The layout resulted from wanting a continuous run as a change from my previous layouts, which had all been end-to-end. This only seems to have two obvious solutions, either operate from the middle, which necessitates having plenty of space, or a long thin layout that has tight curves at each end. The latter design often involves hiding the tight unrealistic curves and so limits the length of the scenic section. So, I considered a continuous run with long sweeping (almost 3ft radius) curves that could be operated from the middle, keeping the tighter curves to the fiddleyard and that was essentially ‘D'-shaped. The rest is history, and this gave me about 9ft of scenic section in an area of 6ft × 5ft - this is the compact version of the layout.
It did occur to me that, since I usually exhibit my layouts, this would be a bit
