>>11194136Can you fit a door-sized layout in your room? Building on a hollow core door is plenty for N scale. You can even get a half-decent layout in 2'x4', with two loops, a loop and a figure 8, or a loop and a yard. Go all-out on the details and you could easily work on it for a couple of years.
I've been thinking about modeling Southern Pacific and Western Pacific through Niles Canyon in Fremont, CA, modeling a couple of the bridges. In 2'x4' this is the best approximation I can come up with.