Rural vs suburban vs urban modelling

[Green_Elite_Cab]

My other comment on urban scenery is that most layouts I've seen that were urban the whole layout was that way so it looked like the trains seem to come from nowhere and went nowhere but just run around in circles inside the city limits. In real life shippers wouldn't use trains for that they would use trucks .

Connecting with your comment on the other thread, that might be the difference. While Freight doesn't necessarily move by rail in the middle of a city, but people do. An urban layout with a subway or commuter line would look right at home with frequent service. Some lines really do run in loops around the city, though some sort of simulated push-pull would probably look better. If you only consider the freight options, then that does limit your urban modelling to some extent.

You also get routes like the New York Central's High-Line, which was for a time switching industries in the middle of Manhattan.

Besides, you don't necessarily have to do to much switching in the city. The mainlines of many of the freight railroads passing through Philadelphia don't really have to many industries on them at all, rather they have branch lines to the industrial districts. This avoids that problem all together if the freights are just "passing through". The ex B&O traveling on the east side of the Schuylkill River comes to mind.