With a move on the horizon we've been getting our home ready for the past few months. However, before that happened I was actively building a Seaboard Air Line O Scale 2-Rail layout depicting Florida in the upstairs portion of our home. I had designed it so I could also change eras and it could be Santa Fe or Southern Pacific in Southern California as well.
As I've been very industrious throughout my life and I designed the railroad as a large dog bone going down a hallway, through closet, three bedrooms, and across the top of the stairs yet also giving the feeling that you were going somewhere etc. It was pretty laborious engineering going through walls to make everything look good, though I don't think I will do that again. In fact one span across a guest bedroom was designed to fold up if we had overnight guests and it worked very well in a couple of tests.
I also had a Southern Railway switching layout under the loop in one bedroom, but didn't get very far. And yes, even below that I had a protolanced Florida East Coast in the 1960s (the prototype was destroyed by a hurricane in the early 1930s) in Key West, which did not get very far along either.
For futures I will definitely go the linear route as I love walking with my train and popping in and out of bedrooms would not have satisfied me long term. Not to mention guests who were trying to sleep with a 16 car 3 E unit consist of Seaboard's Silver Meteor blasting through in a fury!
Happy Railroading!
