I am working on “the layout”. It is in a 20 foot x 30 foot room. I am building a yard with a 6 stall roundhouse at about the midpoint. There are 4 classification tracks, 2 arrival/departure tracks and the single track mainline. My question is whether or not to have hidden staging tracks at the east and west end. I am roughly modeling the N&W Pocahontas Division. But, I am not modeling specific towns or places. Most trains will be coal drags with some local freights and the occasional passenger train. Train length about 15 cars. I plan to use Class A and Class Y6b as motive power. There will be some Southern FT’s and Mikes. I am concerned about hidden staging tracks. The big deal is being able to reach them. Also, might need more sophisticated wiring such as detection devices, etc. What are your experiences? Advice, please.
Are you going to be running DC or DCC? The detection options vary.
How were you planning on hiding the staging tracks? Below another level of benchwork? Or behind a backdrop?
My staging yard connects the east and the west end of the mainline. I have a loop. [:)] I have 12 staging tracks for the stored trains. I should have more!
I don’t have to reach into the staging yard. And I have no derailments there. I keep track of the trains with the car card boxes at the east staging and west staging. If there’s a stack of car cards there’s a train ready for departure.
I think you’re better with a staging yard at each end of the mainline.
Wolfgang.
I am using the Digitrax Empire Builder. Will also use the PM42 for district management.
There are many ways to design-in staging tracks that are out of sight but not out of reach. And if well-designed, one may need nothing more than normal eyesight to operate these staging yards.
If you plan to model a busy division with multiple coal trains, local freights and some passenger trains, where will they come from if not from staging? It seems unlikely that a small calssification yard as you describe would be able to keep up with this much traffic if all trains must be originated and terminated there.
Byron
Why have hidden staging, why not have visible staging? Or at least the throats visible.
I have a total of 5 staging yards. One holds 12 trains, is partially visible as the south end of the Oklahoma City ATSF yard. Second is the north end of the mainline, Arkansas City Ks, also mostly hidden but in a mole hole so there is someone there to stage and break down trains. Tulsa on my BN portion is a 4 track staging yard, reached by the same mole in the ole. Then there is a small staging yard out of Cherokee on the bottom deck, and finally, a visible staging for Waynoka on the bottom deck. All lines are point to point, no runarounds. The layout is three decks. All staging is fairly easy to reach. Oh, I use NCE DCC.
Bob
My ‘work in progress’ layout will eventually be able to stage fourteen mainline freights (12-20 cars plus appropriate motive power,) two coal units (unimpressive by Powder River standards, but heavy where a 500 ton train is pushing things,) seven assorted passenger consists and five EMU that play mix-and-match to cover 40 or so commuter schedules each ‘day.’ There is also a cassette dock, connected to the lead of one hidden freight yard, and off-layout (shelf bracket) storage for, currently, a dozen 12 car plus locomotive cassettes. I couldn’t operate to my prototype’s timetable with less.
OTOH, my coal hauler runs from mine to interchange without an iota of staging - but it’s a rather leisurely (by Japanese standards) back-country operation, nothing like the N&W mainline.
If a model railroad is supposed to represent a through route, with only some intemediate location(s) modeled ‘in the round,’ staging simulates the rest of the world - and prevents the same train from returning almost before it left. It also allows us to hide at least some of the excess locomotives and cars that seem to attach themselves like barnacles to experienced model railroaders.
As for trackwork in staging - or anywhere - if you make it bulletproof, you won’t have any issues where the sun don’t shine. Since I run analog DC, I use a very sophisticated detector/train stopper. It’s called a diode, and they come 2 for a quarter when purchased in quantity.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Byron, I agree with what you are saying about the ability of such a small yard to handle all of the staging. I may be able to have a 5th classification track added, but that will not be enough. I was thinking of having an east and west staging yard, with one “visible” (and with scenery) while the other yard was physically below it (without scenery). Yards (and staging yards) eat up a lot of real estate. Scenery and structure building are my favorite part of model railroading, so I am trying to use as much space of the layout to do just that. I love FSM kits and have built several and kitbashed a few others. Scratch building is also one of my favorite activities. But, I want to run the layout like a prototype railroad as much as possible.