Reply to "Design a trackplan - not as easy as it looks!"

G3750 posted:

A basic question:  how big are your curves?  What types / sizes of locomotives and passenger equipment (if any) do you plan to run?  For many people, this question is the limiting one for layout design.

George

Aloha George - thanks for reply. 

I have acquired a range of gear over the years, the largest is a MTH Premier E8 ABA with matching passenger cars, Alaska RR livery.  I ran that once on 36" and yes it looks silly. 

After that I leaned towards smaller stuff, like RailKing, LionKing, Beeps, and starter sets from Lionel, MTH, and K-Line.  While I like larger radius, 31-36" should be okay for 90% of my gear.

I do plan on joining a few Model RR clubs with permanent or modular layouts for big trains and long runs.  We will be 35 minutes from Portland OE.

Thanks!
Alan