03-08-2013, 11:10 AM
I'm not completely sure why you feel your maximum train length should be 4 cars. That may be a convenient length for a particular industrial switch job, but as far as I can recall, the overall length of your space is in the 3-4 meter range. If I were taking somethng close to the track plan you have, if I had it to operate as my layout (which is a very, very unfair and even dangerous "if", but I'm just thinking here), I think I'd be interested in having at least one train in the range of a dozen cars long, which I think would fit in staging on the north side of your room. A dozen cars, 50 scale feet, comes to maybe 2 meters, probably an OK fit in staging. I run it as a "transfer" to the 3-track yard closest to the aisle on the south side of your room. I swap out four cars and return to staging with 8 old cars plus the four new, leaving four cars from staging in your yard. I then run the switcher to exchange those four with cars in industry. But this accounts for just one of your north side staging tracks. I can do several things, run another train, swapping out a new 4 and keeping 8, or I can just run a transfer with a dozen cars east-west or west-east without swapping cars.
It seems to me this gives you several advantages. One is better utilization of the equipment you have. Another is variety, the ability (especially in the Chicago area) to justify BN, Conrail, SOO, whatever equipment side by side. Another still is ability to run car types not justified by the specific industries on the layout. For instance, Conrail handled molten steel bottle cars in the Chicago area, as well as other places like Youngstown, OH, on transfer runs across the city, so you sort of get the advantage of steel-related traffic and equipment without the need for a steel mill.
Remember that even if someone says "I'm always going to model the LAJ, no matter what, no changes, must be just like the LAJ", you'd still have the potential interest of transfers off the UP and LACBAR-BARLAC freights from BNSF -- even a layout that specific would be doing interesting things beyond just industrial switch jobs.
It seems to me this gives you several advantages. One is better utilization of the equipment you have. Another is variety, the ability (especially in the Chicago area) to justify BN, Conrail, SOO, whatever equipment side by side. Another still is ability to run car types not justified by the specific industries on the layout. For instance, Conrail handled molten steel bottle cars in the Chicago area, as well as other places like Youngstown, OH, on transfer runs across the city, so you sort of get the advantage of steel-related traffic and equipment without the need for a steel mill.
Remember that even if someone says "I'm always going to model the LAJ, no matter what, no changes, must be just like the LAJ", you'd still have the potential interest of transfers off the UP and LACBAR-BARLAC freights from BNSF -- even a layout that specific would be doing interesting things beyond just industrial switch jobs.