One train table ain't enough

Curtis, you have your work cut out for you. Enjoy. I agree with Healey, never to many.

Tough one, Curtis. I have my 10 x 13 O layout, a box of Standard Gauge that's good for a 4 x 8 loop with a siding, but I did donate my HO and N leftovers to our local club. There's some REA G scale hiding somewhere plus some American Flyer S gauge and some pre-war O tinplate, plus my boyhood Hornby clockwork set. So, there are plenty seeds for layouts, but I just have one actually running......so far... 

An old local hobby-shop owner had a 5 x 10 Lionel Super O store display layout. One of our club guys couldn't stand to see it scrapped - it's stored in his garage, and he's an N-scale modular builder! We talk about it once in a while, but the hernia factor frequently comes up. 

Dave

  How does that old song go...

   Too many layouts 
    What's that mean?
   It's like too many trains
   There's no such thing.

 or, to paraphrase an old saying - layouts will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no layouts!
    

How many layouts are too much? Well, IME you need at least two -- one to test out new ideas, and another to actually implement those ideas on at least a semi-permanent basis -- so I guess the short answer is, "Something more than two." 

In my case, a few years ago I built a new, somewhat larger (8'  8') permanent layout to replace the somewhat smaller (5' X5-1/2'), three decades old, formerly around-the-tree layout I'd resurrected a few years before when I decided to create an around-the-year layout. Initially, I mothballed the old layout as surplus, but it wasn't long before I got the itch to experiment with projects and techniques that would not fit easily or conveniently on my main layout. So, I once again resurrected the smaller layout, on which I have been able to create temporary or experimental configurations, in some cases to explore new ideas or perfect a design for the main layout, and some on a deliberately short-term basis to provide a home to items that simply won't fit on the main layout. Here's a few examples:

I got the bug to recreate the old Marx "Twin Trains" set, which ran two consists on one conventional control figure-8 track, controlled by a relay embedded in a signal. The test bed gave me a place to test and prove my take on the concept:

   

Similarly, I wanted to put together a trolley stop emulation, and was able to do so on basically the same track configuration I'd thrown together for the "Twin Trains" project:



Then, I tried to make my own version of a multi-color pattern changing holiday 'snow'-covered layout:



Then, I experimented with running twin trolleys on a single loop, which I later implemented on the main layout:

 

I also installed an MTH operating McDonalds which was too large to find a home on the main layout (at least, so far!). It has since been relocated to the workbench, as I've experimented with various upgrades:



Since then, I completely stripped the track, holiday lights and snow from the test layout, replacing them with some larger-radius track around the perimeter, which I needed to accommodate my newly acquired GG-1:



Then, I added and wired an old Marx turnout to create an interior siding, on which I installed and wired an old electric uncoupler, and also installed two sound activation buttons to activate the bell and horn features on the GG-1.

So, even while modelling in a single scale, there's a distinct advantage to having at least one separate layout, one that can be easily stripped down and reconfigured without endangering carefully constructed landscaping and scenarios or mucking up features and capabilities that took a lot of effort to create in the first place on the main layout! 

I look at my layout and the trains up on the shelves and a lot of memories of folks flood back. I've been lucky to have so many train mates over the years. If I was smart, I'd write it all down someday for the next guy.

Technically I have 2 train tables.  One on top of the other.