calling all a$$hat$...help needed with staging yard....

[Bremner]

as some of you know, I am going to start my layout this year (just need lumber and cork) based on Casa Grande, AZ in the early/mid 1980's...



This is an 8 foot long track plan, to be built in a pair of four foot long dominos. Eventually, it may grow longer, and will have a pair of 180* modules to turn the tains around to go into the staging yard. I want to make the staging yard look like a real yard with a caboose track and a loco servicing facility.  It will be Atls code 80 and will be also a pair of 4 foot dominos that might be extended, double ended, and I would like to be able to put one staging module on each end of the town model....got any ideas?

[eric220]

My first questions would be how much staging are you looking for, and what is your maximum train length?

[Bremner]

Eric, right now, it is all planning, I was thinking 4 tracks plus a main...I would like to run longer trains in the future, and that is why I said that it may grow longer. Right now, I would be happy with a train that does not look tiny. Real trains out here are 100 cars, but 20 would be pushing it...even if I stretched the layout to 12-16 feet

[eric220]

Well, four feet is around 12-13 40 foot boxcars, and that's not allowing for throat.  If you split it in half and attach each half to opposite ends of the layout, there's not going to be a whole lot of track left to do anything functional.  At least, not without more modules to extend the yard tracks.

Just out of curiosity, if you're going to scenic the area, why not just plan a functional yard?  Especially if you only want three staging tracks, why not double-purpose those as A/D tracks and include classification tracks too?

[Bremner]

I know Eric, I am looking long term....I want to be able to run it kinda like the MR Beer Line project from a year or two ago....as a J/I/O/H.....I am just not that good at planning....