With the 2.5 (or is it 3) layouts that I now have I have noticed a considerable difference in how each is operated. If anything, this makes oeprating the layouts even more enjoyable as there is a different emphasis on each one.

The CSFT layout has the feel of a busy outer suburban industrial railroad with lots of interchanging trains arriving and departing with foreign motive power, and lots of local switch jobs and yard work. Actually, the yard work can really be quite time consuming, especially with some of the train sheets I use to dictate which trains run for an oeprating session. An operating session on the CSFT can take 3 or more hours and be quite intense especially when there are multiple operators.

Chatham feels quite different. It has only 2 railroad companies serving it - Chessie / C&O and Canadian Pacific, and feels much more like a semi rural branch line. It also requires a fair bit of forward thinking to be able to switch the various industries, which makes it quite a switching puzzle, somewhat akin the the South Forest branch I had on the CSFT before we moved to the town we currently live in. The maximum number of trains that can be run on Chatham for an operating session is 2, with there mostly being just 1. A full operating session takes around 45 minutes, even for that one train.

Illinook, while the smallest of the layouts certainly adds a feeling of distance to operations on the CSFT as it is attached to the CSFT most of the time. But to operate it by itself can take more than 30 minutes, and as much as an hour, to complete the swapping of cars that could be done.

While operation is the emphasis, the scenery is also quite different on each layout as well. The CSFT scenery is very much centered on the railroad itself. Whereas the scenery on Chatham and Illinook emphasises more the way the railroad interacts with the scenery.

All of this variety has put a question in my mind - Which type of layout style do I prefer? I guess the answer to that question is not yet clear and may never be. But one this is certain - having the layouts that I do certainly adds extra operating variety and that is definitely a good thing!