Agreed

I like this idea.  Frank Ellison was bullish on squeezing as much operation into a railroad as it could handle, and suggested that staging yards should be visible and incorporated into the scenicked portions of the railroad.  No need to hide all those trains you spent so much time and money collecting and building.  And, while Westcott was equally bullish on staging and often created hidden trackage for this purpose on many of his plans, he did concede that most modelers had far more locomotives than their railroads could handle at any given time.  His solution was often a big roundhouse or servicing facility to display the motive power.

My own railroad is small with no staging, currently.  Once it is fully scenicked it will be covered to keep dust off during long periods when I won't be operating as much.  Rolling stock on the RR will remain where it needs to be and locos (usually just one on the job) will be out in the open.  I do plan to have some staging but it will be more a fiddle yard for a longer op session and won't be permanently in place.  Most of the time rolling stock that would typically be staged, along with any other locos, will be in drawers.

Eventually, if I ever get to expand into my current space, I'll have a larger yard with engine facility on one end of the RR, and a terminus on the other with a smaller loco shed, and there will be no hidden or temporary staging.  All trains out on the tracks, all the time.  Space is too precious to use any for hidden tracks.

However, as an alternative, let me offer this caution; don't pack every siding to capacity all the time.  I used to operate on a large N scale layout and the yard was always crammed full of cars, usually the maximum number each track could hold.  The work of sorting cars into trains became a bit rote after a while, and the same was true of towns.  A particular industry could take, say, five cars, so there'd be five cars in the local for that industry to swap for the five already there.  It worked, but it was all too predictable and that, for me, wasn't as fun as having to off-spot a car now and then, or dealing with a train of varying lengths.  I suppose it made it easier to stage the railroad for ops and gave the dispatcher fewer headaches as to what would or wouldn't fit in a siding.

Galen

Maybe put a

Kill Switch on that track to shut off the power and sound when they are "Just on display"

i like all the sound. it

i like all the sound. it helps drown out the ringing in my ears.

...

NO matter how big your layout is, You'll always have more than it can hold.  So you leave it in boxes and never see it, or you put it in display cases and occasionally take it out.

"active display staging"

Hi,

agree, some have the space to display trains on the layout, but then some don't.

In my case, I've built a display case similar to that shown by Martin (Märklin of sweden) in one of his YouTube videos(1). Basically U-Channels with transparent front and back in a nice wall display. I have an "open track" on the side of my layout that allows getting trains on the layout from the storage cassette - and back out. While my storage is "non-powered", it is still easy to move trains in and out.

In my opinion, if you cannot store the trains on the layout, having a nice display case and an easy way to get the trains on to the layout, is better than a box in some dusty corner.

Have fun and stay healthy

(1)

Love scenes like this

@Mike

I like that as well.

I'm not saying one needs to have all their trains 'on the layout',...just don't leave the great majority of them off in display cases as they might not get used.