Alternating trips of running the whole trip in reverse is worse, by a significant amount in my opinion. When you do half the trip each way, everyone gets to see and photograph the engine going "the right way" for half the trip. It's also authentic to how many logging railroads operated, typically not turning the engines and keeping the smoke box pointed uphill. If there was a railroad that ran with one reverse loop (probably was someplace, look hard enough and you find nearly anything) it was a real oddball.

We have the occasional, but rare, complaint on the backwards trips, and it will be nice to give everyone the same experience for the most part.

As for the hotel, you have lost me on that one...

The McHenry Loop Railroad in North Dakota. You betcha.

dave

I don't think that is the same thing. Yes, they had a balloon loop there, used for turning, but presumably the locomotives were also turned on the other end at the terminal.

Those weren't common, but there were quite a few notable installations, including Grand Central, Portola, and I seem to recall one at one of the national parks. They're also found at coal loadouts.

However, I'm talking about an operation, presumably a shortline, that had a balloon loop on one end, and no way to turn the engines on the other end. That's something I'm not aware of in revenue operations current or past, though some tourist railways do run this way.

New Jersey Transit often turns trains in NYC on the Sunnyside balloon loop but cannot turn trains or locomotives at any of the outer terminals except Bay Head. Since they run push-pull, this means the engine alternates which end of the train it is on on every trip.

OK, that would be the type of situation I was thinking of. Presumably they turn them at Sunnyside to avoid the time and hassle of swapping ends?

Here's the national park line I was thinking of, the NP line to Yellowstone. The station was built on the curve of the balloon loop and featured a curved platform.

http://neplains.com/montanagardiner-nor ... earch.aspx

I think it is the opposite. Congestion at Penn Station means they cannot lay over trains there for the return trip (except on weekends) so must continue to Sunnyside. Crossing over once out there is not easy with the train congestion, so they use the grade-separated loop, which reverses the train automatically.

Getting slightly back on topic, push-pull train operation is a real option for Museums. I am sure there are more passenger trains dispatched today that are push-pull than otherwise around the country, so the younger generation is perfectly used to seeing the locomotive on the rear as often as on the front. I know at least one musuem with true push-pull -- IRM operates their Chicago area gallery car train this way. Pull-pull with a locomotive on each end is functionally equivalent.

None of this of course applies to the Strasburg Rail Road or any steam operation, where wyes, turntables, or balloon loops at each end would seem to be highly preferable in the ideal case.

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