What time period and equipment do you have/plan to get

The time period and part of the country is important.  What sort of equipment do you already have?  With a door, you can have continuous running if you want to, as well as some switching.

I Used a Hollow Core Door

...for this layout, which was taken from an old Atlas track plan book. When I couldn't see what I was doing anymore I sold it.

  This is my favorite HCD

This is my favorite HCD layout.  It is based on Spookshow's Shay Stadium layout.

Have fun, Mark 

Door Layout

MODEL RAILROADER magazine several years ago featured a several issue feature of an N Scale layout named the Carolina Central.  The main idea was a single track line that looped around the door only once with the back section hidden by a low set of hills made from stacked foam insulation board.  The front viewed section of the layout had a small town scene with two industries and an "interchange" track.  Although I did not copy this layout plan per the instructions given, the layout appealed enough for me to modify the plan to suit my tastes of a secondary main line scene.  Limitations of this layout are that six axle locomotives and cars longer than fifty feet do not look good on the sharp radius curves at each end of the layout and of course, train length is limited.  Two four axle locomotives and ten fourty foot cars plus a caboose look and operate best.  Another goal of this small layout is to have all of the major structures scratch built.  Other goals have been to focus on just one main road name, abeit in a somewhat long time frame and to try and stay in a general idea of what ran on those tracks given those self imposed restrictions.  I feel that this layout is a success in letting me have a train to run given my space limitations and to expand my modeling skills.  It is still a "much work in progress" layout, but the trains do run reliably and the whole works is presentable mainly because of the fabric skirting that hides the storage shelves that support the door.    

Door layout

As a side note to the construction of my layout, one side of the door was covered with Homosote.  Then a track plan was built using Atlas sectional track with some flex track.  It is VERY easy to modify and "Tweak" the plan to see what fits and works versus what does not.  The Homosote covering has been a great idea to permit me to experiment with.  The other nice property of Homosote is that very little sound from the trains is transmitted through the hollow core door.  Plain pine trim board attached to the door gives a nice finish and hides this Homesote "sandwitch".  Where the track comes to close to the edge of the layout, a low plexiglass wall keeps any errant trains on the layout.  This idea has also been a good one account the layout is located in a room used by my wife and daughter.  

the Carolina Central.

 for a door layout the Carolina Central would be a good way to go if a rural scene was preferred. If a more dense city operation was desired a New York city type carfloat served terminal would be quite interesting to build and to operate. An oval freight house on one end and a carfloat yard on the other plus industries crowded into the tight quarters would give the maximum amount of scratch building and operations in a small space.....DaveB

N scale layouts

Would sure like to see some overhead pictures of N scale layouts. Something small in length, I have limited space and intend to use 1/4" ply wood for a board I can easily move from place to place, permanently attaching only the track, so it can be easily stored. My HO and O scales already take up more space than the wife can tolerate. But I already have a nice collection of N scale track, engines, buildings, and cars just sitting in a drawer. We moved to a much smaller home and my Ho and O already take up most of my 12'x16' shed. The Ho is on a 4x8 table which can be lifted to the ceiling with a pully, rope, and winch rig I made. The O runs around the shed suspended from the rafters near the ceiling. But I have no more room for a permanent N table, and wouldn't be able to see it if it was up on the wall like the O.

Other Places to Look

Mustache Bob,

For a different perspective, here is a site about mostly abandoned, branch lines in Germany.  I don't know if the author actually built anything...but his artwork is outstanding.  Make sure the German-to-English translator is enabled.

http://lokalbahn-reminiszenzen.de/start.htm

One of my favorites...

http://lokalbahn-reminiszenzen.de/gleisplaene/waldtalbahn.htm

Chaz

Ann Arbor Layout

The August 2008 issue of RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN has a nice feature about a late Ann Arbor era layout that was wonderfully executed..At 80"x30" it is door sized, but not built on a door, just 1x3 framework and foam insulation board.

    Not an overhead view

My pic won't work here, sorry....Mike

You might try here...

http://thundermesaminingco.blogspot.com/search/label/N%20Scale

http://thundermesaminingco.blogspot.com/2013/09/n-scale-track-plans.html

There are some good ones here.  You might even look at his On30 layout to convert to N scale.

Den

Carolina Central and Ann Arbor

I'm also a big fan of the Carolina Central. A little googling shows there are lots of good examples of how people took the basic idea and ran with it. There's a huge thread on the old Atlas forum chronicling several members who built variants of the CC.

I didn't know about the Ann Arbor one in RMC, I googled that and came up with a link with a partial article and photos. It looks like a really nice plan too.

http://www.m-rail.net/layouts/n_scale/lodi2/lodi2.htm

Thanks Guys I'm interested

Thanks Guys

I'm interested by 'The Wye Knot &Western'...it can be a good idea to develop.

It's the end of 'farniente' for my brain. Go to work my dear.

Rendez-vous in a few days to see that.

Sorry for my approximate english...it's so far

Glad you like the plan

It was designed for 3'x6' but could be even better with the extra length provided by a HCD. One thing I couldn't fit was a run-around track (the wye serves that purpose along with turning trains), that would be the first thing I'd add If I had more length to work with. Good luck!

Thank you

Thanks for your kind reply!