staging, is it worth the headache?

[John]

While it took a few posts on Page 1 to flesh out his initial reasoning, asciibaron's point was that he didn't see a need for the mammoth expanse of hidden staging that is so common with many layout plans.  It wasn't a post against staging in general.

i need a job that allows more time to flesh out my posts

We can help there

iptables -I INPUT -s 98.*.*.* -j DROP

[MichaelWinicki]

I think the point Steve and others have made about starting a session with a through-freight sitting in passing siding rather than on a staging track is a good one... That's something that I'll have to experiment with on my layout.

However maxing your staging track potential isn't a bad goal for many of the reasons listed in this thread– occasional "oddball" trains, MOW trains and an occasional passenger train.

[wm3798]

Here's my subterranean kingdom.


Note the stub end tracks in the west end staging loops.  That's where the MOW train, steam era stuff, and whatever other oddities fit in there will be.

The east end loop has tracks long enough so that each can hold about two 25 car trains.  The through loops on the west end can each hold up to 35 cars.

Lee

[mionerr]

The layouts I've operated on if a train doesn't finish it's run, the layout owner finishes the run between sessions.Most owners don't get to operate their own layouts and they say this gives them a chance to run their on layout. For me, if I don't finish a run I feel like I've failed to complete the job. I know proto trains don't all finish at midnight; there are some trains running all the time but those are mostly long runs, I think.
One layout I operate on has a local that says you have 16 hours (fast time) to complete the run. It starts at 9:30am. If you do the math, that means you finish by 1:30 am. But the session stops at midnight. So it is scheduled to be out on the road at the end of the session. One of these days I'm going to finish it by midnight; haven't made it yet but I'm getting closer.