I have to move to a new house, and therefore time to rebuild the model train layout. My current layout is a walk around room with over 60 ft of main line, but it lacks stageing. I have two eight foot tracks to stage passenger trains on, that works well. Three five foot tracks that are bascislly storage for extra freight cars, it really isn’t stageing.
My new layout will be smaller, probably will need to fit into 17’ x 12’ area. I am thinking about doing some hiden stageing below the layout. What are some ideas and techniques I could use to build some great stageing?
Off layout staging can be quite important as you have discovered. My first ‘big’ layout had 4 ‘through’ staging tracks. This was not enough - I wanted to ‘operate’ and I was always moving freight cars to ‘boxes’ as the staging filled up. My new layout has 11 double ended staging tracks. It can handle the ‘operation’ and also store my Hiawatha and ‘modern’ freight train.
I think you will need to decide how you are going to use staging tracks - A friend does not ‘operate’, but has over 20 ‘off stage’ storage tracks for his trains. That way his layout is not cluttered up with trains parked on every available spot.
If you are into ‘operation’, you know how clogged a yard can get when you have non-essential trains ‘parked’ in the yard.
My staging is below the layout(36" elevation) and a 3 1/2 turn helix is used to get from there up to the main layout area(54" elevation). This on a 30" radius curve. It takes 2-3 engines to get a 25 car train up that grade. I would not consider using a helix with anything smaller that 30" radius curved - The curve has as much ‘drag’ as a 1+% grade alone.
One excellent idea for staging, and I cannot recall now if it was in Model Railroader or, more likely, Model Railroad Planning, was for the backdrop to be moved in a bit and the staging be behind the backdrop. Lower level staging can take up some valuable real estate in getting down to that lower level (and back up of course).
I guess the other thought or advice I have is: just because it’s staging, don’t assume it will be a derailment-free zone (or a dirty track-free zone). Access is important. Visibility/lighting is also important.
Years ago in MR there was an article on stacked mainlines for mileage. In essence a train starting at wall 1 would then make a full circle of the room on hidden track before appearing in the scene on wall two. Another hidden loop would take it to scene three and a hidden loop to scene four. If scene 1 and 4 were branchs and 2and 3 the mainline your staging could enter the railroad at scene 2 for running up branch 4 and scene three for opposite running to branch 1 plus some 2 and 3 through trains. Just an idea. May be totaly impractical.
Or use a line of building flats about six inches in front of the backdrop to hide the staging. Putting tracks behind the backdrop could make for some access issues.
LION must agree with the staging. On my Eregion railroad I had staging behind and below the main section of the layout and it was a beast to work with. On my current layout the lower level was supposed to be staging but that got ripped out in favor of a four track main line. I have five pockets for parking trains on the lower level, I have three sidings off of a pocket at the 34th Street station for work trains only, (behind the wall of course) and four more spare tracks at the Coney Island station which are available since I no longer use it as a terminal.
I will add several tracks at Coney Island, but they will be display tracks and not connected to the layout. Likewise a representation of Penn Station : display all of my old trains, run none of them. But the Lights will be on even if no one is home.
MR had a John Armstrong track plan with a 3-4 track staging above/behind a yard area. My old layout used this idea with a 4 track through staging the was 6" above a small town and had a large ridge in front of the staging to ‘hide’ it. One could see/access the staging from a step stool. It worked great, but 10" of staging, 8" of ridge scenery, and another 12" of small town made a 30" wide section of scenery - I would not want to make it any deeper by adding more staging tracks. That is why the new layout has all of the staging below the main layout and accessed by a large space eating ‘helix’.
The staging was behind this ‘ridge’, 6" above the lower track - No one noticed trains in the staging unless they saw movement or it was pointed out. The staging came ‘on stage’ just before the coal bunker in the upper left corner of the photo.
I have a plan for Phase 3 of my layout, which may or may not ever get built depending on how long I keep working and how long we stay in this house. I will have below-layout staging, but I will do that by putting the visible layout up higher rather than lowering the staging. The visible layout is intended to be only a small branch line that will run short trains, so I can have a steeper grade to get there than I would want for the staging tracks.
