Horrible discovery about the cost of the hobby!

[nachoman]

I am considering changing my layout concept to a multi-lobular layout in the center of the room with no point being any farther than arm's reach except the mountains, perhaps. this would allow a much more efficient use of space for me, with the scenery effectively dividing the layout into "views" and trains to easily travel into hidden staging areas without the need to be so sneaky disguising the entrances. It also means I would only have to model one really good central mountain group, instead of an entire range of them!

It would also solve the eternal problem of doors, windows and closets, since my layout space has an outside patio door, an inside standard door, a pocket door and a large folding walk-in closet door, plus a window. Working around all of that along the walls, and necessarily limiting my width to arm's reach as well, has become something of a planning nightmare, while the alternate concept seems much more workable.

Mountainman- I think your philosophy is similar to what I am doing. My design evolved from a desire to not have lift-outs, duckunders, hard to reach places, or block windows or doors. Although mine is a 4x8 shape dictated by the size of the room, I do have one central "mountain range" that divides the layout into scenes. Of course, on the top of my mountain is a town serviced by a narrow gauge branch, the lower "loop" is divided into two "scenes" by topography, without the use of a backdrop.