I think it's OK
Ever try to Operate with a crowd present? Like with 22,000 viewers at the Amhearst Show? Operation is usually best done with limited viewers and operators can concentrate on what is going on.
Our club operated a couple of HO, N & O scale modular layouts during the Xmas season (4-6 weeks) a number of years ago at the local college and malls. You should have seen the faces of the kids lightup and their folks who saw it run. I wish we could do it again but alas the school where we displayed is not avaulable.
BTW our layout was on display at the 2009 National Train Show. Not too bad for running trains around.
ah
Having worked as a volunteer on a museum display layout, I can vouch for the fact that no turnouts is a plus. There were two loops in this layout, with one crossover which was out in the middle of the display area. That was the place where locomotives would stall or cars would derail, and someone would have to climb over the plexiglass and walk across the layout to fix it.
If everybody is thinking alike, then nobody is really thinking.
http://photobucket.com/tandarailroad/
Layouts--whether public display pieces or otherwise--are absolutely open to critique. However there are rules to be followed. When I'm writing a book review, I have to to review the book that the author wrote, not the book I wished the author had written or the book I want to write. The same holds true for layouts. Ask yourself, who is the layout intended for, what purpose is the layout supposed to fulfil, and what goals did the owner have in its design and construction?
With this framework, a layout can be 'excellent' and yet completely not you cup of tea all at the same time.
What I don't get is the purpose of this thing. It may be a great display layout, but why does it exist? Does the club use it as a draw to get money (via admissions) to run their non-display, operationally dense "real" layout, or does it just feed itself?
KL
The point about continuous loops is valid, many layouts are built with hidden tracks to allow for continuous runninng during open houses or just because the owner wants to watch trains or break em in. Mine included.
As an aside, in my earlier post I mentioned the possibility of putting decoders into slot cars. Well it looks like our little brothers have beaten me to it. I just picked up a slot car magazine and they have systems to allow speed control (including momentum) of 6 cars on 2 lanes with the operational possibility of changing lanes. Huh, a simplistic system for sure but so were early DCC systems. But then why not just go to RC?
Modeling the Cleveland and Pittsburgh during the PennCentral era starting on the Cleveland lakefront and ending in Mingo junction