I want to take a few moments and recognize the resurrection of Bob Smaus' Los Angeles layout here.  I have a few personal mentors out there who have kept me focused and inspired me and then there are those trail blazers who I have never met, but are no less influential or inspirational.  Bob is one of them.  As a wanna be Gardner I used to watch him on the PBS series Victory Garden from time to time, but didn't know his modeling sideline.  Smaus Main Page  Bob did a great job of capturing the flavor of the Los Angeles experience and wrote a good many articles over the year illustrating the how's and why's.  I had dreams of building his home layout in Z someday...that may still happen if I ever get a chance to put down some roots.  I really like the flow of the thing and with the advent of more track components in the scale, it is possible to do a nice rendering of it. Rebuilt Layout

I'm still torn between Bruce Petty's PE Orphan Branch layout plan and developing one that represents the Southern Wing of the PE down to Venice Beach. 

What's not to love about a couple trolley equipped S4's and SW1's pulling a string of tank cars down an avenue like this??

Too many options theses days...damn you Internets! :o)   What ever direction I go in or scale...I think a big chunk of what Bob gave the modeling community and me, will be evident in it.  Now that he has moved up here in the moist part of the Pacific Northwest, hopefully I can drop by someday and see this magnnum opus for myself.