Thanks for your compliments, Paul.
Here's another pic of the throat of this loop. At left is the track going up to the visble part of the layout, at right is the long staging track.
I used ATLAS turnouts. As you see, to save space I put in a 3-way-turnout in the center, the other ones are #6. To avoid derailments I choose them instead of #4 turnouts.
This way I never had problems backing up trains through the yard throat - even long passenger trains never derailed!
Glad if I could help you. Now I'm curious if you try this sort of loop, too?
Ron