People generally fall into two camps…
“operators” and “runners”…
'operators" love to do switching, to give their trains “something to do”…
they like point-to-point trackplans…
“runners” like to sit back and let their trains run!
they like ovals and circles…
personally, to me a point-to-point garden railroad would be the height of boredom…
(even a point to loop)
I would find it very annoying after about 2 minutes…
“what, you have to manually change direction EVERY time you get to the other end? oh man…this sucks!”
so I definately want loops and ovals…
I want to see my trains running through the railroad I have worked so hard to create…I dont want to have to “do something” every 10 seconds…throwing switches, changing directions, uncoupling cars…no thanks!
there is nothing wrong with either philosphy…
I agree a plain oval is pretty boring…but so is a straight line…
the trick is to have some nice variety with either philosphy…
I actually like Jim’s trackplan…depending on how the scenery is done, it looks like its big enough that trains would not always be visable, and appear to come and go, to and from different parts of the railroad…
If its all flat, might not be so good…but if there is a lot of variation in terrain, it could work well…
having said that, I would probably still change it!
just because I dont think its making the best use of the space…
you have the room to do much wider curves…
there is no sense (IMO) in doing 10 foot diameter curves when you could be doing 20 foot!
Jim, we need more info!
could you maybe post an overview photo of the site?
what are you thinking in terms of hills, grades, bridges, etc…
and what kind of trains do you plan to run?
If you like LGB Porters, and hate diesels, you can get away with tighter curves…
if you like USA Trains Alco PA’s with matching passenger cars, you will probably want to re-think your curves…
Scot