>>1543263Chicken or egg question. You should think about what you want to model: for instance a midwestern branch line would have single track with small towns, grain elevators, farms, prairie, etc. So not a lot of track and scenery that’s kind of low key. If it’s Colorado Rockies you’d still have single track but with dramatic bridges and tunnels, no big cities, and crazy mountainous scenery.
Then judging from the image you posted, you like heavy northeastern mainline stuff, so multitrack lines running through dense urban scenery. Rather than building up the Rockies or making a million trees for some midwestern pastoral scene, your scenery would be factories, warehouses, working class dwellings, monumental passenger stations etc.
Design is a holistic thing. Another thing to consider is if you want to just watch trains run or do switching and operation. Kick back and watch New Haven passenger trains roar by, or switch freight cars around some grimy industrial city?
There’s planning books and sites out there. It’s good to take some time and not build something huge that you regret. You can get your feet wet by building a small section and expand.
