Model Railroad Design (or Armchair Model Railroading)

I find that I often complicate things. While I have my ideal design for a model railroad I know that even basic pieces of it are beyond my ability at the moment (mostly space considerations, but also some monetary ones). So I try to look at what I have and see what I can figure out what I can do with that with least initial output at the moment. Most of us who have studied something about design understand many of the limitations of the 4'x8' sheet of plywood (or foam insulation).

Scott Perry of Layout Design Service, http://www.layoutdesignservice.com/, has come up with a paradigm breaking spin off of the sheet of plywood in his Heart of Georgia beginners layout, http://www.layoutdesignservice.com/lds/samples/betterbeginnerlayout.htm, which gives the ability for much wider curves and to have four scenes where the 4'x8' only really gives you the ability of two scenes.

Now I really like Scott's design, but I won't copy it. But the one foot width eight by nine foot rectangular shelf is a great plan. Deciding what to do with it is the hard part. With only twelve inches, eighty seven scale feet, it is not possible to model much more than the railroad right-of-way. There are great advantages there, to start with you save money! All those buildings not on the right-of-way cost money. You also save time in building them.

My plan was to build the New Jersey side of the Pigeon Point (Wilmington, Delaware) to Carney's Point (Deepwater, New Jersey) carfloat operation. But I have run into a number of problems at this stage and think that for this first layout, that is not the way to go. I may still try to hit the carfloat angle. I have to say, the idea of a working car float that can be used for staging and operation sounds like a really fun idea.