, I measured the turntable and arrived at a length of 85 feet. From the limited research I was able to do it seems the C&O had turntables in 15 foot increments with 130 feet being the largest then 115 and 100. So an 85 footer would fit into this arrangement. So here is how I measured it. Uing the photo of the loco on the turntable I marked off the length of the turntable on a slip of paper. Then using the track that locomotive 1478 is on I started marking off on the paper the distance between the rails at the turntable pit knowing that the gauge of the track was 56.5 inches. From this I was able to determine that the turntable was almost 18 times the gauge of the track. Then some quick math 56.5 X 18 =1017 inches now divide by 12 to get feet and you get 84.75 feet or about 85 feet. If you are saying a 2-6-6-2 is 100 feet then it won't fit.
Well however long it is, in my model, I will make the changes required to ensure an H 4, 5, or 6 with a standard length tender will fit. Hardcoaler, thank you for that newer photo! I will be "protolancing" the scene a bit, but this will help a lot! It's even in color, too. From the B&W photo, I thought the roundhouse was actually a much lighter color. Good to know!
As always Model Railroad rule #1 applies so as long as you are satisfied that is all that is necessary. Have fun with it.
Oh! I looked it up in my copy of "Steam Locomotive Diagrams of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad" by Staufer, and it shows a diagram of a K3A (same size as a K2) with a 16,000 gallon tender. It shows the length across the pulling faces of the couplers as 97' 8 7/8", so I think it likely that the turntable is in fact a 100 footer?
