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Hi Tom

If you are looking for a small switching layout plan there are hundreds if not thousands to choose from. You didn't say how large a space you want to fill.

The easiest way to go is to find a prototype track drawing at a small location and simply copy it. That's what Tony Koester calls a Layout Design Element. In my case, the small end-of-branch at Port Dover, Ontario appealed to me. See below. It ended at the Lake Erie shoreline and had only six turnouts. For space considerations, I combined the fish plant and coal dealer spurs into one. What you see below was removable from my layout and travelled thousands of miles to dozens of train shows.? For all of it's simplicity, switching a train could take a half hour or more. Especially if done at prototypical speeds and using prototypical practices.?

Two good websites to check out are those of Lance Mindheim () and Carl Arendt ().

Lance has written numerous articles about prototypically operating deceptively simple track layouts based on actual locations. His modelling and photography are superb.

I'm a big fan of tiny layouts and the late Carl Arendt built a massive website for micro and mini layouts. Even if you are not pressed for room, the problem-solving ideas in these clever plans are transferable to larger spaces.

Cheers

Jim Martin.?

p.s. I too always had a hankering to build the Gumstump and Snowshoe.