Warren Yard - 4 - Loco Services - Overview

The reason I started this series in the Line Side Buildings forum is because most of it will relate to the buildings and structures that are in and ancillary to the marshalling yard.

The first image shows the rail connection to the Loco Services area at the south end of Warren Yard, access is via the yard headshunt and then a smaller headshunt to reverse back into the services area.



Image 2 shows a close up of the services area itself from which the names of all the buildings should be more readily readable.



The services are primarily provided for the yard locos, crew and staff but also for the branch locos which are shedded here. Top up and urgent light maintenance can be made to locos passing through and turning when required.

On entry to the services there is the reporting office to which crews 'report' after which they either proceed to the road for fuelling or standing over the ash pits where they can also be watered.

If proceeding to the turntable, coaling and watering would be performed first if required so that the loco is more easily balanced on the TT making it easier to turn.

Diesel oil is provided for yard shunters and the Class 14 working the cement trains out of the Blue Circle works.

A large sand drying facility is provided as the grades of the industrial branches are quite steep and the trains can be heavy even if short, cement and coal from the industrial branch and heavier ores up from the dock branch. So plenty of sand required.

An oil lamp store is provided to cater for the locos operating out of this area.
The shed has further pits and a workshop attached for light repairs.
A mess and toilets are provided for crews and staff.

The next 3 images show general views of the services area.







Closer examination of the various facilities and their implementation follow next.

Next, maintenance and repairs shed

Discussion always

Jim

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Thanks Gormo

 

Thanks Gary, Jim

 

UK railways were often squeezed in ad-hoc wherever the land could be prised away from landowners, as we were pioneers of railways we did not have the luxury of later developments and the open spaces of the yet to be developed vast continents of the USA, Canada and Australia, so our tracks weaved through the country side leaving us with a mass of low speed lines and small yards which penalise us to this day.

It is all too easy to go for the massive roundhouse affair but in many cases the turntable was simply there to turn a loco around, certainly in this country, however there has been large motive power depots in the UK with two or more turntables, even within the sheds, I believe one is still used as a museum, (my memory is getting awful ).

I also think that we can initially miss out on the purpose of an engine shed, initially we just think of it as similar to a domestic garage for a car to be parked in overnight in the old days, (now we find much better uses for a garage), whereas engine sheds are actually more akin to a motor mechanics garage for servicing and repair of cars. This is why in my opinion an engine shed without some form of workshop attached isn't quite right.

An extremely useful piece of advice from my wife who puts up with my railway activities extremely well is "Less is more", or in other words try and keep it simple and only cluttered where absolutely prototypical, if it means leaving something out let it be an item of least importance. We already pack in too much to be prototypical with overly tight curves and steep grades but leaving some open space creates a much better feel, so a what looks right is a good compromise.

Jim

 

Thanks Ian