A good model [railway] should create an impression of reality. At the top of the league (in my humble opinion) must be Pendon museum. www.pendonmuseum.com. But many layouts can attract attention for various reasons. I usually find RTR layouts, however extensive, rather uninteresting, but if the layout captures that 'look' I will look more closely. Capturing the large landscapes is more difficult, something the N gauge is rather good at.. Take Copenhagen Fields for example. But Geoff has already demonstrated how this can be achieved in a larger scale.
I am rather looking forward to see how this layout pans out.
DeadRinger
PS. In the dim distant past I demonstrated Hornby Zero-1 at several large exhibitions, with my co-demostrator, Brian Robinson. He would often turn to me and mutter '"here comes another one!" referring to the anoraked unkempt man heading our way, knowing he was about to complain about some detail of a Hornby model he thought was incorrect! It was Brian that suggested a visit to Pendon would make you take up aero modelling!