Turning Balloon

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Stefan Andrzejewski
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Turning Balloon

Post by Stefan Andrzejewski »

Can someone please explain what a Turning Balloon is and what it is used for.
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John Ashworth
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Re: Turning Balloon

Post by John Ashworth »

It's a way of turning trains. It's a balloon-shaped loop of track. At its simplest, there is a single point which gives entry to and exit from the loop. A train enters the loop on one leg of the point, goes all the way round the loop, and exits from the other leg of the same point. The train is now facing in the opposite direction.

There's one at Pyramid South, near Pretoria, which FOTR uses regularly. That one is rather a more complex set-up than the single point example given above, but the same principle.
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Nathan Berelowitz
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Re: Turning Balloon

Post by Nathan Berelowitz »

Germiston depot has one, as does Krugersdorp,I think Masons Mill has one, Marble Hall has one, but the line is closed. There are more, but thats all I can recall off hand.
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John Ashworth
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Re: Turning Balloon

Post by John Ashworth »

There's one at Bulawayo in Zimbabwe - I got a footplate ride round it on a Garratt a few years back.
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Dylan Knott
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Re: Turning Balloon

Post by Dylan Knott »

Bellville and Klipdale have ones.
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Stefan Andrzejewski
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Re: Turning Balloon

Post by Stefan Andrzejewski »

Thanx I have never seen one. We used to watch the Loco's turn on the Triangle in Knysna and then the Turn Table but I assume you turn a whole train around on a Balloon.
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John Ashworth
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Re: Turning Balloon

Post by John Ashworth »

That's correct, Stefan. A whole train can be turned on a balloon. A whole train can also be turned on a triangle, eg at Capital Park, but obviously not on the small triangles like the one at Cullinan which only has a spur at the end long enough for a pair of locos or a loco and auxiliary water tank. Turning a whole train on a balloon is simpler than using a triangle, as you just keep going forward - no stopping, setting back (with the need for someone at the rear of the train to talk the driver back), changing three sets of points.
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Dylan Knott
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Re: Turning Balloon

Post by Dylan Knott »

In Europe they used a modified triangle, which looks nothing like what we use here. Anyone know what I am talking about.

During recent earthworks at Elgin we have located the old turntable pit! The mechanism is at Knysna.
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John Ashworth
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Re: Turning Balloon

Post by John Ashworth »

I'd love to see a photo or diagram of a European modified triangle, Dylan.

There are de facto triangles in many places where there is a junction on the main line - Koedespoort and Hercules come to mind in the Tshwane area. Using these triangles to turn trains could cause delays to traffic on a busy line, I suppose, but we have turned our train at Hercules from time to time. We set back out of our yard into Hercules Station, go forwards to Daspoort Station, set back down the other leg of the triangle towards CPK, then forwards into Hercules Station, then set back into our yard again, now facing the opposite direction.
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Steve Appleton
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Re: Turning Balloon

Post by Steve Appleton »

ReefSteamers has a balloon within its Germiston depot. They recently had a rather unfortunate shunting incident there. See:
http://www.friendsoftherail.com/phpBB2/ ... 109&t=6216
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Kevin Wilson-Smith

Re: Turning Balloon

Post by Kevin Wilson-Smith »

Turning ballons are commonly used in the USA!

Here their use is with unit trains (trains carrying only one commodity) in relation to the related industries.

For example, in the Powder River Valley - a massive coal region - all the trackage the mines have is a single ballon track. This track comes straight off the main and the balloon track then runs under a single loader and out again.

The procedure for coal is - weigh wagon, load, weigh, lood/trim, shape load (coal wagons have the load shaped to reduce loss and wind resistance), weigh and out. This is performed in a single movement and slowly - the train never stops.

This procedure allows massive coal mines to load literally hundreds of wagons in a short time and this means that high volumes can be adcieved with little infrastructure.

Unloading is done in a similar fashion at the destination industry - the balloon track runs over a "pit" and the process is weigh, dump, weigh, flash clean - and goodbye. Again without stopping!

A similar process is used for other mineral and ore products, and grain products where are large silos.
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John Ashworth
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Re: Turning Balloon

Post by John Ashworth »

Thanks, Kevin. Now I come to think about it, that process was common in UK at one time (I don't know if it still is), especially for coal trains. They were dubbed "Merry Go Round", as they went round without stopping just as you describe.
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Stefan Andrzejewski
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Re: Turning Balloon

Post by Stefan Andrzejewski »

Its a pity that our Power Stations don't have something similar that uninterrupted coal supply could ensure the they don't run out instead of delivering by road.
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Re: Turning Balloon

Post by Kevin Wilson-Smith »

The power stations in the Witbank area are supplied by continous conveyor - they should never run out!
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Stefan Andrzejewski
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Re: Turning Balloon

Post by Stefan Andrzejewski »

Then why the truck and road problem
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