What makes a good yard?

Always a good idea to at least attach a photo of the design if you already have part of a design done. That way folks can get an idea of what things look like and how best to respond to your question. Attaching the RRT file too will help those of us who also use RR-Track.

1/ Consider having a run-through track

2/ An engine service area is almost a necessity.  For steam engines you could have an ash pit, a water pipe/tank and a coaling tower.

3/ Add weights to your cars so they weigh about the same.  15 to 20 ounces.

4/ Caboose track?

5/ Are your cars equipped with Kadee or claw couplers?  It is much easier to conduct classification operations with Kadees.

John

1) I place one uncoupling track per yard track, just after the switch and any curved track you may use to space your yard tracks. You use the shunting engine to move the cars to be uncoupled over the uncoupler track to uncouple. Then you sort the cars you want together on an empty yard track. This is the logistics of creating a cut of cars in the order you want to build a train.

Cars can be coupled without using an uncoupling track. with conventional lionel type couplers, you need to impact the stationary cars at about 8-10 SMPH in my experience. (depends on the stiffness of the specific couplers)

3) I have minimal operating accessories in the yard. On my layout I have engine servicing on one track, an icing station on another track and a string of industries on the track closest to the wall. These industries with loading docks are kitbashed building fronts. The rest of the tracks are for storage only. There is one empty track, which on my layout goes to the engine servicing area and roundhouse. This track is used as temporary storage to build trains. Building trains is like a moving puzzle, you need an empty track to move the other cars onto, otherwise you can't easily build a train, with no empty place to put the cars.

4) I have a lead track that is a little longer than my longest yard siding, which means I can back trains from the yard and switch cars from siding to siding without fouling the main line. This track runs parallel to my main line in order to conserve space. On my layout the yard lead goes around one of my corners, which was required due to the location of the yard.

5) a train entering the yard needs a place for the engine to "escape". I run the train into the turntable lead track, where the engine can go to the turntable. If you do not have a turntable, then you will need a set of switches at the end of two of the yard tracks in order to do the same thing.  This takes up considerable yard space, however it is what is needed to properly operate the yard.

Good luck. If you post your RR-Track layout, it will be easier to comment and make suggestions

Thanks for all the feedback, guys.  I can tell my yard needs a lot of re-design based on your comments, but I've posted what I've got.  Think I need to have a MUCH longer yard lead among other things.  Not sure what more can be done given the limited space short of eliminating a mainline, and I REALLY don't want to do that.. RRT file attached.  I'm having trouble printing the layout both to a file (export to BMP file) as well as hard copy printing.  I think there's a scaling problem in the file I'm having trouble finding.

A real yard is not for storage.   It is for storing and rearranging cars for their next destination.     This is called "classifying cars" hence the term "classification tracks"

Generally speaking a yard is also not a place to store complete trains.    They go off someplace to destinations which is why we have some staging tracks someplace that may be visible or not.

The most important feature in my opinion a yard should have is a lead track that is separate from the main.    The lead track is the track that connects to all the individual classification tracks.     It also generally connects to a track or 2 (in real big yards many) double ended Arrival/departure tracks and obviously to the main.     The yard lead should be long enough so a switcher can pull all the cars out of any of the individual class tracks.    That way a switcher can pull a string without fouling the main and then sort the cars back into the individual class tracks.    It is not often too hard to include a good  yard lead.   It is often parallel to the main, so it can be inside the mainline curves.   And since switchers are normally the only locos that use it, it can have sharper curves.

As for double ended class tracks.    Yes this is very convenient and flexible and great if  you have the space.   But realistically in O gauge, a ladder at end of the yard takes a lot of valuable space that is often better used for stub ended class tracks.    If you can fit them in fine but remember each switch shortens it and the next tracks by at least 1 foot.     Smaller yards were often stub ended.   

A second important feature is an arrival/departure track or 2.    A/D tracks are where a train arrives and departs the yard.    These should be double ended and accessed also by the yard lead.    The switcher uses this track to build up a new train, or pulls a train from it to break down after it arrives.     This track should be separate from the main also and long enough to hold the longest train you run.    It is generally just a passing track next to the yard.

As for coupling and  uncoupling, that is very subjective and different for different types of layouts and operations.   I  am in 2 rail operate my layout with switchlists.    Most of my uncoupling is done manually with "uncoupling picks" which might pointed sticks like skewers or small screwdrivers with long blades.    I use Kadee couplers and simply insert the pick from the top between the knuckles and twist to uncouple.    Coupling is simple, just push the cars together and they couple.     For 3 rail with the magnetic couplers, manual can still be done, and easily if  you like.   I would just put one uncoupling track at the switch end of the siding .    This is what we do with Kadee magnets too.

Generally as  you say milk platforms, stock yards and other operating things are more distinations.     Yards are RR property and used as above.    Industries are private property and get stuff picked up and delivered.    They might be on sidings adjacent to the yard or anywhere else on the layout.    I prefer to keep such destinations away from the yard for 3 reasons.   First I want to make up a train to go deliver cars from the yard and want destinations.    Second, the yard is busy enough without adding another operator trying to spot cars at an industrial spot right where the yard operator wants to stand.    Third, yard space in O is tight, I put the industries someplace else to leave more space for the  yard.

Most  yards to do have some sort of engine facility, but not all especially in the diesel era since they can just park a loco anywhere on a yard track and shut it down.     It is nice if  you have the space and you can enhance operations by requiring loco changes etc.    The same is true of a caboose track if you run cabooses.     You could also have an RIP track (Repair IN Place) for bad-ordered cars.     There are probably some other auxilliary features you could add if you space.     Many small RRs do not have these facilities in every yard.

One  thing you can do if you want to add some operation is to put some double ended sidings someplace else on the layout, perhaps the other side of the basement, for "staging tracks"       These tracks store trains that are "offline".    You can then run trains from staging to the yard to pickup and setout (making some loops if you like) and then go back to staging.    2 tracks, one for a freight in each direction is a good basis.

A turntable & round house.

@rattler21 posted:

1/ Consider having a run-through track

2/ An engine service area is almost a necessity.  For steam engines you could have an ash pit, a water pipe/tank and a coaling tower.

3/ Add weights to your cars so they weigh about the same.  1 pound 10 ounces to two pounds each.

4/ Caboose track?

5/ Are your cars equipped with Kadee or claw couplers?  It is much easier to conduct classification operations with Kadees.

John

@rattler21 - thanks for the suggestions and feedback. 

1. I added a run-through track per your suggestion and will post the updated yard below.

2. I don't think I have room for an engine service area, but your note finally clarified for me what my grandfather's PW Lionel coaling station is for. It's for coal for the steam engines' tenders, not loading coal cars for, say, transport to an electricity plant.  I have all his old accessories and will include the Coaling Station in the yard where the made up trains will depart from. Not totally operational, but gets the point across.  Thanks!  I'm sometimes slow to catch on.

3. Definitely going to add weights per your suggestion. I read and then printed Rich Melvin's post on another thread. Just one of the many great ideas I've picked up here!

4.  Caboose track - I FILLED the yard space with track spurs, so I think I can dedicate one to cabeese.

5.  Old school lobster claw couplers.  I'm a non/semi/O27/traditional scale guy

Thanks for the great ideas!

@Joe K and @prrjim

Thanks for the education on yard operations both in the real world and on a space-constrained O Gauge layout.  Until coming to this forum, my knowledge was limited to what my grandfather and uncle had set up with O, and they were mostly big "loopers". They had some yards and sidings, but mostly for train store and for operating accessories inside the mainlines while trains were looping around them.

Despite being somewhat limited on space, I do want this layout to have a yard where trains can be assembled even if not prototypically.

For my new layout, my original yard design was useless for this purpose. It was for storing trains, not assembling them. I modified it based on what you both suggested subject to space limitations and think it will be a lot better and won't conflict with trains running around the mainlines.

Happy to hear any suggestions you or others have for additional improvement. Note that my switchers are all 27" compatible and most, if not all, of my rolling stock is 27" compatible, so I went with 27" switches and curves in the yard.

Lots of interesting building and appurtences and of course...$$$

You may want to check out John Armstrong's book Track Planning for Realistic Operation.  About $17 on Amazon.  I know most of us aren't too concerned about realistic operation, nor have the space for it, but you'll definitely learn a lot from this book.  Just pick and choose what you appeals to you, and what you have room for.

The purpose of a [classification] yard is to enable the sorting of trains incoming from various origins into trains outgoing to multiple or various destinations. This sorting is called DRILLING and involves a switcher and crew pulling an incoming train apart and assembling it's cars on several sidings according to the destinations of the various cars. Additionally, cars may be BLOCKED, put together in groups according to sub-destinations.

To these ends an elemental yard consists of two (or several more) stub sidings connected to a LEAD by a track switch (or several assembled into a LADDER). The LEAD is where the switcher works to-and-fro DRILLING cars into the required order on the required tracks. The LEAD separates the yard and allows the yard crew to work without fouling the mainline. In real practice a second LADDER at the other rend of the yard sidings allows another yard crew to work from the other end of the yard assembling cuts of sorted cars (BLOCKS) into trains but often model railroaders cannot or don't want to sacrifice the space necessary for such a refinement.

I notice on your track diagram you have an "S" curvs on the ladder into the yard.    these should be avoided as much as possible because cars are much more prone to derail on the S Curve.     This is more common with the Talgo style couplers on most 3 rail cars.    that is the truck mounted couplers.     Body mount couplers are more forgiving but would still give problems on 27 inch diameter switches.

You can reduce the effect of the "S" curve by moving the switch down 1 straight track as shown in blue. You can replace the curve with a switch to get a spur for caboose storage thus freeing up the rest of the yard tracks for cars.

@DoubleDAZ posted:

You can reduce the effect of the "S" curve by moving the switch down 1 straight track as shown in blue. You can replace the curve with a switch to get a spur for caboose storage thus freeing up the rest of the yard tracks for cars.

Thanks Chief!  Much appreciated.  Once again I'm counting on senior NCOs to fix half-baked ideas!

Thanks for a good laugh. 🤣🤣🤣

Here's how you can add an engine escape so the train can pull in and the engine get out. That way you don't have to back it in.

Dave,

I think I know what you're trying to do, but don't you want to connect the engine escape track one more track to the right.  As printed above, the engine will have to run around a very short train.

Chuck

Duh, you’re right, in too much of a hurry as we’re busy prepping for tomorrow. 😉

EDIT: Fixed it.

I saw another "S" curve and I don't think we needed the second switch on the escape.

BTW. I also rotated the layout 90° and resized the work space. My old eyes have a hard time when the longest dimensions are on the Y axis instead of the X axis. Feel free to ignore it and make any changes to your file.

FWIW, I only raised 2 daughters and my wife did most of that because I spent way too many hours at work or TDY.

Read John Armstrong's: Track Planning for Realistic Operation.

@DoubleDAZ posted:

I saw another "S" curve and I don't think we needed the second switch on the escape.

BTW. I also rotated the layout 90° and resized the work space. My old eyes have a hard time when the longest dimensions are on the Y axis instead of the X axis. Feel free to ignore it and make any changes to your file.

FWIW, I only raised 2 daughters and my wife did most of that because I spent way too many hours at work or TDY.

Thanks. Those are some fantastic fixes shown in red. One of the guys above suggested the pull through, so I added one (above the red on your version) but I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do with it. I don't see how I can pull apart a return train nor assemble one there.  I don't mind having it as a passing siding but am thinking I missed the point.  Should I connect it to the red spurs in the yard?

I got the entire mainlines laid today and stopped at the yard, so I'll do that tomorrow (we're having Thanksgiving as one of our daughters is an RN and works tomorrow).

We had 3 daughters for most of the time....they're 27, 26, and nearly 23. I got out of the Air Guard as an O-3 right before #3 was born. Our 4th was conceived 10 years later. She's only 13 and we're 55.

Here are a few thoughts after thinking about how you'll use the yard. Notice I've made more changes.
- I moved the red/blue crossover back closer to the curve because the only things that will go through the switches are an engine and caboose and they shouldn't have any problems with the "S" curve.
- I deleted the spur by the red escape switch because I didn't see any use for it and it's better used in the classification part of the yard.

Here's how I see operation:
- a train pulls into the yard on the red track past the red/blue switches.
- the engine uncouples and uses the red escape switch.
- it (or a switcher) breaks down the cars on the red track by moving them to the green tracks.
- it assembles cars on the purple track by pulling them from the green track.
- it takes the assembled cars onto the mainline for a run either from the left or by running around to the right using the mainline when another train isn't coming.
- if it grabs from the left, it'll be going around counter-clockwise.
- if it grabs from the right, it'll be going around clockwise.
- if it goes clockwise, it'll pull into the yard on the red track and go through the escape, breakdown, etc.
- if it goes counter-clockwise, it'll pull into the yard on the purple track and break down from there.  There'll be a bottleneck if there's an assembled train waiting for it's turn to run, but that adds to the enjoyment and gives you something to do besides just looping. Or it back onto the red track even though that would foul the mainline for a time.

NOTE1: The caboose storage on the blue tracks needs to be extended to hold a spare engine or 2. Or, you could add a switch and curved storage tracks to the left curve on the purple tracks for engine storage.

NOTE2: IMHO you simply don't have space for much else. The limited track/switch selection also hampers design options.

@DoubleDAZ - THANKS SO MUCH for the re-design work. This looks great, very usable and closer to prototypical switching than just storing trains in my less-than-ideal space. My experience as a kid and younger man with my father, uncle, and grandfather didn't include a real switching operation since they were mainly Christmas-time loopers.  I really wanted the ability to have someone disassembling and assembling trains in the yard while someone else runs the others around the mainlines despite the limited space and the use of O27 tubular track with only 27" and 42" switches. You whipped that out way better than I could've imagined!

I like the suggestion for additional engine storage with a switch to the left of the purple curve. Definitely going to do that.

I only have one question/concern. If an engine and train pull in from the left on the red track past the red and blue switches, I see how it escapes onto the blue track, but then that engine seems to be stuck pointing to the right (from the yard perspective). It would use the inner mainline to pick up trains from the right on the purple track, but could never pick up from the left. 

If I add two right-hand switches where I added red ovals below, I could pull a decoupled engine out from the right on the purple track, go around on the inner mainline, go through these two switches onto the other side of the inner mainline, and the back into the yard on the left. Not prototypical and certainly fouls up the inner mainline for a spell, but enables me to turn an engine around. Make sense?

BTW, I cannot open the RRT file you updated and attached but get an error message Unknown File Type...Cannot Read even though it's a .RRT file.  I'm running V4.02 which I got about 10 years ago, so I'm guessing you have a newer version. Any chance you can save it as a version 4.02 file? If not, I guess my wife will have to give me a new version of RR Track for Christmas.

Thanks again. Happy Thanksgiving!

Scott, sorry, but RR-Track won’t let me save in 4.0 format. The best I can do is post photos to show the changes. Unfortunately, company is coming, so I won’t get to it until tomorrow.

The problem with adding just 1 crossover where you drew the red circles is that once you turn the engine, you can’t turn it back. You’d have to add another crossover with 2 left-hand switches. I don’t know how many engines you have or intend to buy, but my solution would be to simply dedicate engines to run in opposite directions. I will see if a double crossover can be added there of if 1 can be added somewhere else. I’m a fan of being able to turn engines and trains, so it’s just a matter of what will fit.

BTW, I assume you know you’re going to have to cut tracks to make everything connect.

Thanks Dave. Enjoy the day. We're celebrating Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow since our 22 y/o is an RN and working a 12-hour shift today.

Good point about the one set of crossovers....not going back.  I have a more engines than one should have, so dedicated some in one direction and some in the other would work just fine. I'll probably go with that idea and just make sure I have enough engine storage. Should have the yard laid by end of today, just not going to screw down for a while 'til I've given it a trial run.

No problem cutting track. I've already done that plenty of times before. In fact, I got the mainlines pieced together yesterday using the bag full of cut pieces from my prior layouts. I just don't bother taking the time making the connections on RR track.

Scott, please pass along my thanks to your 22-yr old daughter for being on the front lines. One of our nephews is a fire fighter, 2 daughters are teachers, so I know life is tough these days.

We had a great day. With only 15 it was more intimate that usual, cleanup didn't take as long and folks were able to leave a little early, so I had some time to get you this photo with labels. Not sure how well you'll be able to read them, but I suspect you can figure things out, if you haven't already. Unfortunately, the spurs aren't pretty and won't hold much, maybe 3 engines, but I just don't see any other way.

@DoubleDAZ - Sounds like we've got similar vocations in our families. It's tough during the pandemic for essential workers. Our 26 y/o is also a teacher. Our oldest, 27, is "stuck" in Australia where she works on work Visa. With their Visa and pandemic lockdown, if she leaves the country, she can't get back in, so she's there for the duration

So far, your suggestions have worked out great. I've had to make some in-field adjustments since my laying of the mainlines wasn't perfectly in line with the design. Also, I have K-line 42" switches, not Lionel, and I think the footprint is a bit different. Some full tracks in the yard became half tracks but, all in all, the reality is very close to the design. I'll take post some photos when done.  Should finish laying the track today.

Just an idea.

Having been confronted with the same question I resorted to peninsulas.  It worked out so well I have made several.  Just added them to the edge of the layout like fingers. made them the size and shape that available space provided.  Two of them are a little bit of a wrap around walk in.

This one ran along a wall over top of the furniture and provided a  turn around wye where it connected with the outside loop:

This is a shop view before it was set up the house.  Atlas switches on 4 1/2" centers in the 16' yard and three Ross switches connecting to the mainline.

If a peninsula theme would be helpful there are additional peninsula photos upon request.

Daughters are wonderful, it's the sons-of-a-inlaw that can be the  rub ,

Scott, sorry your daughter is “stuck” in Australia and can’t visit without getting locked out, another unforeseen consequence. I guess the good thing is at least she’s healthy. You’re really moving right along on laying track. I don’t know much about K-Line track. I was going to redo the design in SCARM, but it doesn’t have the same track that RRT does. IMHO, SCARM displays track better, it lets you turn off that center rail and the display isn’t so busy. SCARM also lets you select a group of tracks based on color. I started with XTrackCAD, then RRT and moved to SCARM. I still keep RRT track around, but won’t be upgrading if they ever add a V6. They haven’t done any update since V5 and there are still bugs that haven’t been fixed since V4. I definitely wouldn’t upgrade your version unless you plan to do more designing.

Tom, you are absolutely right about sons-in-law. 🤣

Hah, enjoy the commentary about son-in-laws.  I have one joining the family as our 26 y/o teacher is getting married next June (if Covid cooperates). He was over yesterday and showed some interest in Basement Layout 2.0, so I have hope that I'll have some heirs to keep the hobby going. I have my grandfather's old postwar sets, accessories, and gear.  Some of the classics like the UP 2033 FAs , Seaboard 5250 NW-2, 4-4-0 General, 2046 4-6-4, 1656 0-4-0, and 1666 2-6-2-. Good amount of rolling stock.  Using everything except the 27" curves.

@DoubleDAZ - I got all the track laid. Ready to start wiring next weekend which will be my first time with the Star approach since I'm adding DCS for the first time (great timing in adding MTH technology, huh?).  I have one DCS switcher and two TMCC switchers that will be rotated for yard duty.  I forgot to ask three questions on yard operations if you don't mind offering a little more free advice.

1. Where would you coupling/uncoupling track? Assuming all engines going in, out, or working in the yard have eletrocouplers.  I was thinking of puttng two on the red tracks (one toward the left-most switch and one toward the right-most switch), two on the green tracks (also one near the left most switch and one near the right) and then two on the purple track (one near the left switch, one in the center).  Don't think I need any one the blue track since it's engine and caboose storage, right?

2.  My prior yards were mainly storage sidings, so I ran power to them through switches so I could turn each siding off/on separately. I'm thinking of doing the same thing here. I could imagine having a train arrive on the red, but not need power at that point on purple, blue, or green.  Make sense to have the entire yard connected to a single power source (likely a TIU channel) but with off/on toggles for each track?

3. Should the storage spurs such as the 4 off the green be switched independently? How about leads/spurs off the blue and purple? Should they be able to be switched off/on separately from the best of the blue and purple?  Seems like overkill, but thought I'd ask.

Scott,

That was quick getting all the track laid. Your MTH stuff should work for a long time, but yeah, the timing could have been better. 😂

You might need an uncoupling track on the left blue spur to uncouple one caboose from another. If you only store spare engines on the purple tracks, you won’t need one there. Each of the green spurs needs one.

I’m not up to speed on when you need to turn power off these days. For sure you need to be able to turn it off wherever you plan to park an engine for any length of time so you don’t run up the operating hours just sitting, that means the purple spurs. And maybe the blue if any caboose has lights. Most people turn off sidings and spurs that aren’t being used so they don’t have to worry about parking powered cars there.

Go to:

housatonicrr.com

Scroll down to the Ten Commandments of Yard Design.

Ed

@DoubleDAZ posted:

Scott,

That was quick getting all the track laid. Your MTH stuff should work for a long time, but yeah, the timing could have been better. 😂

You might need an uncoupling track on the left blue spur to uncouple one caboose from another. If you only store spare engines on the purple tracks, you won’t need one there. Each of the green spurs needs one.

I’m not up to speed on when you need to turn power off these days. For sure you need to be able to turn it off wherever you plan to park an engine for any length of time so you don’t run up the operating hours just sitting, that means the purple spurs. And maybe the blue if any caboose has lights. Most people turn off sidings and spurs that aren’t being used so they don’t have to worry about parking powered cars there.

@DoubleDAZ

Thanks. I think I should throw toggle switches to each of the main tracks inside the yard (green, red, blue, purple).  Not sure why I'd need to power off/on each green spur since I expect they're most likely to hold unlit freight cars. That said, it won't be difficult to run a jumper wire off the green main through a bank of switches to each spur/branch. I'll make space provisions for that as well and see how it operates.  I'm also going to put the yard on a separate transformer since I have a plethora of old PW transformers and fast-blow fuses.

I attached pictures of the two ends of the actual yard. Came close to the design, but the yard width ended up being less than I figured, so I had to compress a bit on the left side. I still think it'll work fine as it's close to our (your) design.

I think I have space for a 5th spur on the right (stub) end of the yard. Any reason not to do that? It might shorten the green yard lead into the spurs, but I don't see that as a problem, do you?

I'm also thinking about seeing if I can swap out the O27 engine escape switch off the red for an O42 switch.  Some of my freight engines are OK with 27" curves, but some require 31" (none bigger than that).  Might avoid some headaches but, given the space, I haven't quite figured out how to put in a 42" curve switch.

BTW - when I said I had the track laid, don't give me too much credit. It's not even screwed down yet, just pieced together and not an inch has been wired. I've only gotten roadbed under about half the track and nothing ballasted (which I don't plan to do until I've had many hours to operate and adjust).

If you put a toggle on each spur, you can then have 2 or more engines servicing the yard at the same time. 

One item that may be worth considering is a make-up track separate from the mainline tracks.  We all have built yards on our layouts, me included and forget that if you want to make up a train, we don't want to foul a mainline track while assembling the train.

Scott,

It never hurts to have power toggles, if for nothing other than trouble shooting electrical issues. If you don't plan to store engines or lighted cars on the spurs, then I don't see a need to toggle those, at least not for DCS. I don't know about TMCC, but assume it's the same.

The width of the yard might have been less because I didn't know how close the switches could be to each other, so I spaced them based on the footprint. However, it looks like the switch footprints are actually smaller than those in RRT.

When it comes to adding a 5th spur, it looks to me like you may have to shorten the other spurs by 1/2 or 1 track each, so you might not gain enough added storage to make it worthwhile. However, if the switches fit next to each other, then it looks like you could gain about 5 tracks worth of storage. If you shorten the lead track, you simply reduce the length of a train that will fit. In the photo I shortened it by half a track. And you might be able to move the escape half a track to the right.

If you swap out the O-27 switch for an O-42 switch, you're going to have to cut an O-42 curve to fit like it shows in the circle.

I knew you hadn't tacked the track down, wired it, etc. Still, you made good headway test fitting everything and getting to this point.

Thanks.  I've got a few half-curves in 42" diameter from last layout or two. That's what made getting this layout laid so quickly.  I probably only had to cut 5 or so pieces. The rest (and there were plenty) were covered by standard half-tracks and random length pieces from prior layouts. Only problem is whether I have enough space for my longest engine, a 22" rail king berk, to get past the switch on the red track so it can then back up through it.

One point of confusion regarding this statement (and this goes to my own ignorance)

If you shorten the lead track, you simply reduce the length of a train that will fit. In the photo I shortened it by half a track. And you might be able to move the escape half a track to the right.

I believe that trains will pull into the yard on the red track. The engine uncouples and escapes to the blue track leaving the train of cars to be picked apart by a switcher and uncoupling tracks. I'm assuming the switcher will grab cars on the red track from left to right, pull them through the switch onto the green track, and then push them to the right and store on a green spur?

I'm assuming one car at a time so the switcher doesn't have to back up onto the mainline.  If that's what you're assuming, then I don't see the length of the green lead being a big deal. 

If I was to pull, say, 2-4 or more cars off the train on red to green, then I absolutely see why I'd need a long lead on green, but without a longer lead into the yard, I see myself limited to moving one car at a time anyway. 

Am I missing something in how this will operate?

Scott, that's the way I envision it too. However, like Jonathan alluded to, I'm not sure how you're going to make up a train on the purple track without fouling the main, Here's an alternate configuration that might give you enough space past the 2 purple switches to move one car at a time to the purple track.

Now that we'er talking about "working a yard," here's my suggestion.  Widen the inner loop so that it comes as close as feasible to the outer loop on the narrow connection to the two dogbone ends.  Now, extend the yard lead to fit between the four mainline tracks down that narrow area and connect to the inner loop just before the turn.  Voila!  A long enough yard lead to build a train in the yard without fouling the mainline.

Chuck