I've been reading John Armstrong's Track Planning for Realistic Operation which has been touted as the reference for track planning. There was no way for me to adhere to every tenant of track planning presented here, but it certainly influenced me as I began making sketches on graph paper. At the same time, I reviewed dozens of track plans for spaces similar to what I had to work with. I was looking for a balance of light operations with a few industries and the ability to run a train in a continuous loop. Given the space I had to work with, it felt like a puzzle to arrange a nice continuous loop beyond the simple oval and provide wide enough aisles to walk in and around. I was certainly following Armstrong's advice: "If squeezing as aisle down ... will get you ... a long main line, by all means squeeze it!"
