Although almost all of my photographic time is spent trackside, I do have a model railroad.  It is HO scale and located in my bedroom.  In all there are around 130 feet of track built on a 9x5 foot board.   Below is a track layout showing the lower and upper levels.  My dad and I designed and built it several summers ago but we haven't found the time to landscape it yet.  Currently we are using the Kadee couplers with several magnets to help with the switching in the yards.  All switches are automatic and controlled remotely from the control panel (which is pictured below).  As for the power we have separated the lower loop into two blocks and the upper loop into four blocks.  Each block can be powered either with controller 1 or 2 or no power.  Then we have a block for each siding and another one for each yard main.  In addition we have a toggle switch that you can flip to change direction of power to that track.  This was mainly done because we have a reverse loop where you can get the train turned around going the opposite direction.  And I guess that pretty well sums up what we have done currently.

Roster shots of some of my locomotives and cars.

Action shots of some of my locomotives and cars.

Miscellaneous shots of some of my locomotives and cars.

The lower level with the board outline.  The two main tracks that look like they dead end are the loop tracks going up to the upper level.

This is the upper level with the board outline.  The two tracks that look like they dead end are the loop tracks heading down to the lower level.

Switches from left to right:

Top row, first two switches control the locomotive service tracks.   Next one is a spur track to a future mine.  Next is to the passenger spur in town, and then the last one is for the future N scale mine.

Second row, first and sixth ones are to the entrance/exits of the top yard.  All the ones in between are to the different yard tracks.  Then the two way over on the right are to the crossover between the outside and inside loops.

Third row, first and seventh are to the entrance/exits of the main yard.   The five in between are to the yard tracks.  Then the first two over on the right are to the main crossover between the inside and outside main loop tracks.  The third one on the right goes to the crossover between the inside loop tracks which reverses the direction of the train. 

All of the other little toggle switches either control the direction of power or whether or not it is powered.  They all correspond to the different tracks except for the set of four and set of eight in the bottom center.  These control the mainline blocks.  And then the black switch is a master power switch.

The wiring to all of the different switches on the control panel.

A look at the banks of wires.  This makes it easy so that if it ever needs to be moved you can take out the bottom ones of all of them and that goes with the board.  The top ones stay with the control stand.

This is a relay switch to change the light colors for the signal bridge.   It changes depending on the direction of power.