I apologize to Geoff A for derailing his Using Scrap Plywood Roadbed thread. Before the error gets compounded I thought I would start a separate thread.

Dave B and I bantered around layout planning what and what does not matter. Frequent readers know I lean very heavily towards plan to the n^th degree before building. There are others that barely get a track plan roughed out and off they go cutting wood.

Happy New Year!

I've been able to spend some time shuttling trains from my staging track to my yard area and I see a potential issue.  My east and west staging yards meet in what I'll call a junction.  My initial plan was to have the junction hidden under the second (upper (by 4")) loop, but I can see now that I would like to have this pair of turnouts visible and accessible.

After about five years of armchairing it, I've decided to build another layout. I've always been inspired by short lines; CORP, SERA, SJVR, and CFNR the most. I have decided to model the CFNR, inspiration from the excellent GP-15-1 models offered by Athearn, and even though they do not match the prototype, I will through in a GENSET or two by Atlas. If I set my layout in the fall (harvest) of 2009 I think I can get away with using the GP-15-1's with the GENSETS. I have an outbuilding that is roughly 16' x 12' and am using narrow shelf type design.