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Well, after reading the posts and replies... I feel better. Trackplans and planning software should be banned... Sure, they look great and help you understand that you have 10 times the space that you initially thought. Until you begin actually building the layout and realize you have JUST as much space as you originally thought, and that the design would have been more practical if you just laid a flat sheet of brass on the wood frame and added power.... HA! I would love to actually "finish" a layout. I have changed from LGB to HO to N Scale (get the feeling that space is getting tighter?) I have struggled with the framework... VERY IMPORTANT... Get the benchwork built level and true. Make it heavy... Make it out of Bridge Steel if possible. I have ripped out whole layouts due to warping and mistakes in the initial skeleton. Turnouts... Switching to DCC has wreaked havoc on simple factory turnouts. Electrical... To solder or not to solder... that is the question. Rail joiners are great until you get to N Scale Flex Track. But the solder can crack or release. Tunneling and hidden track.... DON'T DO IT... If you can't reach it, don't run it. And I don't mean 2" clearance for your tallest cars... I mean, if you can't get your head in a position to focus both eyes on the rails to make a repair that may take up to 15 minutes, then skip the design and work on a nice flat midwest plains layout. We have binocular vision folks... mess with it and you wind up with a dizzy, nauseated session of soldering or cleaning without depth perception. Magnetic Automatic Couplers.... should be called Random Intermittent Uncouplers. But how do you overcome these issues? Start with the best laid benchwork. (Hire a contractor, cabinet expert, and a few lumber consultants, and a psychiatrist. ) Take your time, use the best wood possilbe. LOOK IT OVER before loading it at the yard. If two screws will fit, use three. DON'T NAIL (it's old technology, nails don't help overcome your inability to measure. Screws PULL and lock parts together.) Lay the mainline ENTIRELY... Sure, slips and turnouts can be in place for where you want them to be, but DON'T add the side yards, and industry until your mainline is in, and bulletproof. (worst case, you can run trains on the main while waiting for glue to dry, or your nerves to calm again.) I don't even want to think about the smaller industry models until I can physically verify the amount of room left on the board. Turnouts, look ahead, buy the ones that do the least. If you can modify them later, perfect. If they seem to handle all of the switching operation seamlessly, worry. Basically, we are all nuts. We throw perfectly good money into these little toy trains that we stuff into every available corner we can wrench away from our family. Typically we can be found locked in a small room worrying about the most minute details of our little models, while others are busy watching the ball game. (I am rethinking that Psychiatrist thing....)
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