What is your comfortable-sized layout ideal?

[Denver Road Doug]

For me, I think somewhere there's a nice trigonometric curve that describes what I want where X = size and Y = complexity.  Maybe not a directly inverse relationship, but close.

My ideal model railroad would have long stretches of single track on relatively flat terrain and many passing sidings.   I would have enough industry to keep a few switching jobs open for ops, but mostly ops would be getting trains past each other on a modern(ish) mainline.

This is, of course, a nightmare scenario for a model railroad.

So for me to say I wouldn't want it to be that big....well that would not be accurate.  However, I might have 75 sq ft of layout with only two turnouts.   Will I ever have room for such a best?  Not likely.

What is comfortable?   I think a typical 10x12 bedroom-style layout with some strategic "near room" staging would be a good compromise, and might meet most of my goals.

[OldEastRR]

Got a lot of interesting feedback on this idea, thanks. I think Max M has the best idea: don't build a layout with so much track it takes a long time to clean before you can do any decent running. A lot of us have days or even weeks between times we can run trains for fun.

[mark dance]

Mark, I think you answered this somewhere else, but I don't remember where. Anyway, what I'm wondering is, do you use the Electrofrogs straight out of the box, or are you doing any additional wiring or modification?

I just started a new layout using Pecos for the first time, and I'm likin' 'em so far. But I'm just running power to the points end, and using plastic rail joiners on the frog. No jumpers or frog-juicers.

Jim

Hi Jim...I use them right out of the box 2/3rds of the time - for the manually-thrown ones. For the Tortoise-thrown ones I remove the point spring and power the frog/points with a separate feeder from the Tortoise contacts.

Md

[Flagler]

10 x 20, Provides a lot of options, 15 x 20 if you want a Peninsula.

[jpwisc]

I want everything I build to be able to fit in a single car garage stall, so my max size would probably be 12x20. I have been building on it for a few years now and I know how slow I am, I'd like to be mostly done someday.

[MVW]

Hi Jim...I use them right out of the box 2/3rds of the time - for the manually-thrown ones. For the Tortoise-thrown ones I remove the point spring and power the frog/points with a separate feeder from the Tortoise contacts.

Md

Thanks, Mark. All my turnouts are manually thrown. It will be interesting to see how they hold up.

In response to the OP, I have about 300 square feet to work in, and that seems just about right for me. Large yard, adequate room for staging at both ends, and a mainline that seems to go somewhere. I'm quite impressed by many of the HCD or smaller layouts that pop up here, but I've always wanted more.

Jim