The Grande Design layout idea incorporates the Loops, Switchback, Yard, Train Exchange, and Crossover layout ideas into a layout that is much more than back-and-forth!

There are two independent track runs that intersect at a track crossover. One track run starts with a two-track yard, proceeds through a switchback, and to a loop with a station stop. The loop has an exit to another switchback, then to an ending two-track yard.

A train waits in each yard, exchanging with another train when it enters the yard. A train runs through the switchback to the loop. It may traverse the loop any number of times, stopping if another train is in the crossover. When the train leaves the loop at the lower track switch, it continues through the switchback, to another two-track yard.

Another track run starts with a reverse loop, through a crossover, to a passing siding, a switchback, and to its terminus in a reverse track.

Two trains run on this track, waiting to exchange positions in the passing siding.

This kind of elaborate back-and-forth layout provides endless visual appeal. Trains are always taking a different routing pattern. The layout is never boring.

Click an entry in the following table to explore more back-and-forth layout ideas. Click to CLOSE this screen and return to the screen accessing the layout ideas.