Today, I took my plan of action a step further. I exported a hi-res image from Xara, and plopped that onto a banner page in Publisher, suitably sized to match my baseboard size. That was printed out onto A4 sheets, which were then duly trimmed, and taped together into one big sheet. Finally, said sheet was pinned to the board.

Various locos and rolling stock were then placed onto the sections of track, to see how things fit, how sizes are, etc. I printed it on the laser printer, as there's a LOT of green on the plan, and printing out that much colour would be a bit silly I felt.

Having done that, the first thing that struck me was how viable it looks. It helped so much to visualise the layout, how things will fit, etc.

I like how 'big' it feels. I can fit full-length passenger trains on it, without them looking like they're too squeezed in. The locos sit in the sidings and the depot roads with lots of space in front and behind of them. In previous plans I had pretty short headshunts and sidings, which left a somewhat cramped feel.

There's a nice run for trains to pick up speed and slow down coming in and out. Plus the depot is connected to the main tracks, but nicely isolated, so I can have things happening there without 'fouling the main'. The station/depot combo is losely based on the Aylesbury arrangement, albeit a bit jumbled up.

A couple of things have jumped out at me though.

1. The bridge is wide enough for vehicles, but not pedestrians! I considered just making it wider, but a better remedy is to run a footbridge alongside it. There's a road bridge/foot bridge combo like that round here. It also occurs to me that having one either side of the split, will hide it quite nicely! I've seen many wonderful layouts with massive fault-lines down the middle. That's an idea, maybe the join could be a land-slide...
2. The island platform may be too narrow. Or is it? Answers on a postcard!
3. I'm a little worried that the depot buildings might not fit too well. Kitbashing may be required.
4. Having studied satellite photos, I'm going to need a LOT of trees.
5. I still want to put something in the expanse of green near the fuelling stage. Still not sure what. I think I'll keep my eye out for something interesting.
6. I'd originally envisaged the row of houses at the back on top of the embankment with their backs to the track. However, it occurred there's a row of houses round here facing the railway. They have small front gardens, then a footpath, a small fence, then the railway line. Something like that would work very nicely.

I'm really quite keen on this plan though. It's shaping up nicely.