Ideas for a future college layout

[FCIN]

... I would rethink my choice of eras long and hard..

I would certainly agree with statement! Since you don't seem to really know what you want to model at this point; stop worrying about that for now and spend time off and on comparing different eras and their merits and just try and do something simple to keep up your interest.

As for a 1x6 foot layout let's look at a couple of plans that would fit that space. Here's John Allen's original plan (more or less) fitted to that space:     The plan uses No. 4 turnouts and I'm not really sure what you could do with something like this other than its intended purpose as a game or puzzle.

Here's a simple plan I threw together that in my opinion is a lot more realistic and practical for that space:     This plan uses No. 6 turnouts, but does give you some room to switch a couple of cars from the interchange track, and be able to switch cars at the industry. It could represent a very small short line operation. Your NW-2 would be great for such an operation as would a GE 44, 45 or 70 ton locomotive.