Small commuter focused layout?

[Green_Elite_Cab]

I'm not sure why you're determined on a rectangular space. When I finally moved out of my parents' place, I had an apartment with what was basically a smallish walk-in closet. I didn't have all that big a wardrobe, and there was a second closet, so you can figure out how my mind worked. I wound up with a shelf layout on a piece of 1x8 on shelf brackets.

It seems to me that when you're young and pushing on the hobby, you aren't going to wind up with anything close to what you can do when you're ten years older and making halfway decent money with more of a life. I don't think there's a whole lot of reason to try to build an empire in 4x8, 9x11, or whatever. I know you're thinking about the Northeast Corridor or whatever, but that's not a reasonable expectation for someone just starting out.

Well, this is all just hypothetical, I know I won't even have the space to build anything for another three or four years, and thats being optimistic. I certainly won't be building anything new as long as i'm still at home.

This is for me, just something to occupy my mind with, and a way to avoid future mistakes. I started out when I was 14, and i picked up the Model Railroader book "From Set to Scenery", and built that layout, assuming it would work since it was in a published book. Unfortuneately, that layout wasn't really what i was looking for, even from the very beginning.

In short, this is all just for fun. They won't be serious plans until many moons from now

Especially at the relative age where I think you are -- early 20s -- and living at home, I would be doing things with a scope of maybe one or two years out, since you really don't know where the economy and careers are going to take you. 9x11 at your parents' place (which I assume is where you're scoping things out) is assuming a whole lot. I built something in my parents' basement, but then my parents had to sell their place.

In addition, why not assess your own current talents and interests? My impression is that you're a pretty capable scratchbuilder and customizer of rolling stock. Why not spend your scarce time on something like that, and not put too much effort into benchwork that's gonna go to the landfill at a certain point in the not too distant future?

You can do push-pull and limited freight switching on a shelf layout. Heck, even Amtrak switching. Just my thoughts.

That is my current plan (to build my kits and such). I'm thinking of making one or two small display modules (2x4 sheets, since thats the standard size), If i have the time. They will be mostly something for me to practice assembling catenary and for me to take more realistic photographs with. I have enough junk left over from old projects and buildings that used to be on my layout that I could easily populate one module with enough stuff to pass for interesting.

I certainly have no plans to be spending way to much of my money on new benchwork (have plenty of spare wood in my basement from my dad's projects that i can use).

Like i said, the Givens and Druthers above are all hypothetical, just trying to come up with a reasonable way to operate trains the way i wish to some day, instead of just stumbling into it.