I'm not familiar with the Turttle Creek, but I picked up the Feb. issue of MR yesterday. It came with a supplement featuring 8 small layouts. Layouts 6,7, & 8 showed an excellent idea for future expansion. It starts as a 4 x8 with a backdrop in the middle. That allows two unrelated scenes. Later you could remove the two "turnback curves" on either end, cut the 4x8 in haLf lengthwise, and make the layout a point to point 2 x16 shelf layout, or by using a 2 x 2 foot corner piece it makes a 2 x 10 x 10 L shaped layout. I think it is an excellent concept to think about as you build a 4 x 8 that you might want to move into a train room in a different configuration in the future. The other thing to keep in mind with a 4 x 8 layout is that you need 2 feet of space around it on all sides to be able to access all of the track to rerail cars, etc. That requires a minimum room size of 8 x 12. You can "cheat" a little by putting the bench work on castors so tha you can roll it out if you need access to the back. If you can't move a 4 x 8 in and out of a room, build it as 2 4 x 4's and the cut some 2 inch joiner tracks to bridge the connection between the 2 halves. You can put the frames together with screws, and put hardshell scenery accross the joint. If the time comes to move it out, pull out the joiner tracks, remove the screws, and cut through the scenery. I guess this is kind of long, I hope it has some ideas you can use.
