Author Topic: 60s-70s Intermodal Ramp Question  (Read 3834 times)

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sirenwerks

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Re: 60s-70s Intermodal Ramp Question
« Reply #15 on: September 30, 2017, 11:49:57 PM »
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The CNW Proviso yard had 14 unloading ramps, 7 facing each direction.

There's a shot I've seen of a MILW trailer getting turned on a turntable.

Jason


Jason, any chance there's a schematic that shows the layout of such craziness? Wondering how just two opposing ramps could/should be laid out for a smaller yard, since I'm not thinking of modeling anything the size of Proviso. This is south-central Oregon I'm thinking about, not Chicagoland. I was half joking when I first mentioned the turntable fix; it seems like such an act of desperation. Good reason to keep a turntable around though, I guess...
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nkalanaga

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Re: 60s-70s Intermodal Ramp Question
« Reply #16 on: October 01, 2017, 01:52:31 AM »
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Actually, even dieselized railroads can use turntables.  They're very handy for cab units, once one no longer runs them in A(B)A sets.  Plus, if you have a working roundhouse, it makes a fine diesel shop, and keeping the turntable is easier than laying enough turnouts to replace it.  That's the main reason Pasco still had one.  The old NP roundhouse handled routine diesel servicing and light repairs.  And, if one wants a hood unit to face a certain direction, for whatever reason, it's cheaper, and takes less land, than building a wye. 

As long as the turntable is there, works, and is paid for, there's no point taking it out.

As for two opposing ramps, for a small facility, how about a double-ended siding?  Cut the track in the middle, put the two ramps in back to back, and leave enough room between them for the trucks to maneuver.  You'll probably only have one or two cars at a time.  On a model railroad, it might seem like a lot of space, but for the prototype it's not much room at all.

On a model, since we usually have more depth than length, I'd run two spurs facing in opposite directions, overlapped.  That way the ramp for each would be near the turnout for the other, and it wouldn't take much more length than a single track.  The inside ramp would have to be positioned to avoid fouling the outside track's entry, but the outside track could be as long as space allows.  Pave or gravel the outside track so that trucks could get to the inside ramp, put a road, and maybe parking, on the far side of the outside track, and it's done. 

In N scale, for a yard handling a couple cars at a time, two car lengths on each side would be enough for a normal day.  If you have more cars, and they all come in facing one way, the switch crew will have some extra work to do.  Doing it that way the entire yard could probably fit in three or four feet of length, and if you left out the parking, four inches of depth would probably work, allowing for a basic access road.  Put it at the front of the layout, and parking could be off the layout, to the front, implied by the road.
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wcfn100

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Re: 60s-70s Intermodal Ramp Question
« Reply #17 on: October 01, 2017, 02:03:30 AM »
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Jason, any chance there's a schematic that shows the layout of such craziness? Wondering how just two opposing ramps could/should be laid out for a smaller yard, since I'm not thinking of modeling anything the size of Proviso. This is south-central Oregon I'm thinking about, not Chicagoland. I was half joking when I first mentioned the turntable fix; it seems like such an act of desperation. Good reason to keep a turntable around though, I guess...

No diagram I can find, but it's basically two 7 track stub yards back-to-back but offset from one another with a wide roadway in between which I believe is elevated to the deck height.

There was an article in one of the CNWHS magazines that showed the Omaha's West Minneapolis yard that looks like it used a portable ramp on a separate track from the normal TOFC track to unload trailers facing the 'wrong' way.

Jason

sirenwerks

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Re: 60s-70s Intermodal Ramp Question
« Reply #18 on: October 01, 2017, 03:39:25 AM »
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I have seen 'portable' ramp varieties made out of flatcars with, basically, a truck removed and the other end buried in the dirt, or cut off to fit on a roadway (hardly mobile, considering the loss of one truck). I've also seen the early ramps for off-loading autoracks. I'm curious what a portable piggyback ramp would look like though.
« Last Edit: October 01, 2017, 12:44:56 PM by sirenwerks »
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nkalanaga

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Re: 60s-70s Intermodal Ramp Question
« Reply #19 on: October 02, 2017, 01:15:56 AM »
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I've also seen the flatcar ramps, but would hardly call them portable.  Transportable, maybe, as they could jack the end up and replace the truck, but the ones I've seen were intended to stay in one place.

Here's a portable TOFC ramp, from the MEC:


From this page:
http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/13046-us-odds-and-ends/#entry129567

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Chris333

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