HaggisKennedy
Coal Shoveler
SpaceMouse said:The top part of the plan is what I'm talking about. Yes, he has a runaround in staging, but the nearest runaround to the top area is off to the right (in a different scene) and you cannot get to the switching area without two extra moves.
I think a runaround is needed in the main switching area at the top.
Yes, well, that would make it easy, but what's the fun in that? It's not always that easy with the prototype either.
From what you just said, I surmise you're talking about trains heading in a counter-clockwise direction. It will not be easy to do any switching from that direction. Yep, that's true. There are prototypes out there that wouldn't even try to do that; they'd drop off the cars at the next yard/siding for the return trip to switch. I do that on one part of my layout; it's a facing point spur to a small power plant. I need to put one-two cars of coal there. I don't even stop there going that way; since that job is a turn, I switch those cars on the way back. If it wasn't a turn job, but a one-way local, I would drop the cars at a small yard for the other way local to switch. In Grandpa's case, I'd drop the cars into that siding down by building "H" and have the clockwise job switch the industries. That job will jam all the outbound cars into the staging yard for the counterclockwise job to pick up.
The other option would be for the counterclockwise job to put all the switching cars into the staging yard for somebody else to work. In this manner, that job will do the pickup of outbound cars I mentioned in the last line of the previous paragraph.
Still, it's a good point, and it's Grandpa's call what he wants to do. Is it extra moves? Sure. But, there's ways around it, just like the prototype. The crews will piss and moan about it, but they'll do that anyway.
Kennedy