To understand operations and the difference between Staging and Interchanges for our Model Railroads, we need to understand the real life Railroads first.
Now, I am not a modeler who studies railroads and duplicates their every aspect, but a modeler who likes to run trains and operate, so my explanations are going to be simple. Just enough to give you the idea of how things are set up so we can duplicate them in a very basic way on our layouts.
I have also selected some excerpts from some comments Any S. made in another post sometime back, and these are in quotes below.
A large Railroad is divided into divisions. At each Division Point there was usually at least one yard and some loco facilities. (See Figure 1)
“A division was a management unit, under a superintendent, consisting of two or more subdivisions. A subdivision was basically the length of line an engine and train crew was expected to cover in one day’s work. Nominally that was about 100 miles, but by the 50s and 60s could be longer. In some cases passenger crews, who traveled faster, might work over two subdivisions or districts.”
“(As “division point” is often used in model railroad terms, it might be a terminal at the meeting of two subdivisions or districts just as often as between two adjoining divisions.)”
“There were many ways of designating branch lines, but the most common was to make each branch line its own subdivision or district. In that case, a crew might start on on a mainline subdivision and complete their run on a branchline subdivision. After a layover, they might start out the next day on the branchline sub
I was the one who brought up the idea on another thread of using a proposed staging area (my 4-track siding) as an interchange. So, it helps immensely to understand the difference between staging and an interchange. But, then you go on to mention that an interchange can look identical to a staging yard, but an interchange is a visible part of the layout. And, that is what gave me the idea in the first place of using my 4-track siding as an interchange rather than as a staging area since the 4-track siding is a visible part of my layout. But, I now understand the subtle differences.
So my question is: can staging be a visible part of the layout as implied in this and other threads?
Rich
I do have one question. You mention that staging is usually hidden.
Yes. It just depends on your situation with your Railroad.
If you look at the photo below, I have two staging tracks across the door at the end of the room, on the upper level. These are in plain sight. (The ones with the trains on them.) These are dead end staging tracks.
The tracks on the bottom level that have cars on them are my interchange tracks. Three tracks, two for the yard (Two Railroad intechanges, B&O and PRR, one per track.) and one for the runaround. This is also the end of my Railroad and runing through the runaround track makes the layout a loop.
The difference between a staging yard is that a staging yard is a model railroad conceptual device and an interchange is an actual real railroad facet.
An interchange can be staging, staging can be visible.
The real difference between making your 4 track yard staging or interchange is your concept of what and where it is.
If you concieve that the 4 track yard is staging then it most likely represents the extension of YOUR railroad. If you concieve of the 4 tracks as interchange then it represents a DIFFERENT railroad.
Any cars you put on an interchange track are leaving your railroad.
Staging is more versitile than an interchange. You can have any type of train come out of staging, interchange is to a certain extent limited. If you want to stage your primo passenger train in those tracks, no problem, when it pulls out, the Limited now arriving from New York. On the other hand if you stage the primo passenger train in an interchange track, why is it on an interchange and after it completes the run on your railroad does it go to intechange again?
While staging can be hidden it can also be visible. You can also hide it behind a low backdrop, a row of trees, row of building or a small hill. You just need it to be tall e
An interchange is more than an “industry”. An industry has limitations in that it is a "closed"location. What goes in is what comes out and for the most part, cars change status between loaded and empty in the facility. With an interchange those restrictions don’t necessarily apply. There is no expectation or requirement that all the cars placed on an interchange will come back through that intercange. Nor should there be the expectation that the cars that are placed loaded will come back empty.
From that respect an industry and an interchange can be very different. many modelers treat an interchange like an industry where they just shove a cut in and then put the same cut right back out as a delivery to their railroad. And that works. But it is possible to consider it live staging or a fiddle yard and vary the cars being delivered to your road.
To my mind “live” interchange by fiddle or live staging is the best way to stop the “Oh gee,there’s that green Hooten Hollow & Western boxcar again” blues and to keep fresh cars on your layout.
Even a small ISL can use “live” stagging when one sets up the inbound local to switch the industries.
I left the best for last…It doesn’t take long to change out the train consist once the operation session is over.
