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The 4x8 is too large to reach all the way across from any one side, so it should be placed as a central peninsula, with access on three side. One of the 4' ends would be up against the wall, approximately centered on one of the 20' walls. This leaves 3' of passageway at the other 4' end, unless you choose to run the tracks all the way around the room and build a narrow shelf through there; I wouldn't make any passageway narrower than 24", with 30" being more comfortable. So, you could place a 6" shelf along this opposite 20' wall, which is enough for a double-track mainline. One each of the 11' wall then, you have plenty of space for a shelf layout which branches off of the 4x8 like wings. Each 11' wall could be considered a separate town. You could place full turn-around loops against each of these walls, but you would need some form of hidden or lift-out access to get to the track at the far side of the loop. The alternateives are to either forgo continuous running (except perhaps on the original 4x8, which I assume contains a complete loop itself) or you could continue the track on a shelf all the way around the room, with a necessary duckunder or lift-out bridge of some type. <br /> <br />If you forgo the continuous running, then you might treat each of the "wings" as though it were a branchline that runs out to serve a particular industry. The original 4x8 represents the "mainline", where manifest trains run constantly, and the branchlines must be worked by a slower-moving road-switching turn that picks up some cars dropped off from the mainline, takes them down the branch and swaps them out, empties for loads or whatever, and then returns back to the 4x8 to set them out for the mainline train to pick up on its next run. With two wings, you could model both the supply industry and the demand industry, on separate wings. Thus, operationally you'd be keeping at least three trains busy, one to run out the coal mine for example, one mainline train to collect the coal loads and transfer them around the 4x8 (maybe more than once around for added mileage), and a third train to move the coal into the power plant. <br /> <br />Another thing you can accomodate with the "wings" is staging, which would be a lower-level hidden yard which holds all the mainline trains. This way, you could have a wider variety of mainline trains run through the 4x8 mainline segment. Staging is very simple to add, although access to hidden staging can be an issue, but it adds so much in terms of interest when you run your trains. Each staging track can represent any remote city or interchange; you might even have each branchline be a different supply industry which delivers its loads to a fictional demand industry that is really just a staging track.
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