Classification yards are located at the ends divisions or sub divisions. So you'd be sorting trains for two mainlines in both directions. The staging/fiddle yard would represent both directions. Most of your industries could be imaginary rather than physical models. You'll need lots of tracks in the staging yard, similar to your second design. Would 11 roads be possible? Maybe more?
I was just thinking.....if you have lots of container flats, why not turn two of the yard tracks into an intermodal yard? Say the two bottom ones and seperate them a little from the other tracks. You'd need a container crane and a pile of containers. Here's were you get free cardboard container piles:
http://home.wanadoo.nl/schatborn/index2.html
Classifications yards would also have a repair in place track (RIP) for minor repairs, any car could be spotted there, a cleaning track for washing out hoppers and box cars, and a team track or two, for local industries to pick up their goods if they don't have their own spur. Again, plenty of choice as to which cars to spot. Even hoppers and tankers can be unloaded on team tracks.
That would give you 4 local yard industries to shunt as well as any deliveries to the loco depo (they need sand and fuel in the diesel age).
For steel traffic, you'd need a whole train of gondolas. This would have scrap metal heading to the mill, and finished steel products (coils, wire, structural steel, rails, etc) headed out to customers. You could have a whole ore train and a whole coal train too. Then there are hoppers for limestone, only a little bit of gravel, acid cars, etc. These might be delivered to the mill as part of one of your local way freights (local or pick up goods train).
The gravel for stell mills is only used to clean the blast furnaces and to 'turn them off' by dumping gravel into the furnace. So little gravel is used compared to the other stuff that it might not be worth worrying about. The bricks, on the other hand, are used in significant numbers. These are special bricks for refractory lining. The hot metal cars, slag cars, blast furnace, basic oxygen furnace (or bessemer convertor or open heath depending on your period), all use a brick lining so they don't melt. This refractory lining has to be replaced regularly. Also clay and sand is used for various moulds. I am assuming there would be a factory somewhere to make the specialised bricks (these aren't house bricks, they need special chemical composition, differing with their application). Boxcars would be used to ship them, I imagine. Otherwise gondolas with tarps. It should be noted that all stuff like this going into a steel mill is dwarfed by the amount of iron ore and coal needed.
Paper mills. These people need pulp wood or wood chips. Wood chips are low density so they usually use special gondolas with very high sides. A few manufacturers offer them. Bulkhead flat cars are used to carry pulp wood. Once again, plenty on the market. Paper is carried away in high roof boxcars. There are special ones for paper, but I think you could use any boxcar really. I'm not sure what paper mills use for fuel. Would the papermill traffic be part of the way freight or would there be dedicated trains? Does anybody know?
What about the grain hoppers? Could be through traffic on it's way to the city or export? So you need an imaginary farming district in one direction and imaginary grain elevators in the other. Wheat is seasonal, so at harvest time, your yard gets clogged with an enormous number of wheat trains during harvest time. Can any Canadians give us more information on wheat traffic over Canadian rails?
the room is 12' x 12' so should be able to get a fair bit of running track, might try a second deck if i can fit it in. (the green carpet is just to save my old knee's.)
