UPDATE: after taking a small break and reconsidering what and how I place things, I finally have (another) design I like. I'll insert a picture here, but to see more details go to this reply.
Original post:
Hello all,
I have just purchased and moved into my first home earlier this month. Even before making an offer on the house though, I was daydreaming about my first true, permanent layout and mocking up designs in SCARM. I have gone through many dozens of iterations - some only slightly different from the one before, some incomplete ideas I abandoned, etc. Earlier in the summer I had posted about one design I had (here) but it had a number of flaws that needed revisiting, and I ended up stepping away from everything to focus on the closing, packing, and all the joys of moving.
Now that I am moved in and settling down, I have tried to return to designing the layout but I keep getting frustrated that I can't figure out the "perfect" layout and I keep walking away, only to come back again later and rinse and repeat. Things like continued unpacking and getting acquainted with homeowner responsibilities certainly aren't helping my creative juices, but I want to try to get a design put together, start figuring out benchwork, and moving forward with building the layout. There is a small part of me that is for some reason afraid that if I stop now I will not pick up the reins again for a long time, which I don't want, but at the same time I also feel that I may benefit from letting go for a little more.
Another aspect that is certainly contributing to my frustration is that I cannot seem to fit in everything I want on the layout, and every time I have another idea I run into issues in SCARM (I have not yet mentally grasped how much space the larger curves need!). After living in the home for a bit I want to shrink the layout footprint to about a 10x25 basement space (smaller than what is linked above - three sides are against a wall, the fourth is open to the rest of the basement), and I'd like the layout to have 3 levels (one storage, two for operating/running), with a double-track main for loop running on the upper level, a single-track branch with its own reverse loop on the second level, a small town/village with industries for switching on the branch line, a coal mine, roundhouse, turntable, a sizable single-ladder yard complete with yard lead, bare-minimum O72 everywhere (larger on the mainline), and a lift bridge or section for accessing the interior of the layout. It feels too cramped to put all that into the space in SCARM, but walking around in the basement it feels like there is plenty of space to fit everything. I'll attach a screenshot of one of my designs to give a loose idea of how I have been approaching things.
What should I do? Should I go ahead and take a break and come back to it later? Am I trying to squeeze way too much into the space? I am also curious if anyone else has encounted layout design fatigue and how you overcame it.
Thanks and God bless.
