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Do you know the Electric Nose site, http://www.electricnose.co.uk/index.html Steve Jones excellent compendium of experience and opinion?
He has a fair sized DCC / computer controlled set up for automatic operation, and reported somewhere on the site that the 'work out' that solenoid point motors give to the points, when used intensively in the fiddle yard, was breaking RTR point mechanisms. His plan was to switch to slow motion motors for the gentler action these deliver.

 

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QUOTE (10001 @ 30 Oct 2007, 07:58) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>An excellent reason for not having fiddle yards is that they don't exist in reality - only on models. Why not have a freight/marshalling yard for goods trains and carriage sidings for passenger stock. ..
.. and a loco depot or TMD as appropriate to the era! It is a good arrangement if the space is available, and particularly on a home layout which may be operated single handed much of the time, when the 'fiddle yard' can just be operated as storage; but with a friend or two round for an operating session has more operator locations, and the ability to do point to point schedule operations if well designed.