Hello Ben (F)
Your club layout at NJ Hi Railer's quite much dwarfs my own NYC Transit Layout in O Scale. Your club layout has many of the things I would have wanted to build and incorporate on my own EL system if I had 3 x or more space than I have in my present (basement of) home I bought back in 1995. Double Deck EL Flyover junctions, H U G E Layout yards, subway stations, etc..
Luckily my O Scale (and my earlier HO Scale) EL & Trolley layouts are modular built -- to facilitate moving from location to location (and train shows) -- until I finally BOUGHT a home.
You should not try to build a mega city type transit layout in your home (or basement, whatever) --- just a nice compact layout to operate, showcase and test your trains and have some fun. BUT, heh, then again, you are OPERATING real NYC Subway trains for a job for the past few years --- so there is your own 1:1 scale LAYOUT !!
I operate an HO Scale mainline Railroad layout of commuter and long haul passenger trains (10 to 16 car consists !) along the walls of the 16 x 39 foot rectangular train room. It is built on modular sectional shelves set upon brackets attached to wooden studs that are anchored along the concrete white-painted walls. Its a rectangular continuous layout with removable bridges across the front and read doors. The front room door-crossing "bridge shelf module" is a 4 track, 2 island station platform section at 45 degrees to front door, so I can open and close the front door fully to enter and exit. At 5 1/2 feet high its no problem for visitors to bend and duck just a bit to pass under it, as I generally keep it in place all the time, It can quickly and easily be removed if ever necessary. The O Scale NYC EL-Trolley layout occupies the entire middle-width of the length of the floor from end to end in the train room
I posted some photos of the train room -- and the guy in 2 photos is a retired former trolley operator from the Blackpool, United Kingdom, who visited with me a few days in early March 2015.
I also just now returned here to continue posting so as to add a few extra photos (and one video) of one of my HO SCALE few New Haven RR passenger trains -- I have NHRR, PRR, LIRR, NYCRR, Jersey (CNJ) Central, Reading RR, B&O, AMTRAK, SEPTA, Metro North HO Scale passenger consists-- and some freight consists. These images show what can be done with a shelf layout and some background scenery. SEE PHOTOS (and 1 Video) BELOW ...
Regards - Joe F