Same concept, different execution

Hi,

on my railroad I think I have the same concept even though it's done differently.

There is a loop of track around the outside of my base board. In the rear it is hidden by a hill (which is removable). Inside the hill I have a passing siding which acts as staging for a second train. To the inside of the loop (and partially using the loop) is a switching layout.

To extend staging I have a track connection off of the layout which is accessed from inside the hill. I can attach a cassette and run a train on or off the layout "back there." I'm currently building a display case for the cassettes.

This is my track plan with the hill shaded green. The passing siding is accessible by lifting the four scenery modules that are not obvious in the track plan

It sounds like you are contemplating more or less the same - though different in detail.

Have fun!

My layout is the same idea, except the loop goes around the room

I have staging on 2 sides of the layout with the possibility of building a shallow scene in front of one of those sides. I am unsure if you are talking about only small layouts. The valley forge central and any layout that size will look funny with very short mainline trains on sharp curves. 
 

If you have the choice around the walls is the way to go, more realistic and easier to plan/engineer the construction. 

around the room loop

I use that method on my current layout. One wall of the L shaped space is a staging yard /continuous running connection between the north and south ends of the modeled portion of the line. My staging yard will be sceneic'd to represent a combined generic ATSF/SP/WP facility....DaveB

To ctxmf74

ctxmf74

Do you have any photos or a trackplan of your layout please?

Thank you

"Do you have any photos or a

   Hi JAMO,  Yes ,in the blogs section do a search  for "The Central California Traction Company in S scale blog" ....DaveB

Many thanks

Many thanks DaveB. Nice project!

@JAMO

  If you find the track plan you can see that my yard is not behind a backdrop but is in it's own aisle so feels separated from the on scene parts of the layout. I could have run the yard behind the wall to hide it but decided I'd rather be able to see the trains parked there without leaving the room. I have the yard tracks in operation and am working on scenery in that area now. It will probable be the first part of my layout that gets "finished" .....DaveB

The Dog Bone Option

We often setup modular layouts at shows for continuous running. For the three track N or two track HO standard modules it was fairly easy to add runarounds at each end of the layout. I have also helped setup single track Free-Mo dog bone layouts for continuous running. We just needed to add auto-reversers with turnout control to each of the runaround tracks. Small switching layouts, given enough room, could be setup as dog bones. With long runarounds and or passing sidings with turnout motors and computer control (JMRI Logic, Train Controller, Arduino) you can even run two or more trains on the same single track "loop". No need for blocked doorways, swing-up or out sections or duck-unders.