Pros/Cons of exaggerated vertical separation.

Could you provide an example?  I'm not sure exactly what you mean.

As in mainline tracks with more than prototypical separation. Such as several inches apart or "stacked" mainlines. Usually with scenery to match.

Rick.

Rule of thumb is to allow 6" clearance above track height.  But even that limits access to lower level.  Several feet would be interesting.

My opinion is that several vertical layers of tracks never looks realistic. It's just another part of the model railroader mindset that there has to be trains running everywhere on a layout. 

I've always liked verticality!

Jim

Well: you have to cram in what you have to cram in your layout.  I think the vertical separation that looks good depends greatly on the horizontal separation you have, too too.   At theend of my layout - where guests, and I stand while Ioperate the trains - I  have four train tracks and a Superstreets two lane road (one lane each way) in a space of 40 inches horizontally and 16 inches vertically.  The 16 inches would not work as well as it does were it not for the average of 8 inches on center spacing horizontally.

I personally like vertical separation.

Here are my best and worst examples. The worst shows an unavoidable "wedding cake" look (through the lift bridge) and my best shows my take off on John Allen's work.

As Lee has said, if you want to run trains, you have to stack 'em somewhere.  I like the vertical separation.

Rick,

The stacking issue is one I have been thinking about for my next layout.  Personally, I just don't like the decorated cake look.  However, you can't seem to do a good stacking job without a lot of table top area to use a gradule stacking method.  Thus back to problem one, the need to stack because of the lack of space requirements, in most cases. 

Tonkanut:

The second photograph show a true work of art.  Very nicely done!

Thanks for sharing,

Don

I like vertical separation as long as the tracks on each level are all somehow connected, and if it looks like it serves some kind of purpose (climbing a mountain, for instance).  I've thought about an elevated urban line that would climb up and around city buildings, with trains dashing about high above the city streets below.

Aaron

I spent a lot of my time in high school daydreaming out the windows, looking at a mountain that had two train tracks, one a ways above the other, wedding cake style.  I actually attempted to create that effect (compressed) on my layout.

(Sorry about the duplicate photos in my previous post.  I added the NH loco shot as an edit, and it added the first two again as well.)

...and I have come to this conclusion: vertical surfaces on O Gauge layouts are "OK". I have noticed however, they are more appealing on layouts that have a toy-ish or tinplate-ish look. Either way, I plan to explore this option.

Thanks Gents

Rick.

Looks pretty realistic here