Tetters, you kow it is your fault …

[nachoman]

Whats the advantage to hand laid track? other than looks and bragging rights?

Perhaps cost. Well, the turnouts are cheaper, but once you buy the ties and rail you aren't saving that much over a piece of flex track. In my case, I wanted HOn3 and dual-gauge track, and building my own was significantly cheaper than prefab track. You can also build turnouts to any spec you like, rather than having to deal with prefab geometries. As for looks - that's a matter of opinion. I think properly weathered micro-engineering track looks better than most handlaid. Sure, one can buy all the track detailing components and make a pretty darned convincing stretch of handlaid track - but the cost of all those details adds up to the point that prefab track becomes cheaper.

So what is the real advantage? I think bragging rights and self satisfaction has a lot to do with it.