I am thinking to sacrifice most of the staging yard behind my desks to gain some more industries to be switched. The "old" staging consists of four double sided tracks (1-4) and two stub tracks (5,6) that can hold an engine and two cars. I use it to feed the scenic part on the other side of the room with six different trains. An alternative I have currently under test is shown below. Staging has been reduced to one track (5) only that can hold two trains. It will be separated and hidden by some industry (red line) that is served by track 3 and 4. Track 2 is the main and track 1 is a siding and possible run around. The advantage is obvious, more industry to serve. I am also eager to do some scenery on the today flat gray painted staging area. The problem is the lost staging space. I am afraid the layout lost it's operating concept. Where are the trains coming from and where are they going to? With only one (long) staging track (track 5) I "need"only two engines to run the operation. The old staging was good for six! engines. May be I will put some hidden staging in the back of the other part of the layout too when I do the next mayor rebuild? What is your opinion? A quick photo. Two trains one ofter the other on the left most remaining staging track, track 3 and 4 with two cuts, empty track 2 and the right most track 1 with another train. Technical remark: The area (staging yard) behind the desks does not permit to have anything under the layout. The tracks are old ROCO like Kato with ballast. The turnouts are DCC controlled and direct feed from the rails. The area has a separate DCC booster connected by a 2-wire control cable with the DCC controller. The switches are controlled as set of points by the DCC controller (Intellibox). I have to stay with the turnouts and the way they are controlled (and I like it). But I can get rid of the tracks and replace them with standard Atlas flex tracks. The Atlas tracks will be layed on cork to get the same elevation as the ROCO turnouts. That will give some flexibility and open the possibility to get tracks 1, 2 and 3/4 more close together (e.g. 2") and gain some space in front of track 5 to build a "very" thin industry to hide track 5.
I gave it a try. Had to simplify the track plan to get a track distance of 2" with the ROCO turnouts. The space in front of the staging track at the wall should be sufficient for some slim industry hiding the track at the wall.
Try running the track through the buildings along the wall then the buildings will have more depth. They can be removed to allow access to the staging track.
That's a pretty narrow space to justify industry. Certainly in the new space, you can use building flats as industries for the 2 sidings. Personally, if it was me, and understand, I don't know the rest of your layout, I'd have left the trackage as is, clean up/paint the roco track and then used building flats/Photos/painted backdrop as scenery. With perhaps a few foreground pieces to re-enforce the image as a yard. Then just treat it as a small yard. AND staging at the same time. For example, where I live, the Portland and Western has a small yard at Tigard Oregon. It receives a complete train from the south which is called the OE express. That train ties up in the yard where a new crew comes on and takes it north where it is now called the Harbor turn. It moves up the line to the BNSF yard in Portland, switches cars and returns. Some cars are dropped at Tigard, some continue on as the southbound OE express which may depart immediately or may tie down. At the same time, the Yard handles 2 switch runs 1 either direction which return there and sort cars and then the occasional other through train. What I would do is treat track 4 as true stagging where a Train, such as the OE Express Harbor Turn sits waiting to move on in one direction or the other (could use it for 2 trains one either way) Then the remaining yard as is is a switch yard making up and breaking up trains that have come in off the line. You could also stage trains here as if a switch job has occurred during the previous shift. So the trains all set to go out for the next one.
I have a freelance layout with some impressions from the LAJ in Vernon. The new part will be somehow interpret the LAJ between E. Vernon Ave and E. 44.th. The existing scenic part of my layout is on my homepage http://rub-peters.de/ (The grain elevators etc. have been replaced with more "Vernon style" buildings at the end of the photo collection. The staging area feeds the LAJ with UP and BNSF transfers. I have two tracks (in and out bound, left side upper and middle tracks) to emulate the LAJ A yard. That is the origin of two LAJ jobs. One serves the industry on the old part the second will serve the industry on the new part. That is the "deal" behind it. I loose two UP/BNSF transfer trains and gain one LAJ job serving the new industry. The transfer runs are quite simple. Drop the cut in the inbound track, go to outbound track and exit with the cut found there. The LAJ jobs are more interesting as they have to sort the in bound cut and distribute it with two jobs to the two areas. The industry will be the front walls only to hide the staging track. I will not put a roof over the staging track as it is invisible when I sit in front of the layout. However at the corners a more complex building scenario might be required. Vernon is a great source to find buildings following curved tracks.
Nice work on your layout .. the area you want to use is perfectly wide enough to use for industries .. you can put in background flats .. not a problem
