Steve
Thanks for the compliment. However, my track is not everyone's cup of tea. Also, I don't know what your criteria were for determining "BEST". It is NOT the longest (by far), it does NOT have the most storage tracks, It does NOT have the most interesting "operating profile" (grades), it does NOT have the most interesting track plan, it does NOT have the best track layout for efficient operation.
However, based on comments from people who have attended one or more of the 28 organized meets held here since 1994:
a] It is too long / too short
b] It has too many curves / not enough curves
c] It is too flat / has grades that are too steep
d] It is too high off the ground / too low to the ground
e] It has too many switches / crossovers / passing tracks
f] It needs more crossovers / passing tracks
g] It should be single track to make it interesting
h] It should have the passing tracks connected so there are four main lines instead of two
i] It has too many yard tracks (12) / too few yard tracks (12)
j] It needs more steaming bays (8) / NO ONE has said I have too many
I have had people claim that they "get lost" on the track because of the passing tracks. That is why the two crossovers between the two mains that are at about mid-point on the layout are ALWAYS locked down in "straight through" position during meets.
I will admit the track was in a "continuous rebuilding" phase from six months after it was first opened in 1994 until 1999. Since the complete reconstruction in 1999-2001, I have only made incremental improvements such as rebuilding the steaming bay track, adding the 7 track yard, finishing the Ga 0 loop, and realigning the major junction for the yard/steaming bay and the main running lines.
I am trying to finish my wife's storage building (it substitutes for the basement we do not have) so that I can have some covered storage tracks attached to the layout. If you look at the pic that appears twice in the thread; the building is now located to the right of the layout along the tree line.
In short, there are a lot of really nice layouts around the country, and depending on how and what you like to run, they are usually reflective of the builder's choices. I did not say DESIRES, becuse there are often constraints (not of the builder's doing) that limit what is ultimately accepted as a compromise.
Unfortunately, in my case, the length of the original layout was constrained because we decided it could not be longer than all the garden hose I owned in 1992 when Peter Jobusch and I dragged it around the trees in the yard. The only other rule at the time was that it would not look like a NASCAR oval. Considering that all Jo Anne wanted was another loop on which to run her LGB stuff, I did ok.
Cheers
Jim
