This is a terrific space to really put a nice layout. Your use of a folded dog bone inside an oval always makes for a good balance of Operations’s excitement and scenery space. A few questions and some confirmations to help me understand what you are looking for:
The bottom of the drawing, and the left of the drawing are the hard walls.
You want the layout to be a walk around plus a inside area for access.
I know you say you don’t plan to run big equipment, but do you want to see if we could push this to 72 minimum on the main lines, just in case you change your mind?
can you explain why you chose the shape of the benchwork - are there obstacles that need to be considered?
Do you plan to operate the layout from inside the access area or from the outside?
is there a viewing area for guests? What do you want them to focus on?
how many trains do you want to run simultaneously?
do you want to do any switching?
Current footprint of the layout is 18 x 13. Can you go to 18 x 16 to get to O72?
There are three layouts in the magazine you should check out for inspiration:
run157, February 1998, page 72
run 173 June 2000 page 100
run 208, June 2005, page 76
Also this layout from Ken-oscale is a fit for your space.
