At A Loss - Searching For A Layout - Ideas Welcome

I like Ken's suggestion of narrower benchwork in the center, especially to help access to the corner or to staging.

I have a double deck layout (lower deck at 48 or 53 inches and upper deck at 65 inches) with a workbench, cabinets, and storage under the lower deck and nod-unders and a dispatcher's desk where there is no lower deck.
This first picture is looking through a doorway with a nod-under that is 18 inches wide on the left and 30 inches on the right. The foam pipe insulation barely visible on the front edge of the fascia board is at 61 inches.


I've used 12 inch benches to bring the upper shelving to a functional 53 inch height for operating on the upper level.


If you use benches or step-stools to routinely access the eye-level benchwork, be sure to plan for space to store them out of the way when they aren't being used. The cabinets to my right in the picture are now on raised frames so the benches can be rolled under the cabinets when I want to work the yard on the lower level.

 

Looking at the most recent plan, I like how there appears to the potential for rail traffic to flow from industries on the left to industries on the right, and vice versa.

RRs will always configure their tracks to serve the most industries in the most efficient, inexpensive way possible...so there should always be a reason for any complex trackwork. To me, the more complex track configuration on the right seems to suggest the complexity caused by buildings cramped into a small space between bluffs and water (lake, river), but the temporary art work seems to space the buildings as if they were located in a spacious industrial park. As you work out the details, you may want to incorporate land features or large buildings crowding each other to "force" the RR to build complex track configurations to serve their customers (Is the switchback absolutely necessary to serve an industry on the bluff overlooking the river? Does one track cross another because the industries are so close to each other there has to be overlap in the tracks leading to their respective shipping/receiving doors...doors that are near to each other can't be served by the same siding? Can the same siding serve multiple industries or is there too much daily traffic at the end of the line which would force constant moving and repositioning of the cars being held longer at industries at the front on the line?)

In the most recent version, I don't see any provision for the staging mentioned in some of the initial posts. Staging (like an interchange track) provides a way for us to connect our RR to the outside world.

It would be possible to add staging across the back of the layout. On the left side, access to staging would be through the straight portion of a right handed turnout against the wall about 15 to 20 inches from the doorway. The other end of the staging would be accessed by a left hand turnout as far to the right along the back wall as can be reached from the narrowest portion in the middle of the layout. Since both turnouts are on the grades, the staging would have to be at a level half way between the elevations of the turnouts.

Personally, I'd prefer flipping the elevations of the figure 8 so the complex trackwork was at the lower level (waterfront) and the right side, industries were higher, but the staging idea can work either way.

If you use hills and trees and structures, you can hide the staging from a viewer instead of having to cover it with mountains or buildings. That way it can be reached from under the layout shelving AND from above without needing to move anything.