06-20-2010, 05:04 PM
Now that I've made a case for scenicked staging, let me throw a wrench in the works. If you can find one or perhaps have one already, there's an issue of Model Railroad Planning (I think...or maybe it was just a monthly MR) with Bill Darnaby's Maumee Route as a feature. The article was primarily about interchanges and crossings - active and otherwise, and how Bill acheived his design goals by including diamond crossings, hidden staging, visible staging, simulated crossings, etc. and all sorts of options for interchange. Perhaps there's some wisdom there that might help generate some ideas around staging.
And since this thread is still going strong, here's another consideration from my own experience. I will operate my current layout like a branch line with a connection to a logging line at the end of the branch. SO trains originate and terminate from a mainline connection somewhere off layout. If I had the room I'd have modeled that terminal with the mainline running East to West, and a hidden doubled ended staging yard simulating points east & west. Basically, a big loop with part of it a hidden yard. That way I could bring the branchline traffic in on a through freight and set it out, and vice-versa. But I don't have that sort of room so that big beautiful junction has to be simulated with a pair of tracks and a few drawers for rolling stock.
But the hidden tracks do add to the play value of the operations. I like scene-cerity, the idea that a train passes through a scene only once. Careful observation of my plan (see that thread pg. 6) will show that I really don't acheive that goal, as a train has to pass through a scene on the way out of staging and again on the way up the branch. But that's a tolerable tradeoff (I hope) for a longer run with three distinct towns on the visible portion of the layout.
On a previous layout the staging was hidden beneath the main yard, and never really worked the way I wanted it to...the layout was never truly 'operational' beyond continuous running and some switching before I went off to college. But even then I didn't like the amount of hidden trackage and I didn't do a good job of planning access. Had I stayed with it much longer I may have revised the plan considerably (tear it out and start over!)
Alrighty...time to get back to work on the layout.
Galen
And since this thread is still going strong, here's another consideration from my own experience. I will operate my current layout like a branch line with a connection to a logging line at the end of the branch. SO trains originate and terminate from a mainline connection somewhere off layout. If I had the room I'd have modeled that terminal with the mainline running East to West, and a hidden doubled ended staging yard simulating points east & west. Basically, a big loop with part of it a hidden yard. That way I could bring the branchline traffic in on a through freight and set it out, and vice-versa. But I don't have that sort of room so that big beautiful junction has to be simulated with a pair of tracks and a few drawers for rolling stock.
But the hidden tracks do add to the play value of the operations. I like scene-cerity, the idea that a train passes through a scene only once. Careful observation of my plan (see that thread pg. 6) will show that I really don't acheive that goal, as a train has to pass through a scene on the way out of staging and again on the way up the branch. But that's a tolerable tradeoff (I hope) for a longer run with three distinct towns on the visible portion of the layout.
On a previous layout the staging was hidden beneath the main yard, and never really worked the way I wanted it to...the layout was never truly 'operational' beyond continuous running and some switching before I went off to college. But even then I didn't like the amount of hidden trackage and I didn't do a good job of planning access. Had I stayed with it much longer I may have revised the plan considerably (tear it out and start over!)
Alrighty...time to get back to work on the layout.
Galen
I may not be a rivet counter, but I sure do like rivets!