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I know there have been quite a few threads covering this topic but I never really got a full answer after looking through all of them. This is the first section of the layout I'm getting to so I want to get it right and then slowly branch out to rest of layout. Any help is greatly appreciated...

I've gotten the "wife approval" to take over half my basement ! I'm looking at a long-term project (years) but would like something basic up and running in shorter time so I can have a continous run while I work on the rest. I've got about 18 feet x 10 feet (HO scale) to work with, but I want...