Just wanting some advise on weather i am looking at this correctly or if its too complex and need to restart. This is on a 5x12 with a planned center scene devider.
First off, you are to be commended for breaking our of the 4-foot-wide constraint for HO.
Sorry to be direct, but I think that some of the complexity is not providing a commensurate benefit in operating potential. I recognize that it might be hard to do after spending so much time in CAD, but a step back to think about what your railroad does and the customers it serves would help you think about the operating elements that you need.
A great resource for this background in layout design is Track Planning for Realistic Operation.
Also, it terms of rendering, some of your tracks appear to be too close to the layout edge for safety. 3-4” is better if you can. You also have a couple of potentially troublesome S-curves and/or places where tracks don’t meet squarely.
This 5X9 HO layout is an example of putting together elements to support a layout concept. Here, a shortine is imagined to interchange with another railroad. Trains may be built to run out to serve local industries and return. It is designed with flextrack, so you would need some modification for sectional track. In your space it would also be possible to increase the slightly tight minimum radius of my design.
Good luck with your layout.
Byron
Layout Design GalleryLayout Design Special Interest Group
Byron,
Thank you so much for taking the time to respond and give me some insight on where to look for much needed information. I actually built this on my layout table so the CAD was just a mirror of that layout. Looking at the one you posted and reading more about how ops should work, it makes sense to start over and take some design queues from the deisng you posted and some from the books i will be reading over the next few months. I built a retractable table in my garage and it works well for its size (5x12) and gives me a few more options for a larger layout.
Thanks again for the insight.