I have recently begun work on a staging yard (I was getting tired of manhandling the cars on and off of the bookshelf, and besides, the bookshelf is kinda getting full with, you know, books). This got me thinking about the layout of the track for the staging yard:
Should I have a runaround at the end of two of the tracks, and have the rest be “yard” tracks, shoving the train into one of them once I’ve run around it and then parking the locomotive on one of a few short designated locomotive spurs, or
Should I curve all the tracks into a turntable, and turn the locomotive around, leaving the train on whatever track it pulls into, and parking the locomotive on the run through track.
FYI: I am running steam locomotives. I will have approx. six tracks. Also, I already have plenty of turnouts and the turntable left over from the last layout, so cost, availability, trouble, etc. are not an issue.
Either should work fine. The first is possibly a little more space-saving, the second is more flexible and may not require an extra backing movement. You’ll need to swap ends with the caboose also, but that may be better done by hand.
If using the turntable, you’re better off with one that does not have fixed indexing locations, such as Walthers or PECO rather than the Atlas, which restricts the number and angle of the tracks. If you have mostly shorter engines, the PECO may be sufficient and can be easily hand-operated.
You could do like I do . My short line has a connection to the outside world that runs behind some buildings . It is just one track so I build a Train with the loco heading on to the layout and when it returns it goes out caboose first with a new set of cars this way I can cycle the cars for each operating secession
Part of the decision is who will be working in the staging yard. If it is your operators you want it a simple as possible. If it is just you, then you’ll have to decide which you prefer.
I have a steam era (1900-1905) layout with a live staging yard. The operators yard their trains, turn their power, put their caboose on the outbound train and depart. I wanted it eay to use for teh operators so it isn’t hidden, very accessible and used the turntable on the end design.
If space is at a premium, then a traverser maybe the answer. It only has to be as long as your longest locomotive and saves the space of the turnouts. All staging tracks stay straight and parallel to the end. Since you want to turn your locomotives (not every prototype did) you could use a cassette.
If space is not an issue, then I would go with a turntable large enough for the biggest loco and the biggest caboose. Gives you a bit more of actually running the locomotive.
