Here are some pics of my layout. The pic above is one of the HO survivors of John Allen's layout. One (I believe) was destroyed in a fire.
I used 40' scale length for my cars. This is run with MTH DCS. The track is GarGraves w/ manual GarGraves switches. There are also GarGraves uncouplers on each siding. I did not include the "Switch to Nowhere" I mentioned above. It is on my to-do list. I did add 5 rail track for a Lionel Gantry Crane just to add some play-interest.