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I was in your shoes almost exactly when I was about 13; we had just moved to Virginia, and I had become interested in N-scale. With my father's help for basic benchwork, I designed a basic shape which would fit between my desk and the outside wall, with a large bulge into the center of the room, looking something like a grand piano shape. Overall, it was 6 feet long by 3.5 feet deep at the bulge, and 2 feet deep at the narrow end (which fit between desk and wall). I knew this was going to be the shape of my layout long before I knew where the track would sit on it! <br /> <br />I played around with various sectional track configurations to fit the space for some time, just sitting loose on the bare plywood top. Back then, we didn't have Kato's Unitrack, which would have made things go a lot more smoothly. In the end, I came up with figure-eight style mainline loop which also elevated and ran around the outer perimeter, for a decent mainline length, but I did have to use tight 9-3/4" curves and steep grades to manage it. For an OK branch line, you wouldn't want so much spaghetti-bowl. Still, you could do the same thing I did, and figure out a rough overall shape for your layout based on your furnishings, and then fiddle with Unitrack (or any other sectional track) to determine a satisfactory track plan. I had so much fun toying with track arrangements, it is what led me into my current profession as an architect! These days, of course I'd do most of my design work on a computer instead of with actual track segments, but there's something just purely fun about crafting temporary layouts out of train-set track. <br /> <br />I think one of the key things that worked about that little layout, though, was that it did not have rectangular corners. It protruded out into the room, sure, but its swept curves and gentle corners made it easy to move around. So, I'd say go with N-scale, and build yourself a smoothly-curved plywood top to begin with. I think you've got a good start on your interests, as far as having a region and era in mind; it's much more than I had at the time.
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