Model Railroad Hobbyist | January 2017 | #83 GETTING REAL column Mike Rose Riding the Prototype of Your Layout| and then modeling it, too It’s funny how sometimes little things like off-hand comments and chance meetings with other people can end up having a huge impact. After my last op session, our best yet here on my layout, my friend Mike Confalone remarked on how well the layout was running and coming together, and that the only thing it lacked was a large yard. Bear in mind this was in the context of us having many discussions about a remark that a friend of his had made about how “it’s a shame how much room staging yards take up.” The staging yard remark ended up with my helping Mike C. construct a cross-aisle bridge and scenic level above one of his large staging yards. That experience, combined with his off-hand remark to me, resulted in several weeks of think- ing about how I could address my lack of a yard and perhaps use a scenic level above my own staging yard to essentially solve all the layout problems that remained. What ensued was a decision to make some huge changes to the layout track plan, and included dropping a 22’+ staging yard in XX MODELING REAL RAILROADS AND WHAT THEY DO • INDEX SUBSCRIBE (free) • TABLE OF CONTENTS