I’m not sure if this would have been better placed in Prototype, Track or Opertations, so I’m posting here…
The Slate Creek Main is now open, as you all know. I’m in the process of planning some of the things that will happen along the way, primarily the stops the train will make where there are sidings… and I’m running into some quandaries.
First… Can anyone cite an example of a passenger station with a passing track where the main is the FURTHEST from the platform … then the passing track… then the siding? This is the kind of arrangement that’s taking shape, and I want to make sure it’s at least plausable for a track plan, at least as far as 1:1 practice somewhere went. Also, there’s a possibility that the siding would leave the passing track partway, cut through the platform, and across the adjoining street to an industry … does anyone know where something like that might have happened?
In the first case above, where the station is two tracks from the main, what was normal practice for getting passengers out to the train? Full length platforms with crossings, or just crossings at which traps would be spotted? Of course, I suppose you can’t then clog the house track with parked cars, as no one would be able to get to the waiting train…
I remember the Old Saybrook CT station in the 70’s had a siding that went around behind the building, with pedestrian crossings in the middle… I may attempt this instead with the siding… but the passing track isn’t long enough.
Next … for a group of sidings with a plant switcher assigned to them, would a privately owned industrial locomotive ever be allowed to foul the main track for switching purposes, or do I have to make it so that all “plant switching” can happen without fouling the last switch out onto the main?
Last … I’ve been doing some late night research on things like the Gilpin Tram … with the idea that I’d like to find an ore mill/crusher/concentrator that loads from ground level instead of the top floor … with the idea that inbound cars would be unloaded from a low dumping trestle into bins, which would be loaded either by conveyor or wheel loader into the plant…
Anyone know of an arrangement like this, where the crusher was more on one or two levels than down the side of a mountain?
OH, and one other thing … did any mine railroads (gilpin on down) use mine tailings for ballast? I don’t mean the chemical contaminated stuff… I mean the stuff hauled out of the mine that’s not ore… just clearing the path to the ore. Seems like it would have made good roadbed in some cases… being mostly crushed rock.