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Well Duck When you strat your layout and have it all planned on the size you have to ask yourself these few questions 1. Will I ever move from here? 2. Will I ever decide to start a whole new layout from scratch one day? 3. Is there more room for expansion in the future in a open area or if you clean out an area will that be available? 4. Do I want to make this layout bigger someday? If you answer yes to one or more of these then you can start to plan on doing a layout that is expandable or "removeable". The things tht you can do that will make for easy expansion or moving is 1. Make your layout in sections that will fit out of a doorway or basement door if you move or sell. In your case 3'x12' is not too bad because it is 36" wide. If you remove the legs you would be able to get your layout out of a door or basement. so two pieces is good 3' x 6' bolted together or 3' screws into the sides. 2. Your wiring is a big deal too. You do not want to have a buss cable that is one length all around so when you rmove the pieces you will have to cut them anyway. Cut them at the joints and use caps to rehold them there so its ready at any point. Also watch for the other wires for houses, accessories etc. try not to let them go from one side of the layout to the otherso you have to cut alot of them and never find which is which. 3. When you have your track plan done and ready to go down. Look atthe benchwork and the room it is in. IS there a corner that is about 4 or five feet away that one day the layout could go there? Well if so then you add a turnout that points in that directions and is just a dead siding 'for now'. Then one day if you want to expand you willnot have to cut the track , ruin the ballast and try and add one in then. If there are a few sections like that you add a few switches. Those are a few things that make expansion easier when doing a layout. Even if you want to add a piece in the middle it will be fairly easy because it is bolted together and you will only have to dremel away the track, pull them apart and measure the distance inside. Cut and add the piece in the middle and you made an expansion. There other little ideas that you will come up with as you build keeping in mind that you may expand later one or move. I built mine with that in mind and thats how my expansion was so easy. Good luck
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