Guys, at this point, I'm gonna let RD run with things as he wants. He now has a fairly solid proof-of-concept plan to work with going forward, and there's so much we just don't know in terms of room specifics and his personal preferences.
I think the original plan was designed to have the side of the layout with the passenger station and hidden yard beneath be anchored to a wall. If that can be done with this plan, that would be IDEAL. But again, we have no knowledge of RD's preferences, nor are we familiar with any of the nuances of the room. I think I recall RD saying the entire room is "open" (i.e., no support columns). But whether he intends to have the entire layout in the center of the room vs. anchored to a wall is gonna be his call.
Anchoring the layout to a wall will have the added benefit of incorporating a backdrop that can draw the viewers into the whole scene. And the 2-foot wide yard areas would be ideal for this... then have the larger/wider portion of the layout be where the walk-around capabilities come into play.
As for RR-Track philosophies, I actually do prefer using absolute track heights in my own designs. But this was essentially a proof-of-concept goal, hence the discussion about ZERO elevation and points above and below that. Now that RD has the plan, he can pretty much run with his own preferences of actual layout height, and RR-Track makes it very straightforward to "lift" the layout in this case to RD's preferences.
David
