Thanks for showing us how your staging yard is designed, Roy.

Grest show as always! Thanks for sharing your layout.

Hi Roy, As always, thanks for your insight on this great hobby that we all share! Mike

I subscribed because you remind me of my late grandfathers. I got a chuckle of you explaining that you are actually a taller gentleman. I also enjoyed you wanting to “blast through” the wall, if your wife would allow it! Your knowledge and explanations of why you do what you do is extremely helpful! Maybe one day I will be able to have a layout in my house. My wife and I are married only 3 years, both active military and haven’t bought a house yet. Looking forward to catching up on your videos, take care!

That guy with the White sunglasses shows up all over the place. Salt River Valley Yard is an example of a open and visible staging yard. SRVY is used as a crew change point put it is just a staging yard.

a very good explanation about staging roy . wish i had one and now i dont have any way of installing one unless i dismantle my layout witch is not going to happen. but i am jealous of and admire yours . you were the smart one here i wish i had researched it out more when doing my layout plan. thank you for the video loved it . jim

That is a nice looking design for a staging yard.

Great video this week. Its pretty timely for me as I am trying to decide about adding a staging/fiddle yard to my layout. Thanks again for a great video. Dave

Great. Video again Roy. Great to see you explained just how important staging yards are on a layout. . Cheers Darren

Hey Roy! Nice explanation of your operations! Keep up the great work. Again, thanks for sharing! People such as yourself, Mike Fifer, and Steven Brown a jewels of the N Scale World!

Great vid Roy, I know your needs for a staging yard, I'm lucky to have a working yard with 11tracks...

Hi Roy, an excellent presentation on staging with detailed explanations on "why" you did what you did in the layout design. What a strong endorsement you made for considering staging design -- "one of the smartest things I ever did on my layout." I agree. One-half of my small layout consists of yards and staging. Your clear explanations and examples, with clear descriptions, makes this a "keeper video" for reference in the future. Thanks, Roy!!! - Dean from Minnesota

I enjoyed seeing this video, Roy. I can see your mind is always thinking of improvements and changes. The track change when you built the swing-down section was a great plan.

Roy, I have to confess I haven't got room for a hidden fiddle yard and also having limited myself to 2ft. minimum radius curve a helix takes up to much space in my very small 12' x10' railway room. So I've taken an idea from my old friend the late Don Rowling and put the yard front and centre. Don refered to this design as " full frontal ", so the yard is right there with you. I'm lucky in that the actual place I'm modelling has an west and east yard with trains of wagons being shunted between the 2 yards. The biggest problem I have is this small area could swallow as much traffic as the real thing. Cheers, Chris Perry.

Roy this just happened to be the best advice from you to date. I was going to put my staging in the 6x10 closet but it was still to tight. With what you just explained I am going to come up with a plan to stay under the layout

Thank you for posting this video!

Another very informative video Roy. My railroad doesn't have a lot of through traffic running over it, so my primary use of staging is to represent the origins and destinations beyond the ends of the layout for the industries and stations on the visible portion. Art...

Very impressed by your staging design with kato unitrack. Very effective and efficient use of space to give you great track length.

Great video as ever Roy. I wish I'd designed in a yard but the design we chose was to be as simple as possible. Eventually we added a single siding but can still easily have 6 trains of varying lengths available with 3 running at any time.

Oh Roy, since the speed matching series I've been looking at teams of locomotives in the real world. On my drive to work every day I drive over a couple of Santa Fe yards and the Union Pacific Global 2 yard. The Union Pacific yard has an area where loco pairs are parked on the tracks. Thinking about the speed matching series and real life applications, it now makes sense to me that you only speed match pairs of locos and not your entire fleet. That's what they do in real life too! Keep up the great work, you give me things to think about on my drive to work every day. :)

Roy, I enjoyed another nice show. I agree about having open staging yards, not only is it easier to work on the trains but it gives you more trains to watch. Run through tracks are the way to go. A few stub end tracks for more storage is fine if you have the space. Like you, I am also 6'3", so sitting on the bench to do your broadcast is very understandable. The 8" spacing between your levels looks a lot bigger, thanks to N-Scale.

Roy I've aways conceded a staging yard a mustas you say it's the rest of the world connections and at your vision a while back I have rethinks my branch line ton have this to simplify it too withe a staging tracks. As always you give us great ideas thanks Jack 🙂

Roy, Very well done explanation and overview of your staging level. Since I did not have staging in my previous layout, I went overboard a bit with 24 staging tracks on my layout. I have two reversing loops on mine along with a big loop of track that joins all of the staging tracks that permits trains to stay together and be routed easily back in either direction without run arounds....John

In order to reverse your steam engines, a turntable or wye can be used instead of a reversing loop. On your layout you could potentially build a wye off the front of the layout. To do that I'd build a center extension , likely hinged so it can drop down, that way you could bring it up when you want to use it and otherwise keep it down.

Hi Roy another great video mate I do ran freight trains on my layout such as freightliner comtainer/Mgr coal /petrohemicals/speed link wagon load/nuclear flask /department /automotive traffic trains. but passengers trains are the main priority on the layout with intercity and intercity sleeper trains and suburban trains on the layout as British rail did in the 1980s clive

Roy, excellent video on staging yards. I learned a lot. I like the compound ladder design, less space is good. I think not blasting any holes in the walls was a good call. LOL thanks for sharing. Ken

Hi Roy. I run a typical UK exhibition layout..an oval layout, scenic front, fiddle (staging) yard back with 0ver 30 holding sidings. It is all on the same level, and now the layout, like me, is retired I would love to drop the staging yard so I can build a huge new scenic section at the back over the yard. I can easily do this with a helix but it would have to be mounted on the side of the boards as I do not have any more space to fit one between the two boards. I'll post some pictures when I work out how to fit it on the side!! Cheers, Bob

Cool video

Great video Roy, I like how you kept your staging visible. My layout is small, consisting of only a single industry's yard, so staging for me is literally the yard lead, out in the open and will be fully scenic'd. I suppose any place on the layout that allows you to quickly assemble/disassemble trains could be considered staging as well. Whatever works for you and your railroad!

Thanks, Roy, I agree completely about the importance of having a double-ended yard, although I have to incorporate a turntable into my fiddle yard (Staging Yard!) to overcome precisely the problem that you have encountered but with only one steam loco and one turbine this is probably not worth your while.

Yup. Ty roy. Just placed my staging area in hallway tunneling through wall. Making the hole in wall today but must get through the mortar inside drywall. My house is 156 yrs old. Remodeled tho. Ty, again.

My little HCD layout had one single staging track. I used it as the Tidewater's connection with the WP and Stockton.

Yup, I agree, having it all open is the way to go. The only thing you may want to do is to put a curtain in front, mostly for keeping dust from entering but also to hide IF you want to. I see that your yard is really two yards. At what point do the two mainlines cross over (I'm assuming they do at some point).

Nice video

Nice explanation. So for steam operation you want at least on turntable. I have hiked to some of the old logging camps and the all had a turntable. Even today at the modern Boeing plant with the 4%+ Grade they turn the engine with a turn table. So a thought for using old style equipment.

Hi Roy, nice explanation of your staging. It's difficult for the steam locos though. Oh well, we can't have it all, can we? See ya Tuesday, for Dispatch.

I will have put one on blueprint for one Roy and idea that could help

Not that it really matters but I noticed you mentioned interchanges with BNSF at Cheyenne. Now if prototype operation is of importance to you, it may benefit you to know the BNSF and UP do not interchange through freight at Cheyenne. The only equipment exchanged are BNSF Rock (Ballast) Trains that travel west via the “Granite Switch” a UP Regular Assignment. They travel via the Union Pacific from Cheyenne west to Granite about 25 miles. All other traffic exchange is facilitated at Denver or via the Great Western between Fort Collins / Longmont and Greeley. The BNSF interchange activity at Provo, UT is limited to California bound equipment running through via H DENPVO that continues on across N. Nevada. This information is provided via personal professional experience as my last regular duty before Amarillo, Tex was at Cheyenne and Denver respectively in train service to BNSF.

Another great video, Professor Roy! I learned a bunch re staging yards and will add it to my considerations re what I want in mine. I have seen many ways that people use the turnouts to achieve the yard...what were your thoughts in using the set up you have? Thanks, Roy! Always fun and educational...John

Hi Roy, great video. You always get me thinking and coming up with great ideas. What about a turntable in the staging yard so those Steam Engines can get flipped around? I know for you that you don't run a lot of steam engines so it might not be worth it. For me though, at least 2/3rds of my locos are steam

Hi Roy, the schematic of your staging yard shows individual sectional Kato track, would you be so gracious as to share the manufacturing numbers of the individual pieces you used, radius pieces only of course. Thanks Roy

Turning steam locomotives was a problem with real railroads. That is why they had wyes and turn tables. Again enjoyed this session.

My staging is just going to be tracks at ends and below layout decks or on the front of decks to allow trains to be assembled from drawers under the layout and disassembled into the drawers. The staging will really be the under layout storage without a real staging yard.

Liked your comment about having staging in an adjacent room. Enjoyed this episode. Sorry speed matching was like watching paint dry for me. Do you have straight or curved Kato switches in your staging yard?

Great video, Roy. However, I’m quite disappointed to find out you are 6’3”. I was sure you were about the same average height as I at 5’6”😆

Did you make a video showing your LED lights? (Yes, I am too lazy to search for it!). My staging yard, based on your design but with one helix, has the new benchwork built and is almost ready for track and wiring. I am thinking about working a turntable into the design so it can be installed in the future. Thanks again for the gentle push :).

Hi Roy, how do you control your Kato switches and how will you control them in near future?

You can run a steam Loco backwards. I seen a pic of one caption saying this RR ran steam locks backwards. Plus it's your railroad !? In model RR mag I seen a pic where a mountain pulled a 5/6 car passenger train by the observation!

I could never understand hidden staging. when you could put building in it, and other yard items and make it a major part of a layout, and a great area to run trains.

I'm still trying to convince my neighbour that a staging yard in his living room would be cool. All I have to do is drill a small portal connecting my layout to his place.

Your staging isn't exactly hidden or inaccessible so camera's are probably overkill for your layout. If you had JMRI and had every switch motorized and just liked to sit and run trains without getting up, then the cameras would make sense. I think Roy it is time for a background down there on the staging area.

Roy: Your layout doesn’t need a turn table. Also installation of one or two wyes in the staging yard wouldn’t be practical. I like the was you have done your layout. As for speed matching, like I have said I haven’t invested in DCC yet and don’t run multiple “powered” units on trains. So it is not a issue for me. I do plan on modeling a large chemical/refining complex (lots of real estate used). Looking forward to your next episode.

I really don't have the room for a real staging area.

Darn wifes.

You didn't mention the diamond design for staging. John Armstrong recommended this track arrangement in his book "Track Planning For Realistic Operation". The advantage is that all tracks are of the same length thereby avoiding the situation you describe when you must be careful not to put a long train in a short track.