Hey Gang,
James May (co-host of Top Gear (I love that show!!!) Toy Stories, and other shows) attempted to set a model railroad world record in 2009 by building a layout 10 miles long. The story can be read in full here. For those interested in the Reader's Digest version, the locomotive quit after 7 miles due to a mechanical failure, and the attempt failed. The attempt was also plagued by vandals who stole pieces of track and dropped coins on the rails causing the locomotive to blow its battery at one point.
So let's go back to the part about the layout being 10 miles long. I did the math and here's what I arrived at if we were to use 40" Lionel tubular track...
Convert English miles to American miles: = trick question, it's the same, just wanted to see if you were paying attention 
Miles to inches: 10 miles = 633600 inches
Inches total divided by one section of Lionel Tubular: 633600 / 40 = 15,480 pieces required to make a 10 mile long layout.
Let me see what extra track I have laying around...
