Future HO Layout

After much deliberation and discussion with myself, my wife, my son, and my trusted friend, I may have been able to decide what shape and form my HO scale layout will take. Even though it may be a few years before construction begins I think I may have a winner here.

I have always wanted to have a large linear shelf layout, but the more I thought about it the more I realized that may not be the best decision. I realize that I am a Railfan at heart and 80% of the time will be spent watching trains run through scenery. Also given that I like to sit and watch my trains and I don't necessarily want to walk around the whole time kind of puts a crimp on the linear shelf idea.

The other issue that I had to be brutally honest with was how big was too big? At what point would it become too much construction/wiring/maintenance for 1 man and his (now) 5 year old son? I've always dreamed of a big layout like you see in the magazines, but if I'm being honest many of them are just too big for a one man show. Add in the fact that my favorite part is scenery, and I absolutely HATE unfinished, bare scenes and it became apparent that it would need to be kept a reasonable size to have a realistic shot of being finished.

So for all those reasons and my Givens and Druthers list, I am really leaning towards something very close to the Wawbeek & Sunmount plan from "101 More Track plans" by Model Railroader magazine shown below.

If anyone has another layout of simillar size that you think I should take a look at, feel free to let me know. I wouldn't mind an island style with a center scenic divider either. I have plenty of time to plan :) In the mean time we'll be working on the O gauge Hi-rail layout.