Beyond a spark - track planning

My initial thoughts for a layout were based around whether a reasonable representation of Wassen could be built on a door-sized piece of real estate. Obviously this would have to be done in Z scale (or smaller!) to work, and given the size constraint, serious compromises would have to be made to realise this without looking too toylike -  one of my issues with Z scale layouts I've seen in briefcases, guitar cases and pizza boxes. 

The plus of sticking to this size is that it would be a one-piece layout (module track joins between multiple tracks at different levels sounds like a recipe for disaster) which would be fairly portable and could potentially fit in a station wagon or van.

Downsides of Z scale itself are that there's only limited models available (no Re 6/6 and no modern container wagons for example), and having never really done anything in the scale before, I imagine its daunting working in such a small scale with its fiddly details and need for super smooth track work to prevent future problems.

So one could do N or one could upscale the layout size, but then the portability would be lost. So lets see what could fit onto a door in Z.

The real Wassen looks like this:

A pure, scaled-down Wassen would be more than 10 metres long so as with all semi-prototypical modeling, selective compression comes into play. The 'signature scenes' I’d like to include would be…

• Wattinger Curve and bridge
• The big Middle Meienreuss bridge with third level bridge behind
• Wassen Church and a smattering of Wassen village
• The ‘Command Post’ on the upper level
• The ‘other’ upper Wattinger bridge could easily be included
• The curved approach to the Muhle tunnel might be possible too.

Although the A2 Motorway is a large visual component cutting through the real scene, in my fantasy Wassen I feel it would dominate such a small layout and take up too much space so will be excluded/merged with the local road.

My rough concept mocked up in trackplanning software (badly, and of course for a layout plan, over-optimistically) is thus:

Basically three levels of double-track are linked by hidden spirals to gain additional height for increased visual separation of the levels. 

An uphill train would emerge at the Muhle tunnel traveling ‘left', where the track comes out of hiding, curves under the Wassen church, runs alongside the Reuss river to the Wattinger curve and bridges, re-emerges heading ‘right' on the middle level to cross the big bridge, curves into the tunnel there, re-emerges facing ‘left’ briefly between tunnels in the background to cross the upper bridge, then pass the command post on the upper level before vanishing for good.

Then the track has to get back down to ground zero to start again…. Somehow…!

p.s.  I've probably mis-spelled all the locations and obviously mis-pronounce them too. Apologies!