Hoss, As much a making up trains in a yard can be rewarding you still need to industries to give the layout more purpose. A grain terminal is excellent I have one and a grain silo to run between.
Yeah...I can see where you're coming from. I'm working on a couple of different possibilities for some industries...
Hoss, you might get an Atlas turntable which is a simple Geneva driven mechanism that does very well for alignment of each stall track, and as Turntables go, is relatively inexpensive. My reasoning is that your enjoyment of continuous running, could also be served should you choose to operate a colorfull excursion train pulled by an old small steamer occasionally for variety. One stall track could lead to an engine house to park the steamer to keep the dust off. Another stall track could be of use for a diesel repair facility. And the turntable could easily turn any diesels you may wish to head the other way, or to turn a parlor car. Aspur from the yard could also lead to the turntable to rout an engine around the yard for a quick "run around" when you might have filled the yard and have a streamliner charging through! You wouldn't need a huge diameter pit for a single engine. You have a lot of places all around the track plan that you could add short spurs to industries, and small town stations for occasional passenger pickup too. There are a lot of one and two car side tracks that are switched by the road engine where one car is pulled out, and another is left, then the train re-couples and continues on its way, dropping the empty car back at the yard. Just a suggestion to prevent you from going to sleep with boredom. Your mood and interests change as you get older, and as your available time to run varies. Food for thought.
Thanks Watash. Sounds like I might need to revisit the idea of the turntable. After hearing what everyone here has to say, I'm definitely gonna be adding in some industry spurs along the main line in places. I've got a few idea in mind that I haven't put down on paper yet, but I think I can make it a lot more interesting with some few minor changes to the track plan. Thanks for the input.
