All of the following is simply philosophical meanderings!
My HO layout is a mountain line. It was built free lanced. Once I got interested in a specific Railroad, I fit what I had built into the Northern Pacific's Butte Shortline. My railroad runs from Logan Montana, through Butte and on to Garrison Montana. I was O.K. with the fact that nothing on the layout specifically matched anything on the Butte Shortline. I figured, it's a model railroad, even if I had specifically modeled it after the N.P.'s Butte Shortline, there would need to be compromises, therefore since all model railroads live with compromise, any new layout I would build would need to live with compromise, also.
I've heard of Narrow Gauge in 3 foot and 2 foot gauges. I think that Toot mentioned that in New Zealand, at least, there were NG 30" gauge. Was NG 30" ever used here in the U.S. I've not heard of 30" gauge; or 21/2 foot gauge, in Colorado. But, then, I'm not really up on what gauges was used and where.
Were I to start over, I would like to model scenes that actually existed with selective compression, of course. There is a thread going on right now in General Discussions on how the hobby has changed. A problem for me is the fact that the vast majority of the market has completely lost interest in the "building models" aspect of the hobby. HO, which used to be the "Modelers Scale" is becoming just another toy train scale, not on like Tin Plate, although much more highly detailed. This loss of interest in the 'Building Aspect" is over flowing into the other scales, sort of excepting Sn3. And even P-B-L, a major proponent of Sn3, makes Ready to Run cars for Sn3!
With my HO layout, I likely have more freight cars than I need. Occasionally I attempt to sell off some of what I feel is overstock. I sell them on Ebay and really can't get what they are worth. However, Ebay is chalk-a-block with HO Rolling Stock and much of it over priced; so, my guess is that is why stuff doesn't sell to well on Ebay, anymore!
Simply put, I am in a quagmire! The sensible tack to take, is to stick with my HO Layout. However, I don't like the direction HO is taking; but, I have all the rolling stock I need, so I can live with it. I don't like that my layout has a Duck-Under and that I did not provide for the eventuality of it's removal from my basement. It also is limited in it's ability to be run realistically! Were I to start over, I would not have any Duck-Unders and I would build the layout in removable sections, easy to remove from the basement. My favorite RR is the Rio Grande Southern and it is exceeding my interest in the Northern Pacific!
So in the above 6 paragraphs, I have outlined where I am stuck in the quagmire and how I got there. These are ramblings from someone dedicated to the hobby and I expect not unlike where everyone get's stuck. Not asking for help. I got here on my own and if I can come to a conclusion, that conclusion will be obtained on my own. Thanks for following along! Many times for me, if I can put my thoughts down on paper, it helps me figure things out!