Two common practices to "apply the brake" to freight cars so trains once uncoupled from the locomotives do not roll down a hill are setting up some kind of mechanism (such as using a tortoise switch motor) to cause some kind of pin to come up in between the rails to catch on a truck axle, or to have some kind of whiskers planted in between the rails that would prevent the cars from rolling back. 

With no room for a helix, I will likely be building a 6-ft long train elevator (vertical lift) between the two decks of my planned n-scale railroad (6 feet matches my maximum expected train length).

My question here is *not* about *building* a train elevator. Rather, I'm looking for some creative thinking regarding OPERATIONS when using one.

Were there any *prototypical* reasons for a train to *always* stop at some point on the mainline for a while, then move on? What might it be doing (as a model railroad thought) while it pulls onto, stops, raises, then drives off the elevator?.

I'm getting to the point where it's time to start setting up for operations on my railroad.  The layout should be OPS ready by the end of the year.  Haven't decided on a program as of yet but I want to start setting up a dispatch panel and I'm contemplating what kind of communications system to use.  I'm not a fan of the two-way radio (could be persuaded to change my thinking) and would prefer wired hand held communication.