At the foot of the stairs…

Sits the layout. Such as it is right now. It’s there so I see it every time I head to the basement. This is a vital part of the layout planning. Do I get that “WOW” feeling when I look at it. If the layout impresses me every time I see it then it must be pretty close to being OK. And it does. Big boxcars in front of a big structure. How could you not be impressed?

Still impressed with the look.

Next thing is to look into the scene a little closer. Clearances. The loading gauge and such like. These things will dictate the depth of the baseboard. Right now, everything is laid on a baseboard 9” in depth. Though everything fits on the baseboard, depth wise. The baseboard could be deeper. The track comes to the very edge of the baseboard. That's always a no-no.  I’m thinking I should be adding another two inches. 

Checking and measuring. The track comes right to the edge of the baseboard.
Not good. 

That would make the baseboard 11 inches deep. That's still well under the four square feet micro layout limit. The extra depth can be used to make better use of the offstage exits. Starting with the left exit.

I mocked up a short section of structure for left hand side. Where it is placed has a huge effect on the feel of the area. As you can see from these photographs.

This is actually a quite brave positioning of the building.
With minimum separation between the structures things feel cramped

Moving things further apart improves the visual effect.
It already starts to feel less claustrophobic

The bigger the apparent gap is the more open things look.
I don't want to go much further or the offstage exit will come into view

I think that's the left hand exit sorted. Now I need to think about the right hand side. I'm inclined to go with some greenery. That will contrast nicely with the structures on the layout.