@GazooRC posted:...
I don’t have room to do a double track section though because the big boy requires 11” curves. A full curve takes up the whole side of the table.
...
Have you actually run the Big Boy on the 11" curves? Just because it "will run" doesn't mean it will work smoothly or that you'll like how it looks.
I don't have a Big Boy, but based on what I have - largest loco is a Berkshire - it seems like there will be a lot of overhang with that radius. Suggest setting up the oval and running it to see if the overhang is acceptable to you.
One option for making a shallow layout look larger is to add a partition down the middle to block the view of the far side of the layout.
Figure 8 is fun on a tinplate layout, but I'm not a big fan of it for scale trains.
