Southern Pacific Switching Layout

[steinjr]

It has been about 6 months since I put up benchwork and I haven't made very much progress at all, During the troubleshooting stage of my wiring problem I have to disconnect most of the track from each other, So now I am back to just having benchwork set up, and not much else.

I have also been thinking about how long it is going to take to "Finish" this layout, and by "Finish" I mean have the layout be fully operational, fully sceniced, and have a decent amount of super-detailing.

I have about a year and a half to finish this layout before I go off to collage so I have been considering something smaller.
I have had my eye on the Mid-Atlantic & Western layout from the May 2001 MRR. I think that a layout that size could be built within a year and a half.

What are your thoughts?

You are seemingly finding it hard to "complete" a layout with a fairly simple track plan. Why would it become easier if you replace a simpler track plan with a more complex track plan, and make the scenery urban instead of rural?

How about making a small first layout that is simple to build and scenic, and still offer interesting switching? Say a variant on an Inglenook or on Dave Hill's excellent New Castle Industrial Railroad, which I believe you have gotten a link to before.

Say something like this - which can be built as two sections - one 4x1 feet and one 2x1 feet - could potentially be made even narrower - maybe 10" or so.



Ought to be possible to get operational fairly quickly, has room for building a few structures and doing some scenery, will fit into most rooms, including a college dorm, and if you get tired of it, you won't have a huge amount of money sunk into it - it can be scrapped without loosing much.

Smile,
Stein