Behind the garage is about 36 x 12. To the left of the garage is about 16 x 30. The "room" at the bottom left is actually the stairway up--it may be a little smaller or larger.
That's a lot of railroad already Pete. Having said that it looks like you are one of those rare birds that moves things along and actually finishes them! One option would be to leave the basic plan as is and use the extra space to spread things out. By that I mean add more scenery between the towns. Lance p.s. Nice backdrop by the way.
Hi Lance, By the way I'm going to cut it up, it looks like the main yard can be centered--that is, I'll add a section between the roundhouse section on one (the right) end, and between the bridge section (the left) on the other. On the bottom side, about the same thing--I'll sacrifice the back (closer to the wall) rise to the second level for a much more gentle rise. BTW, I've never been able to duplicate the effect of that quick backdrop. It was just one of those serendipitous efforts. The more I try, the worse the backdrop turns out. And I won't be able to save it--it's painted on the wall.
And yes, I do move things along. First pass scenery can be done very quickly when you have a lot of material. As I've mentioned, I buy a lot of scenery materials at wholesale at florists, so I can spread the stuff freely. And I have a carefree attitude about nature--it's irregular, so a few scatterings of yellow grass on the green should be irregular. So things go fast. Nope, haven't done the teased up grass thing yet--looks nice, but too slow for me, and I don't have the materials. If you look carefully at my scenery, it's all pretty carefree. Some might call it careless, and that's OK too. I do have fun with it.
Finally got back to Ohio. The layout is in pieces in the garage. Very damaged pieces after a rough ride from Albuquerque to Ohio through a raging storm with 60 MPH crosswinds. Then a four-day trip to Alabama turned into a four week stay when Kay had emergency surgery. Stay tuned. I've finally got a true floor plan of the train room. Of course, my CAD/CAM program no longer works on my Intel-based G5 laptop, although it does on the old desktop G5. After two days back, I'm still unwrapping the kitchen stuff!
Also welcome back. I am very interested to see the final diagram. Also, I would think you would like a lot more waterfront so you can add more ships.
I have some plans to go into the other part of the basement with an expanded harbor. It will be interesting. I can get the grades down in the larger space, so that will help operations.
Lower grades are bonus. I recall my slippery E9 set pulling an GN Empire Builder Kato car set plus a Great Dome Lounge car wasn't happy at the base of the grade.
Sounds like you have your work cut out for you. However, you should be up and running a lot sooner than if you started from scratch. I moved an HO layout once from a home to the local railroad museum. Only it was not across the country but only across the county.
Back in Ohio after yet another trip to Decatur. Have managed to upgrade the software on my laptop so I can work on plans on it as well as my G5 desktop, which is getting long in the tooth. First thing, of course, is finishing the ceiling. Ten years ago that would be a weekend job for me, a buddy, and two deadman supports. Now it's a wallet job, and the wallet is pretty thin.
