When I eventually build my new Hi-rail layout, Norm Charbonneau and Rich Battista are the immediate influences that come to mind. But really any equivalent Hi-rail layouts have all contributed to my move away from the (by comparison) cramped, loud, clacky, and undersized semi-scale and tubular O-31 style.
Frank Ellison's Delta Lines and John Armstrong's layouts.
For those of you who aspire towards a postwar style layout I would highly recommend viewing TM's excellent video of "The 1948 Lionel Showroom Layout" that had been recreated by an HO club in Jackson MS back in the early 1990's. These guys did a bang-up job of researching and rebuilding the iconic Lionel Showroom display.
TM was able to make a video of it shortly before it was dismantled.
