Before most of us built our permanent or modular layout, I can safely say that we started with our first digital or analog train set on the floor. The first oval track and a few pieces of rolling stock. Some of us did not move above Ground Zero; hence, the term “carpet (or parquet or floor) railroading” applies to who run their trains on the ground. I think it is not a bad idea at all. In fact, you are not “constrained” by space. I have seen videos of tracks occupying every available floor space; there are lots of tracks and turnouts. The time taken to install and dismantle those tracks must have taken at least a few hours.

Last weekend, I took out my track pieces from my digital starter set 29074 and those additional pieces from my Timesaver and put together this configuration.

It was basically the oval track from the starter set but instead of a symmetrical oval, I gave it a twist. The sidings were useful as they allowed me to “park” my other locomotive and trains, while one was running on a single track.

This was the first time since the upgrade the Baureihe 53 0002 DRB got to make a full impressive run on the layout. It ran beautifully with Donnerbüchse (Thunderbox) passenger and freight manifest.

I am considering two expansion plans:

Plan A

• From single track, I will have make it double track; the inner track for east to west travel direction, the outer track west to east direction.
• The reverse loop in the middle allows train to turn around and make a eastward-bound travel on the inner track.
• The sidings are in the middle.

Plan B

• Same as Plan A but the sidings are on the south end – an Inglenook.

Let me know your thoughts about these two layout designs.