That is a good question.......And I guess my reply is out of context...but here goes anyways
You see, I do not believe size matter that much. I started pretty small and did not use all the space available to me, and still don’t. The “layout room” is roughly 31 X 12 and the layout is now taking about 75-80% of that space. What matters, in my humble opinion, is (a) the quality of the track works (2) the level and quality of scenery (3) the level of details, and most importantly (4)
what makes you happy.
You learn a great deal as you go along. Your first layout will not be the last. Eventually you will want to re-do some part of it due to the above reasons. This winter I will start a new layout and teardown the current one, since I have seen and experienced what works and what doesn’t.
Of course the next one will be better
and I will pay more attention to “prototype practices”. I did not pay much attention to this in the first place. I started with a” fantasy RR” and then moved into “freelance”, followed by the current one which is “protolance”. Most likely my next one will be more “prototype oriented” but I will still keep my freelance short line (SL&C)
… because it gives me a bit more flexibility
Enjoy this great hobby.