Dont think they could do without the switch track. Its there because they built the emergency track to be behind it for the "just in case" purpose. If the little car doesnt pull the train fast enough to go over the hill, it will roll back across the switch track and onto the black emergency track, where there are heavy duty brakes to stop it. The track is higher than the hill, so there is no chance it will ever be fast enough to go over the end, where it looks like the track broke and fell with an old Bus saw falls car on the roof. They wouldnt want the train to roll back into the station and hit another train that is being unloaded.