An early layout plan from 2007

This was drawing created with Corel Draw and saved as a pdf.
The pdf had to be extracted using AXPDF to convert to a blogable (is that a word?) image, (hence the watermark) in the free time before registration and payment.

I wanted to save myself from the perils of a duckunder. That led to limitations on what can be achieved in the space available.

The begining

The saga begins. We bought a house with a 6x4m tin shed out the back. It was just a bare steel framed shed on a concrete slab. All that I could see was an insulated and lined, air conditioned building with a new layout installed. My wife saw it as a good place to store the mower.
Saner thoughts prevailed and with the help of a few mates, the shed was insulated and lined over a 2 year period. It took a long time because it was not the most important task in my life at the time.

This is a nice size for an N Scale layout. It is not too big to be managed by one person and will be entertaining enough when mates arrive to play.

I had already built a previous N Scale layout based in Eastern USA. The layout had too much track and not enough reason to exist. This time I would put a bit more thought into track planning and not just add another track because I could fit more in. This was going to be novel for me!

I scoured Model Railroader layout plans and couldn't find quite what I was looking for. I had so many questions. I didn't want to suffer from analysis paralysis, but wanted to get it reasonably right the first time.

Too many Questions
How much room is it going to take up in the shed? What will my minimum radius be? Will the aisles be wide enough to allow operators to pass each other? What businesses will be modelled? Commodities? What track plan will give the longest running? How many trains can I run at once? Single or multi-track? How big a yard? How much switching? Powered or hand operated points? DC or DCC?