Are there any rental layouts that try to use a more linear approach? Every one of these layouts I've seen seems to try to cram as much track as they can into their space without trying to make the experience realistic. it's just runnung trains round and round. Have John Armstrong's books never been translated into Japanese? It's like these Japanese rental layouts are stuck in the 1930's for the most part. I can understand it for home layouts with the severe restrictions placed on them, but you would think that the kind of space that this layout has would be an opportunity to be creative.
How many spurs and little industry shunts are there on a modern Japanese railway?
Most of the urban-suburban Japanese populace is used to fully double-tracked rail lines that always go to the same place. None of this crazy ad-hoc "you never know which platform it'll be on" stuff like at, say, NY Penn or PHL 30th lower level. Where there's operational interest it's mostly fast trains overtaking slow trains, e.g. the four-track stations on two-track Kansai lines.
