I attended the train show in Greenville SC several weeks ago.  It was a great show and I learned a lot. I attended a couple of great seminars and had some great discussions afterwards about signaling and block detection.  I realized that I did not have enough blocks and all of the turnouts needed to be isolated.  This caused a redesign of the existing track but I was able to leave the bed in place just change out certain track segments.

I also learned some important parts about have to plan events with the model railroad to make it interesting and for that to work better I needed several side passing spurs at the top and bottom of my main loop.  This would allow me to run trains from place to place and then do something with the trains.  While my layout is small and the passing spurs will not be large it will still make for an interesting layout.

This required me to add 2 passing spurs to the top of my loop and 3 passing spurs to the bottom.  I was again able to do this using all of my existing track just adding turnouts and additional track as well.

So while I thought I was done laying track I still have some more to lay.  It will be better to do it now and get it all wired in before I add the landscaping and other additional items.

I have planned it all out, determined the track and electronics I will need and they all have been ordered.  Now just waiting for everything to arrive so I can complete the track.  At this point though I think I will wait and attend the National Train Show in Portland Oregon just to make sure my plan is sound and it will work.

Here is the picture of my current planned layout with the block signals, the turnouts, and the simple signals that I have planned.