So I've been stuck in a state of limbo over the design and format of my layout since deciding I've dive headfirst back into it a few months back now. I know exactly the size I have to work with, what I need to get going...so what's really stopping me?

Well, firstly it was a location and setting, that old chesnut, but now, it's merely a case of what I actually want mixing with what I can realistically run and work with. Essentially my restrictions are that the baseboards can be no wider than 20 inches, with maybe at a very extreme push being 2ft, and my backwall is around 12ft long, and I can run the layout along that length, and also run further boards around the adjoining walls for about 4-5ft for anything else I might require.

So firstly I decided I'd have a continuous layout, with the end loops being on each adjoining wall on removable boards for space and storage, but I swiftly decided that this would probably be too intrusive to normal workings in my room, and would require pretty zealous workings of the speed control to slow the speeding express down to take the tight loop curve. So a fiddle-yard to fiddle-yard concept, with a station in the middle, was what I plumped on and set down to....but now I'm pondering, is it worth having 2 fiddle yards at all? Why not just go the Dunmar/Minster route, and the same route I've seen done very effectively multiple times, and go terminus-to-fiddleyard?

I'm aware this is probably old hat to many of you on here - the old compromise between your dream layout and what you actually have to work with. All of this would be fine if I wanted to run a decent small branch line...but typically, I don't. I fancy seeing Westerns, Class 50s, and even earlier, Bullied Pacifics and GWR 4-6-0s blasting through on expresses and cross-country trains.

The one thing that isn't a problem for me is eras - I have that pretty much covered (For now). At the moment, whatever I run will be split between 3 periods - 50s/60s BR, 70s BR (corporate blue), and modern day with the layout in the hands of preservationists and run as a heritage line. The last one is basically a get-out clause for when I want to run anything that wouldn't fit with the other eras. Or regions, for that matter, as I'm fairly sure on what region I'm going for - Southern and Western, mixed together if at all possible.

The main thing I keep coming back to right now is the actual format, toying between the aforementioned terminus-to-fiddleyard or 2 fiddleyards options. My thinking is - I want to see trains running through a station, but with the space I have, the trains I'll be able to run won't be that long or going that fast anyway in a relatively realistic scenario, and if I set them down in a terminus setting, that means I free up some space by not having a 2nd fiddleyard and also have the added attraction of almost having a diorama-type setting of the locos in the station. I also fancy adding a freight angle, and would really like to if possible add a section based on the old Inglenook Sidings shunting puzzle, for additional operating interest.

Maybe I'm overthinking this too much, or maybe I just want to have my ol' cake and eat it!

I'll keep this up to date when I decide on things and when progress is made