This is for the Strasburg guys, and this is not a criticism but an honest question from one who does not live in the area...why do you not have a turntable or wye to turn your engines? I knowthere has to be a very good reason, but it is a question I have always wanted to ask....

They actually have two turntable bridges waiting to be installed. They are stored behind the Choo Choo Barn. They acquired the bridges 13 years ago so the question is when are they going to put them in? I'll let them answer that one.

Pennsy Power

There IS a turntable at the Strasburg end of the line. It's just over in the Railroad Museum of Pa., across the street. It's been there since 1975 or so, and has been used on the quite rare occasion when there has been a need for one.

The other point to consider: either a wye or a turntable eats up valuable (in this case) real estate. There's no real *need* for a turntable or wye; the railroad has gotten along for 175 years or so without one, and as the saying goes "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Strasburg has a neat little 45-minute round trip. Add locomotive turning to each end, and you'd either need an additional locomotive in steam or another hour to the trip as the loco is taken off, turned, and recoupled.

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Add an hour to turn the engine and switch ends? Wow, must be a union crew on a work slowdown...

They already swap ends, so that time is already in the current schedule. So you're only looking at the time required to turn the engine being added.

I'm pretty certain they can turn the engine on the station end faster than they can load and unload the consist. The station is already set up so that they pull in, cut the engine off and run around. I don't know if they currently load while that's happening or not, but I think they reasonably could. So you turn the engine while you're loading the train.

There would be some added time on the far end as they pull onto the turntable and turn, but it shouldn't be more than 5 minutes or so...

Of course, as mentioned, they've done fine without it for all these years, so obviously it's not a big issue. You can't really see the engine from the train for much of the trip, so it's not like it's annoying the passengers.

It would provide something to entertain the passengers at the other end......which would, of course, eat up additional time with the off and on loading. It has less to do woth track hardware than with operating strategies and goals.

dave

The drift of this conversation tickled my brain cells, and causes me to ask about something I heard about at Strasburg some years ago, but have not been able to find confirmation for.

What I had heard about was for a considerable expansion of facilities at both Strasburg and Paradise; Strasburg was supposed to get a roundhouse that was to be used by the railroad itself (I think its location was to be where the expanded freight facilities are now), which would account for one of the turntables; there were supposed to be more gift shops and things, too, these going in across the parking lot at Strasburg. The other table was supposed to go to Paradise, allowing engines to run forward in both directions like they should. Paradise was also supposed to get a new station that would allow transfers from Amtrak to Strasburg trains. This station was to be a public money project, and that got scuttled with the economy being what it is, and I think there was some concern about having to built it on a curve.

Anyway, is anybody at liberty to add additional details or corrections to this?

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I heard much of the same thing you did from different railroad employees. They also told me the railroad wanted to replace the enginehouse with a hotel, install the turntable where the coaling wharf is, the roundhouse near that, redo the front of the giftshops to make a 1910 street scene, and there was an idea of making the station building into a museum. This and the many improvements they are making now were all part of their 20-year plan that was begun in 2002.

They never cease to amaze me. What will they come up with next? Kelly, Lynn, anyone care to chime in?

The Paradise station is pretty much dead because of the ADA jacking up the price beyond acceptable. So with that went the potential funding for the turntable there. It was made part of the project and I know the locals were complaining in the Lancaster paper about it because they couldn’t see how it had anything to do with an Amtrak station.

Pennsy Power

I seem to very vaguely recall there was a plan at one time to build the station in "downtown" Leaman Place and extend the Stasburg line a short distance to connect. However, there was a problem with the highway overpass not being wide enough, or possibly it was but they didn't want the excursion trains to be that close to the mainline trains passing by at speed? Anyone recall that, or was it simply some foamy daydreams?

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Thanks, Kelly. One of these days I'm gonna get east and pay you and Linn a visit..and I'll bring my overalls....

I've been wondering about that as well. But when you think about it, the way the road is set up, the engines get a good run backwards and forwards, so it would probably be more beneficial to leave it like it is...

It could be worse... I've heard rumors of an operation that has a reverse loop at one end, but no way turn the locomotives at the other end, so the locomotive does every other trip entirely in reverse! Can you imagine that? Bet that's a real pain in the neck for the engine crews...

Can't recall the exact name of the place, Rainy Mountain Railroad or some such?

Rumor has it they're finally going to fix the problem (30+ years later) by running the locos like Strasburg does, out and back, most likely with the smokebox uphill when possible, in the tradition of a good logging railroad.

Bob - Yosemite Mount Sugar Pine does it that way. I think turning at the station is impossible. Location is on a narrow terrace. Whether doing half the trip in reverse, half forward, versus alternating trips, is better, I don't know.

Are the hotel and train still under the same ownership? They used to be 40 years ago.

On the Alder Gulch Shortline (30" gauge) we ran from wye to wye, with the stations on the tail tracks of both (point to point). It probably added 5 minutes to the run to back into the wye, line the switch, pull forward and reline the switch (obviating a rear brakeman).

The outbound wye switch would be relined for the main route by the brakeman on the way out--so two stops. The second stop could be avoided in the engineer could drift the train slow enough for the brakeman to drop off, reline the switch and reboard. It offered a good time to inspect the running gear and flag the engineer for sliding wheels (very light cars).

Sadly though, wyes take room, more than a turntable, but if you can cycle the entire trainset through one, it's just about as fast as a reverse loop (which takes time to go around and even more space).

Michael Seitz
Missoula MT