Full garage plan - new plan update!

[Flying Pig]

Blueball Summit certainly is a beautiful layout and I think this plan makes more sense than your previous one. You could go a wee bit further and bring the left hand siding back across to the outside main line, with a single slip to form the trailing crossover - that would be a very typical arrangement.

 

As this scheme is so much about watching trains go by, it would also be well worth taking care with transition curves to keep the track flowing in the scenic section.

[DCB]

I do wonder how the goods yard with a facing connection will be shunted.  It looks a bit ugly and difficult though I think Tavistock SR was like this.

Would the (Down?) goods use the Up main as a headshunt or the Down and shunt across the UP.  I like the idea of a station where the line singles as it gives an excuse for every, or almost every, train to stop in the station, though I also like parallell movements in the same direction.

A single line tunnel as at Colwell, or a bridge as at Perth or even Midford is a good excuse.   Interestingly at Midford they would set Up goods trains back onto the down line to allow passengers to overtake.

I think cassettes are OK in their place, pre WW2 the GWR was all about portional working so three and four coach portions on cassettes fit in well, even with 7 or 10 coach trains, however post war when trains tended towards fixed formations short cassettes are very limiting.  4 foot 13 wagon units on cassettes is also a good way to ring the changes.