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Your actually one of the few people have asked for suggestions that actually has a good idea of what they want, but just need to figure out how to get there. First I need to ask how well your eyesight is. As the smaller the scale, the harder it is to see. My recommendations are personally to go with HO or S scale, (I work in HO) as those are what is known as the Mid Range scales. Also the space you have diagramed out is sufficient for a very decent layout in Both Scales. I also suggest that if your vision is such that you require bifocals, that you work with S scale as its larger size allows you to see what you are working on better. The one disadvantages of S scale though is that it is not as common as some of the others. However suppliers do exist for it, and many accessories are available from other hobbies in S scale, (Proportion of 1/64) The space your room is shaped, in my opinion lends it self well to a railroad based on a "Belt Railway" theme, which is a railroad that travels around a city from railroad yard to railroad yard, interchanging cars from one road to the next. There is also room in the center for a peninsula or two that can house some industrial switching districts and thus provide some originating and terminating traffic in your line. Following this assumed theme, my suggestion would be to run the mainline on a shelf between 18" and 24" wide around the outside walls for your main line. I would include on the 12 foot wall at the left and the 16 foot wall at the right two yards for interchanging lines. They don't need to be very big, as a decent capacity yard of about 40-50 cars can fit in an area of about 2X8 feet with plenty of room left for structures and scenery. I would have the belt railways access toward the front of the layout as you want to showcase that the theme for your railroad is to switch cars between two railroads. Then have the main line for the interchanging road depart along the back side duck behind a few big buildings and then down into a staging track on a deck below the main level of the layout. Then along the 24 foot wall at the top, I would include your biggest yard and have that be the home yard for your railroad. This is where cars are sorted from the industrial districts and the connecting roads are sorted and then sent to their respective destinations. Along the bottom I would include the industrial district which could include an industrial branch out into the center of the room. You could also work industries in on the space left in other parts of your layout to provide even more traffic. I would rout the bench work at an angle so that you may avoid the door as you transition along your little "jaunt" you have diagramed. I would also include either a lift out bridge or a swing open gate to allow relatively unfettered access to the center of the room without having to "duck under" the layout. For locomotives you would want 0-6-0s and 0-8-0s switchers as they are ideally suited for the tasks they are performing and you defiantly want nothing bigger than a 2-8-0 or a small 2-8-2. If diesels are your flavor I would go with many of the classic end cab switcher variants that are now so plentiful on the market with maybe no bigger than an Alco RS3 or EMD GP-7 to do the switching and transfer duties. Should you require any assistance with this project I would like to mention I run a model railroad design business, and you can check me out at http://w3.trib.com/~mrljim I hope I have been helpful James
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