The Humbug cutoff
During our spring open house/run days a problem arose that we hadn’t encountered before. Visiting motive power and their train cars had engine and tender lengths that would not fit on the turntables, forcing said trains to have to back around to point of origin.
This scenario did not work well with what we are trying to accomplish with our operations, something needed to change. In discussion after operations it was decided that a wye would be a way to solve the problem. As two legs of the wye were in place it seemed like a simple matter to add the third side.
Well maybe not all that simple. A few things needed to be overcome.
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Cut a switch into the main line on a curve and change the switch throw from a target stand to a ground throw because of space limitations.
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The cut off had to run through an existing turn table and the approach to the TT had to be realigned.
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The biggie, 5 ½ inches of elevation change in 15 feet, a steep grade but hopefully doable.
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A possible four foot lift out section for maintenance access.
Nothing to it, just start building.
But wait a minute, why the name Humbug?
Well Webster says that.
“Humbug generally means nonsense, deception, or a hoax. It can refer to a deceitful person, a fraudulent act, or simply something that is hypocritical or ridiculous.”
Well we thought it was ridiculous and pretty much nonsense to run a main line through a turn table but that is the only way it would fit. We couldn’t abandon the TT because it was needed for normal switching operations in that area so we had to go with it, besides it’s pretty cool.
In addition, the name Humbug is part of the name of the railroad whose equipment and owner brought this situation to light, more on that later.
On to the build and the pictures
Here you can see the layout of the situation as it exists. The mainline loop on the left goes up grade from front to back. The mainline across the back goes down grade from right to left. The PVC pipe on the ground is a layout to get a feeling for the curve involved.
The cut in location for the switch on the loop mainline
A closeup at the turn table end, I just couldn’t abandon this neat old square gallows turntable.
More to follow.
