Yards on a curve

 On AIR1 my coal marshaling yard, Pettigrew Yard, was on a turn back curve on the closed end of an aisle. While I thought this curved yard looked good, and by locating it on a curve I maximized the use of space, it functioned poorly. 

In order to classify cars on these curved tracks you needed A LOT of tractive force. I started operating this yard with a P2K 0-8-0. Really cool switch engine, and it ran very smoothly, like a watch. However once you began shoving cars into these curved tracks the friction on the curves really reduced the number of cars these switch engines could handle (Andy Sperandeo was a guest Yardmaster and all he did was cuss!).

I first changed these 0-8-0’s out for 2-8-8-2’s, but these engines, and impatient operators,  did not always track well through Pettigrew’s east throat. I settled on a pair of Atlas GP-7’s. While this was an aesthetic disappointment, operationally this worked well.

On AIR1 curves imposed their penalty on tractive effort in a couple yard locations. On AIR2 I am determined to eliminate this condition.

While Pettigrew Yard will be built around a central operators “pit”, no classification tracks will be on the curves. 

 All the other yards will be located away from curves. I get it, yards on curves, especially in coal country, look good. I’m not going to put up with the associated trouble.

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