Sheldon, a side question. What type of software used for creating those track plan schematics?Thanks!
Here is an example of a track plan with only one medium sized "visable" yard, and four various hidden staging yards.
This layout stages 25 trains "off stage" that then appear as per the operating schedule.
Sheldon
As others have mentioned, a staging yard represents the rest of the US rail network beyond your layout.
You can have a staging yard as a a separate yard or yards attached to your main tracks. Or you can use a junction yard between your model of a branch and the rest of your railroad. Or a staging yard can be an interchange. Or a staging yard can be car ferry or float operation.
On my layout, which follows a branch of the Reading Railroad, the junction of the branch with the Main Line is one staging yard. Then I have 2 PRR interchanges and a B&O interchange along the railroad that are other staging tracks. Finally at the extreme south end of the branch is a car ferry to New Jersey, that's also staging.
Most of my staging is visible or partially visible, so it forms a scenic element too.
The comment twas made that a yard is a huge space hog. That's where staging can help. If you start teh visible portion of the layout just past where your major yard would be, you can replace the major yard with a staging yard, which can be way more compact than a working yard. It doesn't need switching leads, or engine facilities or caboose tracks or any of that, just tracks to hold whatever number of trains you need to support your operation.
If your layout is a one man show, all it needs is a track or two for staging. The staging tracks can be hidden behind a low backdrop (6"-12" high) or line of trees or buildings. That way you can stand on a small step or ladder and see and reach over the low back drop, but when standing flat on the floor the trains are hidden.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
I have five staging yards, with three shown here...
...and another right above, here...
The fifth one is comprised of two tracks in another room.
Locomotives always stay on the layout, while freight and passenger cars are stored beneath the layout, as shown above, until they're needed.
I will make-up trains as needed, in the staging areas, and each, in-turn, will work their way around the layout, dropping-off and picking-up cars as needed, until they finally reach an appropriate staging yard at the end of their run. Some of those cars will be returned to their respective boxes, but some may be destined to go to another industry, which was not served by the train in which they were running. Those cars, along with others picked from the shelves below, will be made-up into an outbound train, and eventually, a locomotive will show up, and make it's trip to industries or interchanges along the way, until they reach another staging yard.I don't have enough room in the staging yards for storing all of my freight cars, let alone passenger and MoW equipment, so the staging areas are not usually allowed to fill-up completely.
My layout is not yet at a point where I can have an "operating system", and it's unlikely that there will ever be much in the way of a formal plan, as I'm not all that interested in those kinds of operation.
I do occasionally operate a staging yard as a switching yard, but would never consider including one as part of the sceniced portion of the layout, as they take-up too much room and aren't, to me, anyway, all that interesting visually.
Wayne
How much space do you have?
Years ago, I expanded my layout and found I had room for a small staging yard behind a new row of buildings, including a railroad station. I built what was intended to be a staging yard, but since it was visible, I added scenery and a couple of very low relief buildings behind. I found the area too nice to use for staging.
So, I expanded the layout again, and this time seriously planned for hidden staging.
I have yet another yard on my original layout, and I don't the interplay between yards and industries to be great fun.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Generally speaking, staging refers to "locations beyond the layout", so the tracks can hold a complete train, or just cars that are on "other rail lines (via interchange)", or at "unmodeled industries" or all the above. The staging can be hidden or visible, the degree of accessibility needed is driven by how much switching or "fiddling" (manually adding or removing cars) you plan to do. Just keep in mind that there will come a day when you need to perform maintenance on it.
A regular yard is where cars are received, classified (sorted, typically by destination or direction of next travel) and dispatched (put into a new out-bound train).
For those who want to focus on running complete trains, rotating multiple trains from staging to around the main layout and eventually back to staging is a common practice.
For those that want to create a "working model railroad", a common operational scenario is trains coming into the regular yard(s) with cars picked up from one or more locations on the layout (staging or industries on the layout), sorted, and dispatched out to be delivered to the next customer. Car routing can be determined by using switch lists or car-cards/waybills... or you can just drop or pick-up cars along the route as you choose. A yard master's work is never done, so there's always cars in the regular yard waiting for the next train or assignment.
You can operate in either mode - just run trains, or operate a working RR, whatever you're in the mood for at the moment. The staging can serve both purposes.
Jim
I run both freight and passenger service on my layout. I also have a staging yard the represents the rest of the world off my layout. And a local yard.
At the start of a session, with three engineersd and hopefully three conductors, a freight train leaves staging and proceeds into the local yard. It leaves its cars, picks up cars to go back, and goes back.
A sleeper train comes from staging, onto the north end, and proceeds south and shortly thereafter comes into staging. A local passenger proceeds north bound, unto a peninsula, swtiches and goes southward until it reaches staging. A third passenger goes north from staging and back into staging.
By then time this is done, the first operator has prepared to local freights to leave the local yard. A empty iron ore train comes out, goes to the mine branch and does its thing. The two local freights do their thing and return to the yard, and get broke down.
The passenger trains have the engines swapped to the other end of their trains by a big hand, usually mine, and the session concludes by the passenger service by repeated in reverse of the morning.
My layout is an around the wallos oval, with a double sided peninsula, with the local yard on one side, and the one town, (of three) on the other.
Hopefully, three crews are busy most of the time, and passenger trains are running both directions at the same time, co-operating to meet at the passing sidings.
Hope this helps.
ChrisVA My understanding is that I would use a staging yard to "store" my trains out of sight, and then bring them onto the layout during an operating session? At the end of the session I would presumably run them back onto the staging yard out of sight?
My understanding is that I would use a staging yard to "store" my trains out of sight, and then bring them onto the layout during an operating session? At the end of the session I would presumably run them back onto the staging yard out of sight?
Basically true, as others have mentioned.
Would it make sense to have another "regular" yard on the layout in full view where I did my classifcations during an operating session? Do I leave some cars here as my starting point for the next operating session? Somewhat new to the operational side of things, trying to understand how people typically configure this. Thanks in advance
Somewhat new to the operational side of things, trying to understand how people typically configure this.
Thanks in advance
For starters, yards are HUGE space killers so having an extra yard is something many simply don't have the space for. If they do, they probably have a large basement and understand much more how to design a laytout for operations.
But with staging, think of it as a real stage. Trains come from "off"stage (points east or south etc.) and run across the visible layout, per a schedule, and when they get to the other end, they go "off" stage. You can set up trains in staging for that schedule between operatoins. Then when ready, and maybe with other operators, run those trains per schedule. Some hot shots, others which may stop and drop off blocks of freight cars which are to be placed at industries. Others loaded moved and blocked for the next freight train. Or you may make up a freight rain and run it to points across the layout and off stage.
That's it in a nutshell.
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Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
A staging yard in meant to represent all the areas not modeled on your layout. It allows our trains to run "beyond the basement walls." For example, my layout models the Madison (WI) Sub of the C&NW. The western-most town is Elroy, WI. The eastern-most town is Harvard, IL. To the west of Elroy is staging, which will represent both St. Paul and Mankato, MN. To the east of Harvard, the staging yard will represent Proviso Yard in Chicago. Many people, including me, have both staging yards and modeled yards on their layouts. Some even have their modeled yard right next to the staging yard.
One of the functions of a yard is to organize and sort cars for their next destination. Some cars may stay on the train and go to the next yard. Some may get switched to go on a local. Usually you want to keep the yard with fewer cars so you have as many empty tracks to sort the next arriving train(s).
As far as leaving cars in the yard for the next ops session, it really depends on where you leave off. You could have a train coming in on an arrival track, and that's where you stop. Or you could have that train broken down and new trains put together, and you stop there. Or all of your trains depart and the yard is empty to start the next session.
I hope this helps, and hopefully others will chime in as well who know more about ops than I do.
Scott
A staging yard is nothing more than a place to store the trains that represent trains that are not on your layout, but will appear on your layout at some point.
A "regular" yard, or classification yard, is where your active classification of cars is part of the visible layout operations.
And example of the two used together. Train A comes out of staging, representing a train from Chicago. It stops at the regular yard called DeMoines. There, the "classification" locomotive breaks the train into two long cuts of cars, and combines each cut with other cars already in the yard to form two new trains. Then those two trains leave the regular yard, traverse the layout, and head into a different (or the opposite end of the first) staging yard that represents Omaha and Kansas City.
There are many more variations, but that's the basic difference.
You may not want to have both kinds of yards on your layout. It depends upon how you think you will operate it.
- Douglas
Would it make sense to have another "regular" yard on the layout in full view where I did my classifcations during an operating session? Do I leave some cars here as my starting point for the next operating session?