Unusual shunt moves

[Niles]

There was mention of unusual shunt moves in Ernie's Photo thread;  I unearthed some I took in Wellington Bridge back in November 2004.

(I say unusual but not unknown at this location).

Basically 084 has brought in a train of empties from Mallow into a road already occupied by wagons. It couples up (so that it is 'sandwiched' between trains), then moves the whole consist forward to clear the points so that the laden train can depart on the other road. It then detaches from the wagons its brought in, propels the stabled ones over the crossing towards Rosslare, and then brings them around into the other loop once the laden train has departed before doing more shunting.

Would make for quite a busy layout, especially in the late 90s/ early 2000s era when you had the occasional palletised cement passing through as well.

[RobertRoche]

Nice pictures, that shunt move is mentioned in Off the Beaten Track Volume 1 - a good DVD showing Wellingtobridge over the years. I'd love to build a layout of it - building the loader would be an interesting challenge.

[Niles]

Just now, RobertRoche said:

Nice pictures, that shunt move is mentioned in Off the Beaten Track Volume 1 - a good DVD showing Wellingtobridge over the years. I'd love to build a layout of it - building the loader would be an interesting challenge.

Though at the easier end, I always thought the footbridge there was remarkably similar to the standard Hornby one!

[jhb171achill]

There will be a publication coming down the line showing some weird shunting moves, that included, a wee birdy tells me......

To model Wellington Bridge fully, three trains would be needed; in single-deck wagon days, that would entail up to 3 x 43 wagons! (129), maybe four "A" class (I hope I'm on commission from IRM Towers & Provincial Wagons for mentioning that!) - and, of course, a 141 toddling through with one or two trains a day of two Park Royals and a genny van......

[Niles]

46 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

There will be a publication coming down the line showing some weird shunting moves, that included, a wee birdy tells me......

To model Wellington Bridge fully, three trains would be needed; in single-deck wagon days, that would entail up to 3 x 43 wagons! (129), maybe four "A" class (I hope I'm on commission from IRM Towers & Provincial Wagons for mentioning that!) - and, of course, a 141 toddling through with one or two trains a day of two Park Royals and a genny van......

And throw in some mkIIIs on an IRRS Executive Train special for good measure.

[jhb171achill]

5 hours ago, Niles said:

And throw in some mkIIIs on an IRRS Executive Train special for good measure.

That would be an ecumenical matter.

[NIR]

A bit like this fiddle yard design I rediscovered in an old magazine, a more intelligent balloon loop.

Train enters loop, propels whatever is in loop until loco reaches F, loco detaches and propels its new train until it clears the points, then pulls away. It's beautiful!

(Model Railway Constructor, August 1975)

Edited September 30, 2020 by NIR