Hello! Isn’t that a neat layout in N scale! Since I have switched to N I am seriously considering building something similar. I also received some Kato track which I didn’t really care for but am now reconsidering using it. I will be looking forward to how you progess with your version.

Shaun,
Moving the mainline crossover past the highway bridge would indeed improve things, as it gives you a short run around track sort of configuration. Watching a long container train snake around the short mill job in the hole there would definitely be cool.

And I still think that having a siding come off the outside of one of the curves on the bridge and tunnel side would add a few possibilities, both for interchange and for loco swaps on run-through trains. Sort of a min-fiddle yard, if you will.

Shaun,
SOmething like that, or do one at the apex of the curve to the left. Again, I first thought of it from an operational standpoint as a place to park a set of locos so that once a train leaves the industrial side, you could swap locos and essenatially create a new train. Or it could be a branch line (functionally a single track fiddle yeard). Then short trains could come on and interchange with the other side.

Shaun,

You could even add another small backdrop in the middle of the mountain on the middle of the top side, to create an extra scene. One could be desert, the other in the mountains…and with fall colors on the trees or even snow!

Either way, this plan (both from MR and seeing your ideas) has inspired me to get back into model railroading. I haven’t had the space for an HO layout, and I think this has convinced me that N scale will be just fine!

And now a question – what software did you use for planning the layout? Thanks!