Port Able Railway v2.0

[sailormatlac]

I can't put a folding drop leaf there because there's going to be a wall abutting one end. I want to keep it contained within the edges of the layout. Think of it as an ISL wrapped around itself, kind of like a Palmetto Spur or an Inglenook layout.

And an ISL that doesn't need a cassette! A good point in my opinion! That's a humility lesson you're teaching us.

Let's face it, not anybody can mount a layout on a wall (the reason why my layout is in someone else home!).

For a long time, I was limited to a 4' x 4' board. I once tried a similar layout as yours with a mining/forest theme. However, I went to far, making it a twice around (conceptually interesting, but lack of flat trackage proved to be a problem for switching operation).

Mike, I think you went quite with your building layout. At some point, when drawing we face a wall called reality and lose sense of proportion. It happens in the real world when working on some building plans. The track plan is relatively cast in concrete and the overall scenery concept credible. At this point, you will see that the real solution will come up when you will start mocking up the layout in real life, just like Faraway proves us every single week!

If you don't have bough most structures, I would seriously suggest to only get the principal ones and see what you can do with boxes, cardboard mock up, etc... Catalog pictures are attractive. Reality, in such a small place, may looks like a collage and kills the realistic stance you are trying to work out. Maybe you'll get better reasult with buildings that blends togethers. My criticism about DPM modular wall is that they are very large (windows, doors, etc...) and blend with difficulty with some other manufacturers building. Also, they tend to make a scene looks smaller. I would suggested you to check out other DPM offerings like Laude Manufacturing building. They are cheaper than modular walls, looks better, have smaller windows (a 12" building with 12 windows will look considerably larger than the same thing with only 8 large windows). They can be easily bashed and combined to suit your need.

Good luck! I'm really eager to see this layout take form in real.

Matt