Givens & Druthers

Following John Armstrong's approach to layout design, the following are my givens and druthers.

Givens

The room at my disposal will be created from a partially unfinished basement. One of the existing walls will be removed, and the combined area will be divided into the room available for the model railroad and a family room.

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The main modeling area will be 23'8" long by 10'2" wide. An "L" alcove -- possibly to be used as a helix between levels -- is 8'0" long by 8'0" wide, plus an additional foot of width above __". Ceiling height is not a problem, with a full 8' available. and no real obstructions. This provides -- at minimum -- 287.25 square feet (71+ "squares" in John Allen's terms!).

The model railroad room must continue to provide a certain amount of storage for the family. Storage of boxes under the layout to a height of 2' should be sufficient.

Druthers

Here's the list of what I'd like to be able to incorporate into my layout:

• Continuous run operation
• Two track mainline, minimum
• Digital Command Control (DCC) including turnouts and accessories
• Run two trains unattended while operating a third, minimum (for one person operation)
• 15" minimum mainline radius; 20" preferred
• Emphasize passenger operations with at least one large city station
• Mix both steam and diesel power comfortably
• Turntable and roundhouse
• At least one junction or interchange
• Attempt to capture the spirit of real locations
• Someday get featured in Model Railroader and N Scale Railroading magazines!