So much thought can go into how much track we can lay and the joy of finally being able to model Pennsy's Horseshoe Curve or the Tiachappi Loop that we forget the practical issue of safety and the well being of our audience.
I hate to say it, Robin, but I've yet to find a single large layout built with more than one way out from it. Sadly, that way is usually quite awkwardly thought out at that. I went to one that had one aisle, two feet wide, that snaked to two different 90 degree angles before you got to the layout. It was in a brick garage with the garage door sealed shut to build a backdrop.
I guess I've had it so drilled into me that I rarely visit setups like that one a second time and never with my family. In the above case, simply putting a false wall for the backdrop in front of the garage door would have left a 16'x4' escape route under the layout and out the door. At the most, it would have only cost one foot of mainline on what is a pretty fair sized layout anyway.
Hope I don't look like that character "Fire Inspecter Bill" from the show "In Living Color". Being in the apartment business, I have to think like that alot. Thank you, Chris for bringing this up. :thumb: