Extra space for freight vs passenger

[BigJim]

I will be having a center passenger terminal with track on both sides. I understand that to look besty the platform should be very close to the side of the passenger car and this can cause problems with running freight cars on the same line.

Should I?

1) Don't worry about getting the passenger cars right up to the platform and leave enough clearance for freight cars.

2) Do a full passing track on both sides and send all freight down the passing track.

3) Do a switching gantlet* track (Points but no frog) to move the freight just a little bit to the side. Might even be a great place for a pair of stub switches.

* AKA Gauntlet. I have seen two types. First is one frog but no points to overlap two tracks for a bridge or tunnel. The other has points with no frog. I think these are most often used for scales to shift the loco off the freight weighing track.

 

[viperman]

Why not have the passenger duty go off on the passing ttrack, and leave the freight on the mainline?

 

[60103]

Jime: what era and area are you modelling? Most smaller town and even a lot of cities didn't have platforms that came much beyond rail height. There have been some problems lately because health and safety have demanded higher platforms, closer to the cars, and there isn't the ckearance for bigger freights.
Gantlets: not just two types. There were also some where the switchpoints and frog were some distance apart, say on opposite sides of a road, and there was a stretch of gantlet in between. There were prototype cases where there was a set of rails serving the platform and a set for freights.

 

[BigJim]

David,

More or less the 1950's >60's.

The low platform might work OK but I do like to look of the gantlet track.

Yes I have also read about the "extended turnout" with the frog & points separated by a considerable distance of gantlet track. As I remember it was mostly used to keep points out of road crossing.

Steven,

The platform will be between the the two mainlines. It goes out to a reversing loop in a storage room and then comes back on the other side of the platform. With a little shifting I can make room for a passing track at the top of the layout but it would be to short to be a real "passing" track. Since it would just be used to shift the freight away from the platform a gantlet came to mind.

...Jim

 

[Torpedo]

If you have a passenger platform between two tracks, you have the issue of how to get the passengers and their baggage to the platform from the station. If the platform is at rail height, you can simply have paved or board walkways across the tracks. If you have raised platforms, you are just about forced to have a pedestrian bridge to get the people out there. You will also have to figure out how to get their bags out there too.

When I was a kid in the late 50's, I used to hang out at the local SP station to watch the trains. It had low, rail height platforms, and the freights just roared through without any issues. The far track was reached by a paved pedestrian crossing, if I recall correctly.

My favorite memory of those days was the totally unexpected sight of an SP cab forward hauling about a 'mile' of reefers inboud to San Francisco. It was a real jaw dropping experience for a 12 year old who thought all steam engines had the engineer in the back.

jawdrop sign1

 

[BigJim]

I plan a parking lot with an auto tunnel to the side of the platform. Platform about 4' wide so I can get at least 1/2 the 8 cars at the station platform.

 

[YmeBP]

This is an awesome layout!!!! I've been puzzling on the idea of how to inlcude the passenger part of my dream layout and i think i've just found it . Hope you don't mind if i use a few of the elements of your layout?

 

[rowdygoudy]

Jim,

What about use of a pedestrian bridge up and over the tracks. You could have all 3 tracks on one side of the Station and run the freights through on the middle track with a platform on the far side. This is common in England although the middle track is for the express trains. I know of a similar set up that was used up till the 60's for a station near me. This had two tracks with a platform in the center at rail height, accessed from an overhead bridge. Of course from personel experience it is not very handicap freindly.

Goudy

 

[BigJim]

YmeBP,

Feel free to use any or all of it. I did the layout in XTrkCAD. If you want a copy of the data file Imade a download like on http://dixiemtn.com .

I wanted the ability to have multiple continuous running tracks and hidden reversing loops so trains would leave and return.

A few places have a little more than the best reach distance but BigJim does have long arms.

If you think the curves look a bit like teardrops you are right. The curves are all spirals with about 1" of radius change per 18 degrees of curve. For example the "Bowtie" loops are 20" radius in the center with 26" radius on the entry and exit. I hope this will let me run the passenger train on the inside loop without looking to bad or having problems.

Using the double crossovers you can run one train through all three loops without changing any turnouts. Plus I think they look great. The center of the Bowtie is a double-slip switch.