Typically the intermediate block swapping terminals are hundreds of miles away from the origin terminal and near or past a junction with another route. The reason a railroad block swaps is to split or combine trains for different destinations.
Lets say a railroad looks like a sideways Y, running from Los Angeles to El Paso and then a fork to Houston and one to Dallas. If they wanted an intermediate terminal they would put one at El Paso, 600 miles from Houston or Dallas and almost 1000 miles from LA.