Found a little time.

Back in October 2020 before I started the rebuilding of the main yard, I did some brainstorming about the scene in El Dorado: 

https://thelittlerockline.blogspot.com/2020/10/brainstorming-again.htm

With the new OPs plan the need for the yard in El Dorado really isn't needed any longer so I've been thinking about ripping this scene up for a third time to create more of a small town appearance by reducing the yard to nothing more than a passing siding and a smaller siding for a place to drop off and pick up cars bound for the industries there.

Before doing so I wanted to run an abbreviated session to see how things would work and what I'd need to accomplish this.  A few weeks ago I was finally able to schedule a time for Matt come by and help me out.

Here is how the tracks are laid now:

Here is a sketch of what I have planned:

I'll keep the bend in the mainline like I have it now as it adds visual interest and an excuse to keep the old depot in place.

The first thing I'm planning to do is to reduce the length of the passing siding by moving the two turnouts for the passing siding closer together.  This will reduce the length of the siding but I don't plan on having long trains or meets here again.

The next thing is to remove one of the two A/D tracks and just have a shorter siding in its place.  I'm figuring there should not be more than 4-5 cars sitting on it at any given time.  Added to those cars being dropped off or waiting for pickup, I'll also use the siding as a place to hold cars that are bound in the opposite direction that the local is running.  These cars will be picked up when the local returns.

All in all, I should now have more than enough room to expand the area so it doesn't look crammed together and yet have enough switching in the area to keep someone busy.

I also am not going to keep a local engine based in El Dorado like I had thought about, the local will do all the work.

Matt brought a couple of his locos and a caboose to use for power for the session.  We got a few shots during the session but please forgive the quality of the images.  We were more focused on how things worked than getting good quality images.

Just some random pics during the session...