Clay (and sweetie
),
Thanks for the link.
How big is the actual space you have for the layout? If it is to be 4x10, you must have at least a 6x14 or 8x12 space (assuming 2 feet around minimum three sides for access). If not, you will be hard pressed to get around it during construction, and later during operation...
I think that you could do a lot more interesting things, including the track through town, by using an "around the walls" format.
If you need to stick with the 4x8 or 4x10 table, I suggest you look at
www.gatewaynmra.com for inspiration. While I do not recall any of their layouts using track right through the "middle of town", they have done some really good work. You also might want to consider a divider diagonally across the middle to create two distinct sides to the layout (in effect, two different locales).
If still want the track to cross the middle, you can do it with a figure-8 approach as suggested above, or you can put a reverse loop (or two) diagonally across the middle. This will require a bit of extra wiring and trackwork, but is really not complicated.
Hope that helps. Glad to hear you are in this together - my wife has her own hobbies and is not interested in railroading or trains at all
Andrew
