Evolution is the right word. It's survival of the fittest, or what fits best in your space, with the concepts & ideas you need to include, etc. Yeah, at least a few more edits.
AND, I'm not offended at all if anybody else builds on my work/suggestions/sketches. I only had a limited time this morning to crank it out, scan it in, resize and post. I want to work on my Shifter project tonight, but if I really get into the sketching, well, it's fun in it's own way.
What actually inspired the creative flurry was spending time with my 3 year old pushing trains around on the floor this morning. Last night I "built him a layout" with his wooden track and this morning we tried it out. Fun stuff, that wooden track. Wild pieces like a turntable with a turnout as the deck. Very cool.
Already Chris has given me a couple more ideas. I was worried as well about the grades and had not considered at all the catenary, so please keep the suggestions coming. We're still a long way from refining a plan. This is just the early shaping and hammering out phase.
lol, that turntable must have came from the department of redundancy department. I remember loving those wooden trains, but my parent never would buy them for me, lol. now they are in trouble, because i have the scale hobby going.
In any event, its good to know that i did not cause offense. I know that i'm pretty bad sometimes with this sort of thing.
The only thing I'm imagining and liking now more then ever is Push pull operations off and on the main layout that might be able to incorporate the vertical elements.
The ideal place on the NEC that i've though of is the area were the North Jersey Coastline merges with the NEC (south or Rahway, NJ), North to Linden, NJ. there is one station between there in Rahway, so its a pretty short section. Whats cool is that NJ transit trains, including diesels like my unique GP40FH-2, would come down the NEC from Hoboken or wherever with trains of passengers heading down to New Jersey's beaches. they would travel this section of the NEC to the NJCL in push pull.
I'd envision the some a 4 track main with staging or a view block of some kind so that the 4 tracks can go around and allow for continuous operations. At one end would have the "north" (East in NJT naming) staging, and you'd have your NJCL trains zip down to the "South"(west) end, where there would be the junction just like in real life. the trains there go under a road bridge that can act as the other hidden staging area, and the NJCL trains would basically push pull back and forth. Since they have cab cars, there is no need to turn the train around, and all you need is a holding track long enough to fit the train. the longest train i can pull is an 8 car NJ transit train, but usually I'll stick to 5-6 cars. There should be enough space for a light grade.
at the same time, it eats space, so this may not be the best idea. It definitely seems to flow with your ideas.
I made an MS paint diagram of the junction. the NJCL is in red, the NEC is in blue. This could be simplified to just the outer tracks diverging off, and i think it would still retain the feel. It could definintiely be selectively compressed.