From the prototype for everything department.  How about a yard inside a reversing loop, including an engine shed and turntable.  Try Danbury, Connecticut, where there is a full loop at the end of the commuter services from New York.  Lines also lead into the top left of the photo, and there is a branch off the loop bottom right (just the right place for the staging?)

The Danbury station is now a commuter rail stop on the Danbury Branch of the Metro-North Railroad’s New Haven Line. The station is the northern terminus of Danbury Branch. In 1968, you might have had views like this.