Well, I can't make up my mind as to what to do. I've bought a house, it has a back room that is an addition. I'm going to build a layout in that room. I thought I had set upon a design as seen in this post. It's along two adjoining walls. The other two walls have the entryways, one to the rest of the house and the other into the backyard. On the walls between the entryways I was planning on putting our computer desk and bookcases. This lead to a layout that was 5 feet from the wall. More than I can reach. But I didn't think it'd be that big an issue with a couple of access hatches. It was also limited to mainly O36 curves with a couple O48. this wouldn't be an issue for my current stock, or my foreseeable future.
But then my wife said she wouldn't have a problem with an around the room layout with moveable track to allow passage thru the entryways, or the train tunneling in the bookcases.
There are also a couple of locomotives I'd like to get that either are very rare in O36 or only made in as small as O42. My 1st thought was to go ahead with my plan, and then do an O72 around the ceiling for the big locos. But it'll be hard to enjoy the locos if they are above the head. So I started laying out an min radius O72 layout, but it seems even around the room I can't get the same action I had on my 1st plan. So I'm at a loss as to what I should do. Thoughts I had are as follows;
1. Go with the min O36 plan as it's doubtful I'll be in this house forever and the next one may have a bigger room.
2. Go with the min O36 plan as everything I have runs on it, and add an over the head or carpet O72 layout if I ever get a loco that needs it.
3. Make an O36 layout around the room so as to not have a 5 foot deep layout.
4. Make an O48 layout around the room so that I can run some bigger locos.
5. Make an O36 (or O48) layout around the room with outer O72 curves to have one loop to run the bigger locos on.
I've included a floor plan with measurements of the room. Looking at it, the 3 foot pocket at the top is the back door. The pocket on the right side is the arch to the rest of the house. In the lower right corner is brickwork, hence the jogs into the room there. All I know is that I also need to get my desk (60"x30" and can be in front of the track so that the track isn't taking up desk space.) and 3 bookcases in there (Either all store bought, or two/three store bought and one homemade corner unit.). I'm planning on using FasTrack and it'll be more of a toy train layout than a realistic one. My current biggest locomotive is a K-Line Titan Big Boy, and on O36 the cab swings approximately 1.5 inches from the FasTrack roadbed edge (Which doesn't bug me in how it looks, these are ultimately toys in the whole scheme of things.).
Thanks!