Track plan

I guess a copy of the track plan would be useful. I spent the month of July reading track planning books (such as John Armstrong's Track Planning for Realistic Operation), and doodling rough plans on paper. I spent August refining the design in XtrkCAD (which is now freeware). This is what I came up with:

I can cheat a little bit by wrapping the triple-duty loop (helix, hidden main line, visible main line) on the left side into the space under the stairs, which gives another two feet of room length and makes things fit much nicer.  What isn't well conveyed by this track plan image is the elevation changes. This is a mountain railroad with a perpetual grade of 2-3% along the 100+ feet of mainline. The visual crowding on the plan shouldn't be the same in 3D, since apparently-close tracks are quite vertically separated. For example, the two loops around the centre peninsula are about 24" apart in elevation.

I did omit from the above plan a logging line that goes from the terminal at the left side, along the bottom wall (above the staging area) to the logging camp above the access hole in the lower-right corner. This line will be unconnected to the main track of the layout (potentially narrow-gauge) and feature sharper curves and steeper grades. Main line is 30" radius at 2-3% grades; logging is around 18" radius and 5% grades.