02-19-2010, 01:59 PM
I like the car ferry idea, 
although I'd still keep the bridge/lift-out at the doorway. It offers continuous running, good for breaking-in locos and for entertaining your non-model railroading friends who "just wanna see some trains run".
I'd put both staging yards below the layout - one on each side of the entryway, but with the tracks to the carferry at an angle to the front of the layout - if they were extended, they'd form an angle across the corner of the room where the door is located.
Then, build the "carferry" as a rolling interchange, with its "deck" easily adjustable in height, so that it could be "cranked-up" to layout height. You'd need a storage track or two at the interchange points on the layout, but you could, if the main layout is high enough, also model the staging yards as sceniced parts of the layout, albeit on their own level.
I'm not a big fan of yards on a model railroad, unless you've got excess room to spare for what is essentially a parking lot. I know that they can be switched, but then they're not usually considered a staging yard, which, in my opinion, is more useful for a home layout than a classification yard.
I've chosen to stack my staging yards atop one another, although I don't recall if that's because the layout is meant to be double-decked or if the layout is double-decked because of the stacked staging. :?
Another option, especially if you decide to treat the entire layout as an industrial switching district, is to use a single staging yard to represent both SP and ATSF. Simply stage whatever trains from them as you wish, although an "on-the-layout" staging yard might warrant physically removing or adding locos to the layout as required.
Having such a spacious layout room offers many options, but some of the ones chosen before starting the layout will determine if you use that space to its best advantage in addressing your particular interests.
Wayne
although I'd still keep the bridge/lift-out at the doorway. It offers continuous running, good for breaking-in locos and for entertaining your non-model railroading friends who "just wanna see some trains run".I'd put both staging yards below the layout - one on each side of the entryway, but with the tracks to the carferry at an angle to the front of the layout - if they were extended, they'd form an angle across the corner of the room where the door is located.
Then, build the "carferry" as a rolling interchange, with its "deck" easily adjustable in height, so that it could be "cranked-up" to layout height. You'd need a storage track or two at the interchange points on the layout, but you could, if the main layout is high enough, also model the staging yards as sceniced parts of the layout, albeit on their own level.
I'm not a big fan of yards on a model railroad, unless you've got excess room to spare for what is essentially a parking lot. I know that they can be switched, but then they're not usually considered a staging yard, which, in my opinion, is more useful for a home layout than a classification yard.
I've chosen to stack my staging yards atop one another, although I don't recall if that's because the layout is meant to be double-decked or if the layout is double-decked because of the stacked staging. :?
Another option, especially if you decide to treat the entire layout as an industrial switching district, is to use a single staging yard to represent both SP and ATSF. Simply stage whatever trains from them as you wish, although an "on-the-layout" staging yard might warrant physically removing or adding locos to the layout as required.
Having such a spacious layout room offers many options, but some of the ones chosen before starting the layout will determine if you use that space to its best advantage in addressing your particular interests.
Wayne