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Designing a layout (we never talk about train sets in here) that is rewarding to look at and to operate is quite a challenging task, as you have to understand a lot of how the real thing does it. A real railroad´s "track plan" is influenced by two key factors: <ul> <li>type of terrain</li> <li>no. and type of businesses served</li> </ul> Track is expensive, also for the real thing, so railroads would try to economize on that as much as possible. What does that all mean for chosing or designing your own layout? There are a few points (we call them givens and druthers) you have to decide: <ul> <li>How much space do I have available for a layout?</li> <li>What type of setting ( terrain, era) do I want?</li> <li>What types of businesses should "my" railroad serve? How many businesses do I want on my layout?</li> <li>What type of operation do I want? Do I go for prototypical operation or do I want to "just" railfan, i.e. watch trains? Or a combination of both?</li> <li>Last, but not least - how much time and funds can I dedicate to building my layout?</li> </ul> All of these points are related to each other. There are a number of excellent books on track planning and it is highly recommendable to read them before chosing or designing your layout. As you can easily see, planning a layout is a lot more than just developing a track plan. IMHO, too much attention is usually given to the track plan and too little to scenery and setting. Scenery often is what fills the gap between the tracks. Unless you go "only" for prototypical operation and don´t care how the layout looks, that´s quite OK. I, personally, would find a layout like David Barrow´s domino layout, which lacks any scenery, but is great to operate, not to my liking.
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