Hello all!  I've spent many hundreds of hours going through designing what I thought would be the perfect track plan for the area that I have.  I've solicited opinions and help from a few people.  Now I have a plan that I really like, but I just want to make sure that there aren't any glaring deficiencies...

A little bit about the area that I have available.  I have a 12' x 12'10" room available with some space under the stairs and in an adjacent room.  The layout is going to be based in the mid 50's and will be a fictional run on the DRGW.  There are some city names listed on the track plans, but I haven't finalized them quite yet.

As I primarily operate by myself, I'm designing the layout with DCC.  I also plan on incorporating computer control for additional "operators".  Usually if I have guests over to see it, they are happy railfanning (unfortunately). I've spent enough time on various forums to know that I want to be able to operate the layout, not just watch it run.  Don't get me wrong though, it is nice to just enjoy watching trains come and go sometimes.  For this reson, the layout design is for continuous running.  However, I think I have set it up so it could be operated in a realistic manner as well.

I really don't have all the industries picked out yet, one that I am planning on incorporating is the American Flag Company by BTS.

Grid is 12".

These cities are at 46".

City 5 is a staging area, half of it is under the upper deck of the layout, the other half is in a seperate room (top of image).

City 4 is one end of the point-to-point style layout the other end is Durango (next image).

City 3 is a small city with an industry and a station. The curve east of the city drops 2" on the way to City 5 (staging).

There is also a curve (visible on the next image) that leads to the upper level. That curve inclines 2" (2.5%)

Here you can see the curve that comes up to the second level. Pink track is hidden, blue is visible.

Coming up from City 3, Passing City (hidden) is next in line.

Then out of the mountains to Leadville where there is a spur to a large mine (next image).

The whole upper area is a reversing loop, so from here you can go back down to City 3, or terminate in Durango.

This is showing the connection from Leadville to the mine.  Leadville is 51" and the mine is at 57"

While there is a lot going on in a little bit of space, I feel that it makes the best use of the limited space that I actually have.

What are your thoughts???  Ryan