March 2007:  Installing a staging yard for the Juniata Division!

I figured it's about time I start operating my layout like a real railroad.  There's a problem with the original trackplan, though.  No staging!

Well, my layout is designed with one key requirement:  it must be portable.  Ergo, it must be lightweight.  So, I decided a removable staging yard would be doable.  A logical place would be to run it off one of the front sidings.  Since one was already serving as a DCC programming track, I used the other one.

Click on images to enlarge.

   Benchwork is simple.  It's 5' long.  The "deck" is a 1x6 with 1x2 braces on the bottom (like an inverted U).  The side walls  are black foam-core board to prevent trains from departing the yard in a vertical motion toward the floor.

There are 3 tracks.  Each has its own on/off toggle switch (no sense in frying DCC decoders when a train's not in use) and a re-railer section (just in case!).  The turnouts and track are all Atlas Code 80 (departing from my usual procedure of using Peco turnouts - since this was to be in an unscenicked yard I decided I didn't mind the Atlas switch machines).  Roadbed is Woodland Scenics Trackbed.  The longest yard track holds even my longest coal drag, and the other two will handle a full passenger train.  Isn't N scale great?

   Simple L-brackets mount the lightweight yard to the fascia of the Middle Division.

The other end is supported by a 1x3 leg mounted on a door hinge.  There is a pad and a block on the other side to allow the leg to cantilever outward at the right angle to (almost) perfectly match the height of the rest of the layout.

Now that I have a staging yard, the next step is to come up with an operating plan.  Check back soon!

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