Yard

Nothing says that you have to put an engine on every track.  You could dedicate 1 track to hold sets of power , lined up in the order trains will run and then each crew gets there power, puts it on their train and departs.

It is assumed that the staging yard we are discussing is visible.

What does A/D stand for?I

What does A/D stand for?

I believe it was David Barrow on his Cat Mountain & Santa Fe RR who had visible staging yards.  Cool idea if you have room for it, and he did at the time.

As Dave commented, you can have a track to hold power sets.  I have enough room at one end of my staging yard to do that and am planning on having a power set-out track.   At another end I have space for at least 3 or more stub end tracks which I am installing so staging is not simply a long double ended yard with 11 tracks.

In this photo, the area where the orange and blue handled cutters are sitting is where the engine set-out/holding track will go.

The area to the right of the yard ladder will have a 3 track stub end yard.

A/D

A/D is for Arrival/Departure tracks.

Mike in Florida.

Is there any real difference?

I don't think it's any real difference to be honest, besides having minimal scenery there versus it being a plywood pacific:

Agree, adding scenery makes the staging area feel more part of the railroad.

I disagree by assuming you already were planning having your engineers run the trains all the way to one of these staging tracks anyways.

Not knowing your track plan, I'm assuming your staging is on it's own deck. Adding industries to switch will change the needs of this deck, such as spacing to the other deck in order to reach in, lighting etc. Industries can also now be in the way when trying to reach into the deck to reach staging tracks if not properly designed.

Devil's advocate: you could have make this change without adding scenery in your original track plan, so why didn't you? Are you feeling you are lacking in industries overall in the layout? Are you feeling certain jobs are too light in switching? Remember, having different levels of switching action per train can make it easier for new operators to be introduced to your layout. I personally wouldn't make such change unless you can "upgrade" the staging deck to a full worthy deck with proper separation, light, reach etc.

No, entering a yard (staging or A/D) at the end of a train turn is basically the same, even if in one situation you literally park the train while in the other you park the train and uncouple the locomotives and run them to a dedicated power track.

Maybe, but depends on deck separation, lighting and the amount of trains ready to go. Using a dedicated power track, as Dave Husman suggested, would add realistic work for a crew at the beginning and end of a run.

I don't see the problem. Yards in real life are huge with typically lots of tracks. When I looked at the Norfolk Southern's Kankakee and Shenandoah yards for my Chesapeake Western & Kankakee layout plan in Running Extra, I was surprised to see how big they actually were based on the supposed daily traffic on these lines. Yet there were many tracks filled with assembled trains (sans power) sitting there waiting for their departure.

Maybe the only difference you want to (unconsciously?) make to your yard is that you want to use 100% of the tracks to store trains versus limiting track occupancy to around 50%? In that case I think what you're really after is an off-layout staging yard, not an on-layout A/D yard in my opinion.

Long time listener, first

Long time listener, first time caller-

This is exactly what I'm doing.

I'm in the process of adding a second deck to my 15x19 around the walls layout.

I originally built it without staging and soon learned how having trapped rolling stock becomes bothersome.

My staging yard will be along one 19" wall, on the lower level, then two of the other three walls will have A- a coal mine scene on the 15" wall, and B- a Just open running with a passing siding before entering the helix.

At the far end of the staging yard will be a turntable large enough to turn my longest steam, and on the "short" wall (15' but with the room access door) I'll have about a 11' module with a loco service facility accessible via the turntable for loco storage including those awaiting actual repair. This area will also have 2 programming tracks- one for DCC, the other for LokSound.

My through trains will originate from this yard, travel around those three walls, up the helix, and into a smaller yard where blocks of set outs and pickups will be made, then continue around the other walls of the upper level and back down the helix towards staging.

My helix will effectively be on a wye. The upper level is continuous run, while the lower is stub ended into staging.

Locals will stay pretty much on the upper level, except for a mine run.

I never really intended to keep the same power with trains into and out of staging. That way I get to exercise my entire fleet (who doesn't have too many engines?).

My staging is on...

My staging is on the lower level and goes around two walls. 5 tracks on one side of each wall; 4 on the other side opposite the other tracks. Since they're below, I have complete train sets (engine, cars, caboose (if needed) on the these tracks. North staging departs to the west and returns to staging from the east. South staging departs from the east and returns from the west. 

It works well since staging is just what it means (to me) - stage trains that will be run at some point in time during an operating session. I usually have 12-13 trains at the ready.

Now, in my freight yard above, I have 3 tracks that I use for arrival/departures. Used more for departures as the yardmaster uses those tracks to build locals and trains to head to another destination (staging below).

Neal

SRVY is a crew change point on my layout/staging yard and A/D

Salt River Valley yard is the major exposed Staging area on my layout,  I use it as a so called crew change point as well as an A/D tracks as need.  Farpoint at the end of the layout is a loop.  So train leaving SRVY make the loop around Farpoint before returning to the rest of the layout.     Train returning back to SRVY enter on the east end of the yard.  Not totally realistic back it makes truing trains easy and not backing trains in and out of stage tracks like a muzzle loading blunderbuss 

Yes, Salt River Valley Yard/Crew Change Point is plywood under paint and not very pretty looking,  but my entire layout is plywood under paint...If I get around to it we have plans of fulling decorating it to look like the SP Colton Yard in CA.  The famous loop at the end Colton yard was one of the inspirations on SRVY.

Add Another A/D Yard as Staging

Using staging as the Arrival/Departure Yard is exactly what I designed into and have used on my SP Cascade Line.

https://espeecascades.blogspot.com

I use reverse loop staging at both ends of my railroad.  The lower staging serves as the A/D Yard for my Eugene complex.  The upper staging is strictly that--staging, albeit located at the historic division boundary between Portland and Shasta Divisions just over the summit of the Cascades in Oregon.  

As to my Eugene operation, the twelve-track reverse loop staging works very well and has developed in the five years of operation of my RR.  There are separate diesel service tracks for servicing and ready power.  Now developing is the steam-era facility with turntable and roundhouse.  Both of those still exist in Eugene, so this is no anachronism, even for my current 1984 operations.  The five outer loop tracks represent "Portland."  Trains bound for Portland such as Amtrak or the TOFC trains are placed on those tracks.  The other seven tracks represent the Eugene A/D Yard.  Four of those routinely are designated for the four major RR-West (southbound) destinations, with new trains constantly being made up on those tracks.  Two tracks routinely serve  the arrival function from which they get broken up with waybills flipped to feed those RR-West destinations.  The inner-most loop track routinely received the "Eugene Propers"--cars destined for Eugene, Springfield, or Oakridge/Westfir which are the major originating and terminating industrial locations on my RR.  Much of this traffic is empties, as Oregon was a primary forest products producer and traffic originator.

Inbound trains should have their caboose and power removed and then get worked by both the A/D Yard crew and the main classification yard which is sized to support the modeled on-layout industry.  Similarly, as trains are built up on the departure tracks, they receive cabooses and then power.  

All of this makes what began as a staging idea--a logical reason for trains to be parked with power and caboose attached--become a set of active, sought-after operating positions.  Development of the engine servicing areas will add a true hostler position.  I currently am rearranging track in the throat area leading out of this complex to better support the operations that have developed.  

In addition to exploring my blog via the link provided at the top, you may also get see a current photo survey of my railroad in my annual survey done in early August, marking the anniversary of construction start:

https://espeecascades.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-railroad-at-year-eight.html

Bill Decker, McMinnville, Oregon

Thank you all for

Thank you all for your thoughts! There are many interesting ideas and approaches here. Reading through your detailed replies has helped clarify several of trade-offs. One big trade-off is whether your staging yard is visible or hidden - if it's hidden, then it certainly makes most sense to just leave it as a staging yard. If it's visible, then it's interesting to note that staging can very effectively double-up as the A/D yard to support a modeled classification yard, if the classification yard is at one end of the pike (as AzBaja and Bill Decker are doing, and as I am planning).

One particular shout-out to @Bill Decker: In fact, I have been a quiet reader of your blog, though I hadn't seen the latest update yet, and your work has been an ongoing source of inspiration for me. So it was really a delight to see your answer to my question 

Thanks again all!

Siddharth