Ok - I've heard that when all else fails, fall back on the prototype!
This is based on the opriginal Florence & Cripple Creek, s-o-o-o...
Florence (origgin) had connections west and east as well as south to the coal mines and north to CC.
CC had a southern connection to Florence, the F&CC, and a western line upwards to later mines ghigher up to the west. Later,thjere were also lines to the est that eventually rached Denver and Colorado Springs, but I'm staying pretty much late 1890's, so those don't apply too much and I'd rather stasy primarily with a line based on the F&CC.
If I have all this steraight in my head, and I'm not so sure that I do without a diagram in front of me, there should be ample justification for tracks leading "off-stage" at either end, with the primary focus the day-to-day point-to-point operations of the modeled railroad.
I had a kind of real crazy thought the other day - copuld someone actually end a track against a cribbed retaining wall that swung inward to allow cars to be sghuntwed oof stage onto a hidden staging? Seems to me it wouldn't be hard to do - a switch motor and a small spring would do it, and the track could be easily camouflaged to disguise it.Track comes up to crib wall where it encounters solid railway tie bumper, which is attached to crib wall but sits on track. Wall swings in along with bumper, cars enter, or whole train - max at the time was maybe five - six ore cars and caboose in those days - swings shut and full or empty train is now out of sight and ready for something else, or even on a long lower return loop to become another train at the other end, or cars could uncouple and sit in small astaging area hiddeen under mountain side or something. Confuse things even more with a few structures and other set dressing and...? Like I say - a very crazy concept.
hamr
You're looking for Mac software, right? Let me see if I can find my way back to that Mac site. I don't remember if it had a free demo or not, but a lot of those trackplan sites do.