I almost embarresed to discuss my 18" of staging here.. but I will anyway..

My current layout represents the town of Whitefield, NH. I have a single 18" staging track that enters on the other side of the loop allowing a train coming from the south, Woodbridge, NH, to travel across the John's river and into Whitefield.

Whats happened is I no real way to have a train come from the north.. nor an easy way for the northbound local to return. I am basically stuck with just a "Whitefield Turn".

Some of this is because I made the concious decision to have a loop for testing locos and for visitors. Some of it is because I wanted to use the back of the layout for scenery to learn and practice scenic techniques. I question neither choice.

However, were I to do it over, I would put more thought into having a way to introduce southbound trains. I would like to have a southbound local with a single combine and a milk car meet my local. They would switch ends of the staging yards. Now, as per my original plan, I have to essentially stage the milk train at Whitefield, something I that isnt quite as much fun.

This is a practice layout.. my next one has extensive staging planned.. I just didnt expect I would still be working on this one at this time and therefore dependent on it for my operating fun..

So.. staging for both directions is good...

Chris

edit - the main advantage of modeling the trip to Berlin with staging would be to carry pulp wood from maine from the whitefield interchange to the paper mill there.. and to carry MEC empties back to the interchange from the paper mill. I lost some nice traffic possibilities..

The Cariboo Western Railway is operated every 2 months.Staging is single ended and static.south end staging is 12 tracks and represents Vancouver.The north end is not finished yet and a 6 track temporary yard stands in.The north end represents 2 places Ashcroft and the Canadian National connection and the British Columbia Railway interchange

I've decided to base my layout on a slice of the Cleveland Flats with the B&O's Cleveland/Lorain & Wheeling (CL&W) subdivision.  I only have room for a single-ended 5-track, 15ft-length staging yard, which I refer to as "Willard" (the closest major B&O division point yard south of Cleveland).  Technically, I suppose it refers to the B&O right-of-way going beyond the town of Lester, OH, the last named location on the layout.   Whenever I do point-to-point, northbound trains originating from Willard terminate at Cleveland's Clark Avenue yard, which is my 'visible' yard at the opposite end.  These are the inbound trains delivering coking coal, scrap metal, miscellaneous additives, and empty coil flatcars to the steel mill beside the yard.  Conversely, outbound trains (coal/scrap empties, coil loads, etc.) wind their way back south to Willard.  There are a half-dozen smaller lineside industrial spurs hanging off the main, served by a local.   Other types of trains pass thru to interchange [off-layout] with Conrail.  I also have some track in place to allow continuous running if I'm in a vegetative state.

I need to re-read Tony Koester's operations book before I can figure out how to use waybills, car cards, etc.  I'll get around to that someday...

I've got two staging yards - one is fairly large, with 7 tracks total and thanks to a reverse loop around it, I can access both ends of my layout from it.  This represents both Albany (south) as well as "points north," such as anything on the far side of Tigard on my layout. 

The other is dead end staging. That's the Southern Pacific yard in Salem, OR.

At the beginning of a session I assume everything will be statically staged, waiting to enter the layout proper. Depending on the trains needed, there may be some in-session rebuilding in the staging yard as well.

I'm still trying to figure out how to actually operate the railroad - two limitations I have are my interchange sidings - 9 50' cars on one and 7 50' cars on the other. They will definitely dictate train length.

When I altered my layout to a continuous run, one condition it had was to have a double-ended staging yard.

It was nothing in particular, just 3 tracks with an avoiding line and several dead-end sidings off of this track.

Then, as I started operating the layout, I realised it was nearly as much fun actually switching the staging yard to get the trains ready for their next working. Well, to be honest, it was really only the local freight I had to restage. Using car cards and a random system of deciding how many cars on the next train kept me busy switching for some time, as I'm a one-man operator.

The only problem I found was restaging the passenger train, as I needed to turn the whole train (well, the loco, baggage car and coach car actually!). But I can't see any easy method of doing this.

Brian

 Not all railroads turned the baggage cars at the end of the run, so you can leave the baggage car on the end and still be prototype correct.

 I am in the process of building my first staging yard and although I have a general plan, for the most part, I am figuring it all out as I build it.

I am modeling the Klamath Falls Branch of the SP (Weed CA to Klamath Falls OR about 1910.) This line eventually became the SP Cascade line but in 1910 Klamath Falls was the end of the line and it was then truly a short line mix train type of operation but with heavy logging traffic Mills and spurs along the way some of which were 30 inch and dual gauge.

I do not have a great deal of space. I am forced into having the staging yard in the same room but I could hide it in whole or in part by view blocks.  Currently, I have decided to hide it only partially with view blocks at the entrance. There is already an existing Y near the entrance to the yard but I do not intend to use it as part of the staging yard switching unless I am forced to. The yard will be used as part of my operations and will represent both ends of the line. Weed west bound and Klamath Falls east bound. ( Direction San Fancisco is considered west bound by SP) There will be 5 sidings coming off of a three way turn out. The center track will be inbound from both east and west directions so that there will be no S curves. The largest train expected will fit on this track and clear all sidings. An adjacent track will be the run around. I will turn the engine at the end of the inbound track on a small turn table and the road engine will become the switcher. ( The Same as the prototype in 1910) Cars will be dispatched and switched immediately to one of the 3 remaining sidings. The prototype had some four wheel bobber cabooses or a combine on the end which I may not try to turn. If I do, turn a caboose I will use the turntable. I have purchased a small Atlas turntable but my largest engine ( An 1881 twelve wheeler, just barely fits so I am now toying with the idea of building a 14 Inch turntable as described in the latest issue of MR.

I know this is not Class I railroading but this was never my intention. Most of the loggers turns and switching were occurring out on the railroad and not in the yards.  For the most part, I will be operating by myself. Based on prototype time tables, I think I can pull this off but, we shall see. The stories of congestion in the Klamath Falls yard during the early 1900's are legend. It also took the passenger train three and one half hours to travel the 86 miles on 3.5 % grades and tight curves where helpers were used in both directions and empty freight cars were cut in to help braking on the loggers.

Peter Smith, Memphis

Since I'm constrained to the walls of my office, I had to get creative with my staging. I have what I call a staging bridge because, well, it's a bridge.

There's a level for each deck on the layout, and spans the double door entry into the office when in use.  It then swings over to the wall out of the way for storage. It's single ended obviously with a three tracks on each level.

For operating, I'll manually turn around engines to setup the session and run trains between levels into the opposite level staging yard.

The only problem I have this is the limit it puts on my train lengths. The layout sidings can hold trains a little longer that what my staging area can hold.

Until I think of something better, this is what I have.

I did something kinda similar on my litle layout.. a little flip up "fiddle yard" that exends my staging track and lets me fiddle with cars from in front of the main town area. A backdrop hides all that now.

Both are neat ideas - my father-in-law is using casettes for his staging that he'll simply slot into the end of the interchange track on his yard. 

I'm fortunate in having a sizable space.