New year, new inspiration... or, ten pounds of layout in a five pound basement.

Hmmm... double deck? Originally I wanted to avoid that, but I'm coming to the realization that I will not be able to fit everything I want in this space without it.

Here's another idea for the Piney Creek branch and mainline west of Prince.

I seem to recall a layout design concept called the "nolix". It's a helix that isn't a helix. Take a helix and stretch it out straight. In this case, the mainlines west of Prince (top right) disappear into Stretcher's Neck tunnel and don't reappear to the operator (except for operator confidence viewing / access) until it winds around this corner, under Raleigh, and pops out of the scenery near Thurmond (off this drawing to the lower right). In that distance, I figure I can descend a good 3-5 inches with only a 1% grade. The branch may have a steeper grade ascending (and may yet have a helix somewhere) to give true double deck separation.

This "nolix" results in narrower benchwork at the Piney Creek branch crossing of the New River, as seen at the top center compared to the drawing in the previous post. Also reduces mainline grades and simplifies construction.