about the plan

A rough plan of the layout space is included in the first post. I was only able to jot down rough dimensions when touring the unit, and I've made a big mistake somewhere, because the glass wall along the "north" side should be about 25 1/2 feet long, rather than the 28 1/2 feet shown in the plan. I suspect I've stretched the whole room by 3' due to a mis-measure somewhere. I didn't have a tape measure and was jotting down the number of 18" floor tiles instead, and something got messed up somewhere. I won't be able to get back into the unit to get an accurate measurement until after I own it.

Nearly the entire "north" wall is glass, it's composed of 6 glass plate windows, 4' x 8' tall, so nearly floor to ceiling. The center two panels slide sideways to provide a way out onto the balcony. The black areas are outside the condo unit. I need to keep a walkway clear from the front door on the left to the room exit on the bottom-left of the diagram (rough boundary shown by the brown border), and I will want a lift-up section in the middle of the glass wall so I can get out onto the balcony.

Givens

I'm 80%+ railfan oriented, with an interest in automation someday. There won't be operating sessions. 

Scale is HO.

I am not going to try and be very prototypically correct. I'm going to pick a prototype (C&O), and a timeframe 1948-ish, but may invent some fantasy history: I like the B&O also, so maybe I will claim that WWII didn't end in Europe with the fall of Germany, because the US and Russians went at it when the two forces met, so the war extended by several years. The war authority forced an early merger of the B&O and C&O, but the roads didn't repaint all their rolling stock during the war, they just ran trains over each other's rails. 

The location will be evocative rather than specific - I just want to capture the flavor of hauling coal up and down over the mountains rather than trying to model a few specific miles of a particular subdivision. 

I will want a coal mine scene and a place to take the coal, maybe a port instead of a power plant. 

I have some interest in passenger trains, so the port might include a passenger terminal. Probably there wouldn't be another passenger terminal, the passenger trains would go or come from staging to the terminal.

I am thinking to get an around-the-walls mainline loop going first, and then fill in. The port might be on a peninsula extending into the center of the room, which would be built later. I will probably make the mainline dual-track.

I am waffling over whether to just do a single-deck layout with no backdrops so I can see out the glass windows looking over the layout, or to do more. The alcove in the lower right just screams 'helix' to me, if I don't use if for a helix it would just be a horeshoe-shaped curve area. I could leave off the backdrops only along the north wall and have them elsewhere. 

I might do a grade all the way around the room that starts at the helix at the bottom and ends at the helix at the top. That would still be a single-level layout, but with a helix. Maybe that's a nolix plus helix?  

North Side Backdrop

You might consider adding some sort of brackets to the benchwork so you can drop in short sections of a backdrop on a frame for making photos.

Jack

Option

If you aren't intending for operation, and are primarily interested in running, I would suggest a big double ended yard in one corner that can stage several trains (6-8), and a double track loop around the room.  I would put the mains through the center of the yard.  I would then put a secondary line about 4-6 inches above the mains and loop that around the room, with a connection between the two.  The connection could be a two turn helix with a return loop around it.  The secondary line would run a train out of the yard, up the helix onto the upper loop, then orbit as long as you like, then reverse on the reverse loop, around the room once and back down the helix to the yard.

Other option is to then have the helix extend down below the layout about 8-12 in and put in a larger staging yard with a reverse loop on the bottom.  That would hold other trains.  You would cycle the trains you want to run from the lower staging to the visible yard, cycle the ones you don't want to run back down.  Then run the visible trains for as long as it amuses you, then swap out some of the visible trains for those in the hidden staging.

Scenery could be whatever you want.

Hey, E dub ya

Here's what I drew for a reply that I never sent on your previous thread about this location.  It's got an 18" grid, and I'd like to know, first, which dimensions are incorrect.  I did it with the 18" grid so you should be able to quickly verify the tile counts.

when you've told me which dimensions are off, then I'll modify my suggested sketch as needed.

Blair 

no backdrop

Hi E dub ya,
Nice to hear you will get started! Counting the days?
I had this thought about the windows... you could make it a coastal line, water towards the windows. Then there really is no backdrop, it just is ocean or perhaps Chesapeake bay. The line could even be on a low trestle.
regards,
Douglas

@doug, yeah, I was thinking

@doug, yeah, I was thinking something like that. Except I did sort of have a prototype in mind (C&O) so I'd have to make something up for that to fit. But yeah, probably no backdrop on that one side of the layout.

@Blair: thanks much! 

What I have in my sketch is 17 squares along the top/north edge, 9 down the vertical right hand side, 4 running east to the oblique corner. This '4' is perhaps the measurement that's off, maybe should be 2.

The little triangle is 2 wide at the south and 0 wide at the top, and 6 along the left edge.

The south part of the room is 16 squares, plus 2 more for the triangle, or if I'm correct about what's wrong, then it's just 16 squares including the bottom edge of the triangle.

Then the corner cut out on the left is 6 squares high and 5 wide.

But as I say, something is off in what I have written down, I think. It's hard to wait, but I won't get back in to re-measure until april 20th, and by then I'll have a tape measure :D

It was really hard to get all this down while two people were busy extolling to me how nice the apartment was and why I should buy it. If you have some kind of a plan in mind, it won't hurt to just suggest it even on a slightly wrong-sized room since I'm just at the concept stage.

I drew the second plan in XtrkCAD, and boy was that a PITA - I am probably going to have to pay up for 3rd planit because I just don't think XtrkCAD is adequate.

@eastwind

I'll take a look at that at lunch, I'm off on an errand right now.  Back at you later today, unless life intrudes.

Blair

Looking at it,

I think you're​ right, the bottom at 16 works.  Here's an update:

Let me know if this looks right, and we can go from there; if it turns out the 16 should be 18, and the 2 should be 4, it just deepens the alcove, which might benefit your helix idea.

Blair