a friend of mine got 2 'starter' HO sets: a Chessie and Santafe from Life-Like. I came up with a fairly simple design adding 8 switches (4 of the Lifelike boxes) and came up with this layout plan:
Which has been built!
Its looking good! just needs some grass and maybe a little ballast

Which has been built!

Its looking good! just needs some grass and maybe a little ballast