Principles for station/yard design

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mikeabdullah

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I probably have the wrong search keywords, but to my surprise this is a topic I wonder a lot about, but find surprisingly little info to read up on.

I'm interested in the basic principles used when designing a station/yard area. What are people's approaches for deciding how to lay out their track in a given are, and create a scheme that works, while being reasonably interesting.

I should say that I'm primarily interested in North American single track type layouts, but suspect most places can't be too different at this level (serious double track+ mainlines, I can imagine more differences come in).

It seems to me that the barest minimum is a passing/run-around loop. But then what beyond that? Are there principles for how the various sidings/spurs are combined with the loop?
 
It depends on what your station / goods yard would be handling.
Passenger services are fairly well understood, but you may have simple things like milk and newspapers that would just be unloaded next to the passengers,

Consider what goods will be delivered to your goods yard.
e.g. if you have vans being unloaded by forklift they will need a goods yard and a loco will need to pull them through one at a time then run round the train and take them back
if you have a coal merchant at your station then you may receive coal wagons that need to be shunted into a siding where it can be collected with a truck. if you are doing shunting operations, you may want a headshunt to stop your loco going back onto the mainline when carrying out shunting operations,
What type of traction (steam / diesel) are you operating? you may want a water tower etc for steam or fuel tanks for diesels
What direction will trains arrive from and depart to is something to consider as well.
 
mikeabdullah said:
but suspect most places can't be too different at this level
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There are a significant number of variations depending on the operator, location and time, once you go beyond a simple passing loop.

mikeabdullah said:
Are there principles for how the various sidings/spurs are combined with the loop?
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In general, if there is freight/goods traffic arriving/originating at the location there will be a few sidings to handle traffic, and they will typically (but not always) diverge from the loop line rather than the straight-through line. If there is a lot of freight/goods traffic, and a lot of passing traffic on the mainline, there may be a head shut provided for the sidings the can be worked without interfering with passing traffic.

There are many possible arrangements. Here is a semi-complex one from UK Railway practice as an example.

IMG_2477.jpeg
 
Your track plan may also depend on what prototype (if any) you choose to base your modelling on. Did the locomotives run tender/bunker first? If not, then you might want a turntable. Was livestock transported? A cattle dock would be necessary. Perishables? A goods shed.
Small stations might only have had a single siding, with individual wagons being uncoupled from a mixed train, which were then pushed by hand into the siding -something we would probably avoid doing on our lines, as it requires a 'hand of God' intervention...
 
And don't forget that there's a prototype for everything, and also Rule 8. Just remember, if you have room, to leave a space for any changes you'll make
 
Have you stumbled in any of the USA track planning books? These and the annual layout mag of Model Railroader well worth hunting out. One siding that can be used for a multitude of traffics is a ‘Team Track’ so called as this is where Teams of Horses would drag trucks for unloading/loading all sorts of traffics. Still in use to this day and a simple run round with 1 Team Track could be a simple start for a modest station layout. If the siding is double ended i.e. 3 through tracks with ine at a side being the Team Track you have a very versatile Station layout utilizing just 4 points/switches.
 
dunnyrail said:
Have you stumbled in any of the USA track planning books? These and the annual layout mag of Model Railroader well worth hunting out. One siding that can be used for a multitude of traffics is a ‘Team Track’ so called as this is where Teams of Horses would drag trucks for unloading/loading all sorts of traffics. Still in use to this day and a simple run round with 1 Team Track could be a simple start for a modest station layout. If the siding is double ended i.e. 3 through tracks with ine at a side being the Team Track you have a very versatile Station layout utilizing just 4 points/switches.
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I've come across "Track Planning for Realistic Operation" and been aiming to buy a copy at some point. It sounds a lot like the sort of thing I'm interested in.

The Model Railroader bits you mention are I suspect harder to track down.
 
Thank you for the replies so far everyone. Yes, I'm keenly aware that it all depends on the type of traffic and the era. But that's sort of my point.

Like many of us, I'm working with a fairly limited space in the garden. It's not a terribly big plot, and I'm building at ground level, needing to cross over pathways in several places. I'm not too wedded to a particular place, time, or traffic type (I do favour the caboose era though as something extra to do).

What I do really want to do is build something that's actually fun to operate, and runs fairly sensibly. I'm very happy to pick my traffic etc. to suit that. I'm also very happy with laying and relaying track outdoors, tweaking it, to find something good; a major benefit compared to constructing an indoor model!

So I'm coming at it from the point of view of wanting to know what are my tools/building blocks I can leverage here? A direct answer of "oh you need X for milk traffic" is only helpful if I've already got my heart set on that!
 
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You will either eventually (however loosely) choose a 'style' fot your railway, but there will always be the 'visiting loco' because you wanted one! :D

Even if you end up with an outdoor Playmobil village (or two) you still 'sort-of' need a back-story, to base the railway on:
Quarry trains, from the kids and-pit, in that corner of the garden.
The Kichen Garden branch line, to get produce to the 'big house'. - Even if the produce and big house, are way over scale!

Spend a little time in the Vale of Peckforton (Google Rik's railway) and you will see what I mean..
Others can suggest other themed lines, to give you some ideas, as well.

Do have a complete circuit (if you can) so you can have the company of a train pottering around the garden, whilst you work, or sit with a glass of something..

But most of all.....
Enjoy!

PhilP.
 
Ok so you have a small plot with not a lit of space, sounds much like a temporary railway we had for the 16mm beds group. We had a station one side A with a run round and 2 sidings, on the other side we just had a siding B. I developed a running plan that. The siding at B was only accessible from clockwise rotating trains and station A was decided to be 2 locations with 1 of the 2 sidings theoretically at each station. Thus a train departed station A with a few wagons some for station B that could be detached on the clockwise journey, wagons would need to be shunted at B so that wagons could also be attached. On arrival at A again now the other end if the line wagons could be detached b attached as appropriate. Note this could include wagons from both stations A and B.

Now we depart from station A anti clockwise on the return journey, any wagons destined for station B have to be taken back to A for the next clockwise trip. Arriving back at the starting point of A in the anti direction wagons are detached, any for B to be placed for their journey on a later train.

The thing about this is I have described it as 1 loop each way, but you could have more loops than this to put some distance to your run just not stopping at the stations till you are theoretically there. This can make a small railway appear much bigger than it need be. As for traffics, these can be decided as you work forwards, perhaps station B could be a quarry with loaded ore of some kind with the 2 different sidings at differing locations in B having Vans and Gondolas with sundry traffics. Makes more interesting if you make removable loads for the Gons and quarry wagons you can load one way and empty the other.
 
Thanks Jon. That's good to hear, and is not far off my line of thinking.

Schematically I've got basically this at present:

1741011395590.png

I don't know a nice terse name for it, but a continuous loop with termini hanging off it on opposite directions.

The left-most bit is tucked down the side of a shed, and acts a tiny staging yard, representing the main line that trains originate from.
They follow round the loop once clockwise, visiting the left stop on the way, then finish at the right-hand termini, the end of the line.
Get back to staging by performing one anti-clockwise circuit.
So it's intended to be operated point-to-point normally, but can set a train looping round and leave it be if desired.

Currently the left stop is as you describe. It's a passing loop with two sidings/spurs coming off it.
And I'm looking at adding a few spots around the loop where there's an industry off of a single siding/spur, so again like you describe, it can only be visited from trains in a single direction.
I don't think I need to go as far as recycling one station to act as both ends of the line, happily.

I've got the ability to join together top-left and bottom-right of this diagram, so potentially the route can pretend to be even longer by doing an extra circuit via the shortcut. Or I could fill in only a part of that, to act as a tiny branch, maybe to a logging camp, something like that. I suspect the latter will be more operationally interesting.
 
mikeabdullah said:
Thanks Jon. That's good to hear, and is not far off my line of thinking.

Schematically I've got basically this at present:

View attachment 339543

I don't know a nice terse name for it, but a continuous loop with termini hanging off it on opposite directions.

The left-most bit is tucked down the side of a shed, and acts a tiny staging yard, representing the main line that trains originate from.
They follow round the loop once clockwise, visiting the left stop on the way, then finish at the right-hand termini, the end of the line.
Get back to staging by performing one anti-clockwise circuit.
So it's intended to be operated point-to-point normally, but can set a train looping round and leave it be if desired.

Currently the left stop is as you describe. It's a passing loop with two sidings/spurs coming off it.
And I'm looking at adding a few spots around the loop where there's an industry off of a single siding/spur, so again like you describe, it can only be visited from trains in a single direction.
I don't think I need to go as far as recycling one station to act as both ends of the line, happily.

I've got the ability to join together top-left and bottom-right of this diagram, so potentially the route can pretend to be even longer by doing an extra circuit via the shortcut. Or I could fill in only a part of that, to act as a tiny branch, maybe to a logging camp, something like that. I suspect the latter will be more operationally interesting.
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That is perfect for a Terminus to Terminus ooeration. Strangely I was in York today and picked up a copy of the Model Railroader Planning mag for 2025, at £8.9l it is a bit steep but a good few smaller lines in it that may give you inspiration if you decide to hunt for a copy.
image.jpg
 
Now you know the pain of buying UK magz here in the states!

I would say the first thing to do is make a list of what will be the characteristics of your layout...

So figure out your longest engine. Anywhere you are planning to do a runaround or turn, needs to include enough stub length to support that length. For a runaround, I would include that length plus one of your longest cars/carriages.

Then figure out the longest length of train you are planning to run regularly - and add an extra car. This becomes your minimum for passing siding length.

As for yard design, in the US they can be anything from a simple set out track to a full hump yard. For single track, often you had a passing siding and then the spur or industry line branched off that or maybe a little further down the line. The biggest thing is being able to break up the train without fouling the mainline.
 
Thanks, good advice here, and pretty much what I've put in place so far.

So much of this is trying to learn what the actual purpose is of the different parts, and even the right name for looking that up. I've never encountered a good primer on the subject, and that's somewhat what I was hoping for here.

I think if I understand correctly, the absolute core of it is a run-around siding (ignoring modern passenger units and similar such things which don't need to run around). Somewhere along the way, you need to move the locomotive from one end of the train to the other, and a run-around accomplishes that.

In theory this could only happen at the start or end of the route when assembling or disassembling the train. But it's quite likely there's a point somewhere in the middle too where a run-around is required, for dropping off or picking up cars.


So for my midpoint station, I've got that at present. It consists of a simple run-around loop plus two spurs (to use what I understand to be the American terminology). I haven't really got room for anything more, but might adapt with time. Just need to find a convincing use for the spurs.

A train can stop there at this station, and drop off or pick up cars from the spurs. If needed, it can use the run-around to accomplish this. Currently both spurs face in the same direction, so the run-around is only needed if the train is travelling in one direction.

If I understand then, everything else is embellishments I might wish to place on top, to suit the traffic.
  • I can potentially add more spurs with additional industries or other reasons to handle cars
  • The mainline currently acts as the yard lead when (dis)assembling a train. If I wanted to keep the main free, I could add a dedicated yard lead
  • I could add a passing siding so a train can still pass directly though the station while another is stopped and using the run-around loop
  • Particularly steam era, locos might need to take on water etc. mid-journey
  • If busy enough, locomotives might start or end their journey at the station (or even be permanently located at the station for shunting duties) and need facilities for that


At either end of the line are some very temporarily placed terminii yards. My experience from playing with it has been exactly like you describe; it's nicest to have enough stub length for the loco plus one car/wagon. Currently a double straight (60 cm) does the job pretty well, but I suspect a little more is prudent, to allow for a longer loco or car.

As I start to settle them into a more permanent setup, I believe that's where it becomes clearer what facilities are needed for (dis)assembling a complete train.
 
Your principles are correct as above. But another one which will define what wagons you buy, what traffic do you want to carry. If you have a prototype line in mind that is easy and will be defined by research. But if a line feom ones figment of imagination all options are open. To my mind I do like to see loaded one way empty the other if loads are visible. But if that feels a pain then covered hoppers carrying grain from a loader are a great solution defining a small plains facility. Fuel tanks are another good option, just a few indications of where they are loade or unloaded are suitable. I have a fuel unloading point at one of my stations where fuel is sent to power local factories. An imaginary figment as at the real location a coal fired power plant was built!,,,,But this location also has a gravel loader another figment for this location but reality is added by a sand plant for bottle making, wood inwards to be cut for barrel making, barrels out. Just a few concepts about how to think these through, in reality the siding layout will by the sound of things be heavily dependent on your available space.
 
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