Getting close to starting....basic plan...

looks like a nice setup, but having a SCARM file to look through would have been really cool, and easy to make suggestions and show them

By "3 track" you mean 3 separate tracks for the orange line{s}?...or 3 rail track?

For the short line- On30 or just an O scale short line idea...

 

The two open rail sections in the lower left corner...lift sections for access?...lift together or separate?

..just curious.

The bold orange line is  3 separate O tracks.....heavy mainline stuff. The thin black line is O-54 3 rail track....shortline style.  I may add a small section of On30 but if I do it will be added later on a different section. The two yellow sections are lift out. Thx

I don't think you can fit three tracks on the orange area as shown, with O72 curves on the inner track.

Also consider maximizing the curve radius of mainline tracks by staying at the outer edges of the layout.

 

The orange area is a scale 10 inches wide. Which is center rail to center rail of the two outside tracks. I used a simple drafting pgm to create it.

Running the mainline around the outside may widen the curves but O-72 minimum with mostly traditional size equipment should work well. 

If you are familiar with John Armstrong's, layout designer,  planning 'given and druthers' scenery is about equal to track on my layout. So just running the track around the edge would not meet that criteria. Thanks

AMCDave, you could also run a nice 2' wide yard area right down the middle of that 6' open area in the middle of the layout and still have a nice 2'wide walkway on either side of it.  I'd run it off the right side of the inner most main line.

 

It looks like a good plan to me.  Put the trains on the main line and let em run.

 

Rick

Thanks.....On my 'Given and Druthers' Mainline vs local and switching......I lean heavy toward mainline running while I sit and watch! That's one thing that brought me back to 3 rail O......they run with little attention, derailing or stalling on a dust specks!!!

I like it. I'm in the process of redesigning the first design attempt for my 10 x 21 space. It's purposely overly busy so I could see how much would fit the space using 031 and 054 track. The big difference is I've been trying to raise/lower part of one line so I can connect them to run trains on any track and still have multiple levels. However, if I understand you right, both of your lines are really flat, just at 2 different levels and that would be much easier to build. I'm a little fuzzy though on just how you intend to landscape the 2 crossovers on the bottom given that you said the lower part would be mostly city. I think I could fit a dual track main in the orange. That would let me potentially run 2 trains on each line, smaller locomotives on the upper level and just about any locomotive on the lower level. Once I get a picture of landscaping for those 2 crossovers, I'll have a better idea if I want to pursue this type of layout. I like the idea of fewer turnouts compared to what I've got so far and even though there are no reversing loops, I could run trains in the opposite direction on the orange mains to get the same effect.