A small yard and two big industries will keep a train busy. It works by using the yard throat as part of the main line. The red track must be wired as a reversing section. Trains will leave the central yard, drop off and pick up cars at the interchange at the bottom, and switch the industries en route. This could easily be made as a two-level pike.
Trains run down from the central yard to the interchange at the bottom, and back up again.
You can run a rural shortline with this plan. It looks like there's no runaround track, but the center cutoff track can be used to run around cars so you can switch all the spurs. This busy city railroad is the opposite of the previous plan. Here, the diverging routes from the interchange form a reversing loop, so with a little planning, you can switch the many spurs without any runaround moves.