I’ve thought about a yard as a the focus of a layout too.  There is the opportunity for some continuous running, but there’s also the potential for a lot of interesting operation.  Yards are where a lot of interesting things happen - trains originate, terminate, and pick up and set out blocks of cars.  There are sometimes industries alongside yards too.  Lots of possibilities.

The thing that’s always stopped me is doing it right for the yards and trains I’d be interested in would take a LOT of equipment.  But if you like to collect equipment anyway that might be perfect.

I’ll be interested to see what you come up with, if you decide to go ahead with it. 

I've thought it would be cool to have a huge yard, 4' wide (accessible on both sides) by however long you can, with a reverse loop staging yard at either end as an entire layout. There would be lots of switching and operations on a layout like that!

You could have a west end and an east end swisher job, a couple industrial jobs and a job responsible for putting power on outbound trains, plus road crews. It would be lots of fun!

In order to make a yard a layout you need one or two large staging yards on either end to hold trains that feed the yard.

For a yard like Tamaqua a glorified loop would be the best design, with a yard on one side and a just as big or bigger staging yard on the other.  That would keep loads in one direction and empties in another.

Actually Tamaqua back in the 1940's or 1950's would be cooler.  You would have an interchange with the CNJ, plus it was a junction with the line over towards Pottsville and Frackville.  Empty hoppers would arrive and then be routed to the various lines.  Plus loads would get spread between Allentown, Reading/Phillie and west to Rutherford.  They would also make some through freights to operate via the Catawissa and others via Gordon.

You may want to take a look at this previous post.

Thoughts on using a yard as a layout | Model Railroad Hobbyist ...

i had never understood layouts that were primarily yards until i recently started operating on one.  The layout models the New Haven RR in New Haven where there is the Cedar Hill transfer and Water Street industrial yards and Union station.

the operating session handles trains from staging, as Dave said, passing thru the yard which drop-off blocks of cars to other destinations and pick-up cars to the train's destination.   Even though Tony Koester's layout has yards at either end, between which complete trains run, just beyond each yard is staging for a trains between the yard and beyond it.

The Water Street yard handles a bunch of surrounding industries and has two operators.   There are local trains between Cedar Hill and Water Street yards.   There are also other locals that are simply destined to staging spurs.  But cars must be switched between the thru trains and the locals.

Since the New Haven had electrified routes, electric/diesel locomotives were swapped at the yard and the engine terminal was also destinations for coal, diesel, ash, sand and freight at the roundhouse.

this was all very new to me.   It was a different type of layout.    I had always imagined a yard effectively as staging, but now i see how a railroad really does operate.

  I could happily model a yard as a layout. I spent many happy childhood days hanging out in the Santa Cruz SP yard watching them switch and playing on cars when no engines were around. That yard had three routes for traffic with a wye at the south end so a layout could be built with surround loop for staging and train arrival and departure. Only 2 jobs worked the yard in the 50's so wouldn't need a lot of equipment to do realistic operations.....DaveB

Modeling a yard as a layout is one idea that's overlooked sometimes.  

"Modeled yard can be a busy place with many tasks to keep people busy" 

Joe

I regularly operate on my friend's layout which is modeled after the many yards in the metro St Louis area in the 1958-1961 timeframe. Trains are broken down and classified, built and dispatched, transfers to other yards and other railroads are run and several large industries are switched.

There is enough operation to keep the two of us working for hours. It's a large layout that could easily employ a six man crew.

Jeff White

Alma, IL

I think this came up a while back, 

absolutely a yard can be a layout. I actually did this for a while on a small layout. I had car cards and would shuffle them like a deck of cards, then I would just build a train of 20 cars based off that. 

Later on I added in a caboose track (1978 Conrail) and a Rip Track. I added into the mix of cards a few cards that just said bad order. Every so often one would pop up and it went with the next card drawn. More work for the yard crew!  

Once finish power was added and the train ran a loop along the wall, and the next train was built.  It didnt last long, just track pinned to foam, but it was fun and a central yard will be a focal point on my next layout.