Would someone please enlighten me on the use of Interchange Tracks in the real world. In a layout plan is one sufficient and how are they laid out?
A interchange track Is where a Customer has sent some thing by rail on NS but the only way to get it to it's destination is to use CSX track. At certain points ,mostly near a yard there is a length of track tha connects to both railroads . It is here that the customers car that started on NS is delivered to CSX in order to get it to it's destination. A good example of a interchange for you would be between CP and CN railroads. Alan
So on a model railroad it could easily be abstracted as a single track leading off of the layout. That could be served by GHA (giant hand action) or a cassette.
Owen: This is a scan of Page 8 in John Armstrong's classic: Track Planning for Realistic Operation, 2nd edition, 1979. I'd recommend buying a copy because there is a wealth of information in it. Trainboard members with genuine 1:1 experience/knowledge can probably straighten out any misconceptions or misunderstandings I have, but I think RRs would drop off a cut of cars on the interchange track and would inform the receiving RR (by lists left in a lockbox? by telegraph, telephone, tell a person, radio, fax, digitally??) of what was left and where it was going, and would pick up the cars and lists of what was coming onto their own RR for routing to destinations on (or beyond) their RR. Some modelers represent a version of this practice with car cards/waybills set in a box on the fascia board near the modeled interchange track(s). Those of you with more knowledge than me (most of you!): I'd heard at some forgotten time in the past that, when there were two tracks at an interchange, that RR A would drop off their cars on the track closest to RR B and RR B would put cars destined for RR A on the track closest to RR A. If RR A was leaving cars for a different train from RR A, then those cars would be put on the interchange track closest to RR A. Is this the way it usually happened, or am I mistaken? Were there differences in practice in different eras? Railfans and 1:1-ers: Are there details related to scenery or structures around an interchange track, that modelers may want to be sure to include (lock box? dedicated phone?)?
Another thing that was common between yards, was the transfer run. Lets say Santa fe's got a bunch of cars destined for places on Illinois central. They sort them into a train and deliver them to the nearest IC yard via an interchange track. Then they pick up the cars destined for their line from Ic's yard and run back. It is sort of how I plan to run my layout. Trains from other railroads will deliver the goods and then the resident railroad, probably a different rail line every ops session, will take over from there. But for a smallish layout a spur or two that run off the edge of the layout, without any industry there, simulates an interchange just fine.
Interchanges between railroads can be anything from a single track to large yards like those in Chicago, St. Louis, and New Orleans. Today, interchange notification is done electronically, but in the past there was a mailbox at smaller interchanges where waybills were left, although the delivering railroad notified the receiving railroad by telephone or telegraph what cars were on the interchange and where they were going. The vast majority of railroad freight moves over more than one railroad. In the past, when there were 100 plus Class I's, routes using five or more railroads to get from origin to destination were fairly common. The short line I worked for preblocked cars to CSXT, to three yards on its lines, enabling through freights to pick up cars at the interchange rather than a local "peddler" Our interchange was a yard that once served four railroads. :cat:
There are certainly multi-track interchanges, some qualifying as yards, where different tracks were assigned based on which road cars were going to or from. An interesting (and complicated) example: http://research.nprha.org/NP Termin...px&RootFolder=/NP Terminal Schematic Diagrams UP/NP/GN/MILW interchange yard.
For operation an interchange is like a joker. Other than any industry at your layout an interchange can receive and send any type of cars. Wolfgang
Wolfgang: Good point about the wider variety of cars that go through an interchange compared to those through a specific industry. But, I think something was lost in translation...Please, what is a "yoker"? A German (British? European??) term refering to a track that connects or yokes two RRs?
We have an example here on the old CB&Q/Milwaukee Road Crossing in Davis Junction IL. The Milwaukee Road (now ICE) runs east/west Chicago to Savannah IL and the CB&Q (now IL Rail Link) runs north/south from Flagg IL to Rockford. The diamond in town has a wye and cars going to Rockford from Chicago go on the east wye, and cars comming from or to Rockford or Savanah are on the east wye via IL Rail Link to ICE. They can also interchange with BNSF as the old CB&Q line terminates in Flagg and connects to the C&I div. on the BNSF west of Rochelle IL.
Isn't this a location Bruce Chubb used for a car-routing example in How To Operate Your Model Railroad?
Not sure, as I'm not familair with that book, but could be. It used to be a somewhat famous section of track, complete with a resturant on the northwest side of the diamond. I know I have seen a model article of it, complete with pictures of the Milwaukee Road units. I just drove through the other day and noticed that both the CB&Q and Milwaukee Road era signals are gone, replaced with the modern hooded versions. Would love to get my hands on that old CB&Q signal. Maybe I'll stop by today on my way to Mendota.
