I pulled out a copy of 101 Track Plans (Kalmbach 1956, 1976 reprinting) from my bookshelf this morning before church and flipped through it as sort of a double-check of my track planning ideas. And I realized something about myself. I started reading Model Railroader in the 1950s when I was in grade school and I think that's why I'm more comfortable with the track plans from that era than with more modern planning concepts. Take the example of hidden staging, which virtually didn't exist in 1950s plans.
In a comment regarding one of my posts in September 2009, a gentleman named Darrell quite correctly pointed out that my plan lacked any kind of "off layout" staging. My response was...and still is...essentially that it's not important to me, and I prefer the use of card-order switching and "inbound" and "outbound" yard tracks, which I happily employed in my Idaho switching layout, a very 1950s viewpoint. Darrell's intent was to be helpful and I appreciate that, but I just don't feel the need for hidden staging or any similar device. I think the staging schemes and concepts are great...just not for me.
Now, I might feel differently if I had a layout that featured a lot of mainline running, but I really liked my small switching layout in Idaho and I plan to do something similar now.
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