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Think about the layout in sections. Possibly as several feet by several feet organized into towns. Each town can have a group of industry. The yard can then have a long track for each town so the locals can just grab the town's cars and go. A nice mainline with some run is a must because you keep expressing a desire for trains. The main does not have to visit all of the towns one after another. They can leave the yard and go thru one town and take off cross country until it hits the next town. At the last town on the line maybe you can think about how you would like to return to the yard. You can simply disappear under the layout or behind a long backdrop and have a staging track for entire trains to sit waiting for it's turn onto your "stage" These trains can represent "the rest of the world" bringing in materials for your industry that you dont have room for. My example was to use a tug and barge to carry loads to a steel mill, coal/ore dock and a number of other industries on the "other side" of the harbor. This removes the need to build space eating industries and creates a place of action that is likely to keep you or a crew man busy for an hour or so. Use several different types of towns that depend on each other's industries for commerce. Try to keep it rather simple or you may find yourself constantly tending the industrys in local switching while the through or inbound trains may get neglected. Think about the potential for these industries to have enough siding room about equal to the yard's capacity. Eventually you will understand just how big you are able to go and still feel that you can get a day's work done with each of the towns. Example: Town with a Factory, Cold Storage and a Cattle yards The Factory may hold 4 boxcars at a time, the cold storage 7 reefers and the cattle yard can either rest and water live stock in transit or be a part of a suggested Meat slaughter house. Let's say you can fit 6 stock cars in this cattle yard. We have just assigned a total of 17 cars to that town. Assuming 40 foot cars, your assigned yard track for the local that services just this one town can be about 9 feet long in HO scale. Puts that large yard into perspective doesnt it? We never are going to have room for everything so if you allow your central yard to service a group of towns; each town with it's set of industry you will quickly understand just how much "railroad" you are willing to put up with.
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