Lost the fun...need a remedy???

Completely understandable - I have messed around for years coming close to operating layouts but never quite making it. I've done a couple of small British O scale shelf switchers but didn't complete them. I also built a 2' x 9' N scale layout based on John Allen's first small G&D track-plan - but N scale drove me nuts. Back I went to O scale 2 rail, but nothing concrete. Chasing the lofty ideals of the model railroading magazines isn't too practical without their resources. 

You never know what will spark an idea though, and several years ago I bought a Polar Express for the Christmas tree. That started me on 3 rail O and also American Flyer after seeing some toy train articles. The 3 rail prejudice disappeared and the collection grew a little. Now this quarantine time has resulted in a burst of activity - a 10'  x 13' L -shaped layout that I drew up in SCARM a couple of years ago. I just did the first test run on it - so far so good.

I think going through the collection with some rationale for your mixed layout in your mind will get you somewhere. Maybe an upper level On30 point-to-point and a 'looper' 3 rail lower level would suit your preferences. To get things going I would definitely set up the 'looper' first. 

The approach that really helped me was two-fold.

1. Having some type of back story/rationale for my railroad empire that suited the equipment I was running.

2. Doing my design in SCARM, which really paid off when it came to building the physical layout. The learning curve is fast and it may just spark your new empire.

Best of luck.

John, you would go into cardiac arrest if you saw my layout....3-rail trains running on code 148 2-rail track powered by battery-powered, remote-control!  Nothing is "standard" PLUS I model a railroad which is rarely correctly offered in O scale.

Here's my 12'-9" x 30' layout plan that's upstairs, so I had to contend with a stairway and a wall:

Built on Mianne framework, with 1/2" plywood top.  Each square is 12".

As soon as I got the benchwork up I started laying track, making changes as I went because no amount of pre-design is going to account for the realities in buildings, especially my 1943 house.

Once the track was down I started running trains with the notion that NO scenery would be done until I was satisfied the track plan would work and that my track laying skills eliminated derailments.

It's been 2+ years now and I still haven't done much scenery, just put down some ground cover and tossed some buildings up to see how they fit.  I may never get to putting trees down although I would like to put some sort of background on the walls.

Up until last August I ran trains every day, but other hobbies got the better of me (golf and target shooting), up until a month ago I hadn't run trains since August.

With this virus thing I have jumped back into O-scale modeling.  Got 2 old K-Line coaches repainted into ACL, finished detailing/painting 3 ore cars given to me by my good friend Bob Comerford in Australia, and recently bought this 3D printed shell from Zach Pabis of the Seaboard Air Line motorcar 2028, which I am currently putting all the bits/pieces on to get it on the layout.  I am truly amazed at Zach's efforts and hope to see more from him:

Here's Zach's HO model:

You'll never find perfect.  Anything we do in this hobby will be a compromise.  Pick your battles and work on the ones you know you can win and forget the rest.  And don't worry about what others will think or say.  Take what suggestions you can use and ignore the rest.