Hi MHS:
Using Marty W.’s last post as a base, try these ideas out and see how they work. In the lower left corner, continue the outer loop curve through another 45-degrees and cross it over the inner track following Marty’s two-track siding. Reduce the elevation as you go and connect it to the track under your upper right mountain. Of course, this means you also would not do the two track siding in this location. Move your mountain in the lower right corner to the NW to support this realigned track. Connect this mountain to the one in the lower left and the one in the upper right creating a “range” with a three sided valley for the yard. Now you have a rugged backdrop for your yard operations and a flat area in the lower right corner for your houses, village, etc. You could also put an industry there so you can do some point to point operations until you get the expansions completed.
Running some track through the center gets you out of the “all my main lines are parallel to an edge” syndrome. Also, splitting the layout diagonally with something that has height will allow you to visually “isolate” one area from the other creating a feeling of distance between the two areas. I think it is ITBGF who is creating a divider on her layout to accomplish just such a transition and another member is creating a module for use at train shows with a vertical partition down the middle, so they can have completely separate scenes on each side.
Regards,
Ted