I've been designing a new layout, and I'm asking myself, "How much mainline track should I be able to fit in this area? How big is your room and how many feet of mainline track do you have? Mark
Mark you can have all the main line track you want. Some people have just one 3 foot section of main line, and the San Diego Club has over 4,000 square feet of layout which is almost all main line. Its your layout. If you build your track for main line operation, it can all be main line, see? It is a relative thing to what is your interest, not some one else's opinion. Enjoy it!
I have a grand total of 46 feet of mainline track for the Frisco interchange (20 of which is hidden staging), and about 25 feet for the O&NE. The rest is yards, spurs, etc. All except the hidden staging is in code 83- the staging is code 100. Sounds small? Well, yes, but you'd be surprised at the amount of work I can do with a layout this small. Moral: You don't need a whole lot of mainline, especially if you have a small space to work with. Enjoy- it's YOUR railroad!
