I kind of figured why you wanted the loop, maybe mark it down to future expansion, maybe think vertically (two levels), not sure. Just make your planned layout easy to disassemble and reuse components if you eventually redo it (either by design, or if you have to move etc.). Hence the mention of dabbling in modular design (although there are other techniques to consider for resuablity like pins to locate your structures instead of gluing them down, mini-scenes like say a gas station with a paved forecourt, repair bays, junk piles in back that can be dropped into a hole in the scenary, and reused as a unit on a future layout. Ballast and scenicking materials (lawns, roads, streams, etc) I kind of treat as a write-off able loss, although you probably can salvage trees and fences for reuse).I'm not the "2 cents for a plugged nickle" guy, never did like that my 2 cent worth phrase anyway. Remember, you can edit your responses.
I changed the track plan again. Unfortunately I don't have acces to a computer at the moment so I cannot convert the image. It's on my website (http://chessiephotosho.weebly.com/). For reference: Green track will be lower than orange track.