I keep hearing advice to people not to use their yards for car storage. Then I hear that people are putting in staging yards to store cars. But then you have staging tracks that are clogged and useless.
Why do people put cars on their layout if they aren’t being used. I only have a 4x8 layout and I know that if I have a car on the layout that isn’t used it’s in the way. Recently at our club, we move out about two thirds of our cars becasue they were in the way. We couldn’t do anything with them there. Half of them didn’t even work becasue of horn couplers or what not.
So I’m wondering if they are in the way, and certainly the prototypes don’t store cars in their yards, why do modelers store cars on their layouts. It seems like we are shooting ourselves in the foot.
My guess is that we just what to see them all our cars, whether they run or not. And, if the cars all out there, it would be easy to change up the trains.
Personally, only the cars that I’m using are on the layout, the rest are safely stored in boxes underneith. But, I have to make an effort and dig through the boxes to change my consists.
I can see your point, believe me, Mouse. I said in another post recently that I could not be bothered to manufacture separate staging when I had a perfectly good yard from which to conduct ops. I DO understand why people use staging, but it is not for me…too much work, too many items to look after, etc.
BUT…if only I had planned a yard, even, I would not be envying staging. Live and learn.
The prototype actually does have storage yards for cars. They are huge and not really designed like a regualar yard but they do exist. Personally I can’t have too many cars on the clubs layout because of limited yard space. Thats why we are putting in drawers big but really thin to hold extra cars and locos. It’s a pain digging through individual boxes and even more a pain when a car doesn’t have a box and it gets damaged.
There is track between Horseshoe Curve and Altoona out in the boonies where I’ve seen cars stored, but this is not a yard track. I have a track where I store cars, but it is in relation to my layout, in the boonies. It is on my bookshelf.
I think it is a desire to cram the most layout you can into a layout. Same reason why people try to follow the bowl of spheghetti method of track planning. In my modeling I have been able to develop some restraint. The layout with a house over it that I am planning is a monstrous 36 X 60 Feet. But while I could model an entire division. I have settled on only one city and two smaller towns. Leaving plenty of “Open Country” between them. Given the traffic density I need to support though I found I do have some what of a Staging Capacity Crunch. I have developed a junction “at the end of the line” so to speak so as allow trains to head into staging going east or west or continue on makeing a continous loop. However the staging don’t have the capacity to hold the all the different trains I need to run. Mainly because the operations schedule takes place over the course of the week, and I am wanting to simulate somewhat prototypical turn around on locomotives, frieght, & passenger cars that travel transcontinental distances. So now I am looking at a tiered design. I can do it without needing a helix. (Mainly in part the way I lay the track forms sort of a giant mondo huge helix.
I have also found to follow through on my plan. I need ALOT more freight cars. I have more than eneugh locomotives to hall them all for a while. They may not be appropriet for GN 1969. But I am focusing on getting trains running first before I sort that part out. mean time the problem I am having is where do I store what I have until I can get this built.
I have also been meeting with a bit of fustration because I feel while I wait till I can build the house with the needed basement, I can at least build some of sections and get operatioins going that way. But I have been meeting with resistance in that regard. [V]
In my case, it’s for looks… I don’t have staging and have no intention of adding it. I drew several track plans including it but came to the conclusion I just didn’t want that much hidden trackage and started cutting my collection by nearly 80%. In a layout design, I’ve always been of the opinion that the yard should have a capacity equalling or exceeding that of the main layout (mainline, sidings, industry, etc). Once the yard if filled to capacity, that’s the most the entire layout will hold / use (without staging)… That way, once the yard is only Half full, there is enough room to make and break trains and room to move things around out on the mainline.
On the prototype, the little bit I’ve paid attention to, busy yards almost Always have trains in them. Arriving trains (unless it’s a unit train) have to be broken up for different destinations and made into new trains. I do see railroads Store cars in smaller yards (they probably call them sidings) for weeks at a time without movement. The main yard (NS Oakwood, ex Wabash) near my house does empty but as soon as it does, more trains are arriving… Things Really pick up at night around midnight as I can hear the rumbling diesels, ringing bells, and crash of the couplers pretty much all night. I can remember as a kid, that some trains/cars would in fact sit in that yard for quite awhile. Even if just off to the side, they were still there (week or two)…
my suggestion is to get the cars running so they are of some use…staging track is ok when you want to dazzle someone seeing your layout for the first time when you pull a train out onto the layout from nowhere for the first time to get them wondering… where did that train came from?..as for me…i like all my cars showing even if they are on a yard siding so i don’t use staging or hidden staging yards…I do try to keep all my rolling stock in good repair so that if i do want to run then…I can…just my thoughts…chuck
Pity the poor railroads when the steel mills, or shipping docks shut down on strike! Where do you put several thousand hoppers loaded with coal?
Staging yards have come out of the philosophy of the “rest of the world” connecting rail roads operating scheme. It works well, just remember that the train going into staging is comming back at some point in time for another “trip” over your road bring car movements onto your part of the “world”. Ideally the staging yard should be accessible toeasily swap out cars from trains to drawers to give you a constant mix of equipment on your layout. We need to address the “problem” of too many cars by an organized “safe” way to put up cars not needed on the layout for current operations. If you are using a card system for the cars, it needs to go with the car into temporary storage. Repair cars need to be addressed the same way, gauge problems, coupler repair/upgrade into a repair area with a sticy note regarding the problem to be identified( You will understand this better as time passes). Makes life and layout operations so much easier.
This would also be a good time to cull the herd of out of era, poor prototype/assembler execution etc… I am sure Student of the Big Blue Sky will take these orphans off our hands!
Mouse you keep unearthing these monumental philospical problems for us to deal with. Time for the lawn to be cut and a good “philisopical” nap!
Will … 'til later!
I agree with you Spacemouse
I thought the idea of staging was to have a train made up that could enter your layout from “somewhere” off the layout then pass through and disappear again offstage.
I know I’ve read about visible staging but I don’t see much difference in that and yard staging. On the other hand I look at the amount of offstage staging on some of the larger layouts and think that is a lot of real estate to not model. Oh well.
I thought that if you didn’t have so many cars that they wouldn’t all fit on you layout you weren"t a real model railroader. I agree that staging is for the off stage setting up of trains for there turn in the operating scheme. In my case I have storage under the layout or in boxes for the excess. I do like to see alot of cars on the layout sometimes. For the railroads. If it isn’t moving it esn’t making money.
I’m not as lucky as some of you guys. I actually store my locos and rolling stock in a couple of hardware cabinets that I have mounted to the wall of my “new” train room. Steam era stuff goes in the top one and modern diesel stuff goes in the bottom one…
Of necessity, my car storage is boxes on shelves. I have a small layout. If I put all the cars on the layout at one time, there is no room to move. Talk about chasing your tail!
But I can’t resist that car at the LHS or train show. I know, I need a bigger layout! (In the planning stages as we speak! With a decent sized yard and semi-hidden staging. What else am I going to do with all these @%#*@!&% CARS???
I feel your pain.
BTW, railroads often store excess rolling stock anywhere they can. Travel around the country and you will see long strings of cars on sidings, waiting for their season to start.
Staging tracks(or yards) are ‘functional’ trackage, it just may eot be visable or sceniced. It should be a place when complete trains are awaiting their turn ‘on stage’.
Storage tracks or yards are just that. For example; you have a passenger train that has nothing to do with your layout’s operation, but it is cool and you do not want to store it or display it in a static setting. On the prototype, there are special sidings or yard tracks just for storing cars that are not used ‘in season’ - livestock cars are a good example. Sometimes there will be a small ‘storage’ yard near a major industry. Empties are stored there in a ‘pool’ so there will not be a car shortage in the middle of the week.
My intention on my industrial park switching layout is to make it generic enough that it can represent any period of time between the 1970’s thru today. So I try to nly have cars on the layout that fit the time frame. I hope to add a couple of “staging” tracks to hide cars that are going to enter or have left the park. The rest of my locos and rolling stock are in boxes or on shelves.
At our club though it is a different story. We have two freight yards and a staging area that while technically is not part of the layout (no scenery) it is connected. Well several of the members have taken over the staging area as personal storage space for most of their rolling stock. It’s sorta like adding more table top space in my workshop. As soon as I do it gets covered with boxes and junk and I still only have about 2 square feet of working surface.
I never use layout tracks to store cars. Once a car has reached a staging yard, it’s either shuffled into a new train for a reappearance onto the layout, or taken off the layout and stored. For in-use cars, my storage is a large, nine-drawer blueprint cabinet. Each car is stored in one of those car boxes we seem to have so many of, on it’s wheels. There’s some bubble wrap in each box so the car doesn’t get damaged. For long term storage (cars that need repairs, extra detailing, weathering, etc), I store the car in it’s original box, wrapped in bubble wrap. Those car boxes are stored at the workbench.
My staging yard will be the endpoint for 3 different directions on my layout. I will disassemble and classify and build trains there.
I’m hoping that if/when I get more cars than I can comfortably store there for use on trains, I’ll be able to put a multilevel set of storage tracks below the yard. Shelves for cars and locos, maybe two tracks deep each.
I guess it all depends on how many cars you have. I only have 60 or so cars at the moment so leaving them all on the tracks is not a real issue for me. Now when I get 600 cars, that will be a different story. Then I will use the yard and staging area as they should be used, ie: for trains that will most likely be made up and run during a session.