They'll be talking about the area it meanders through.

Those huge layout rooms are ... interesting. There's been a discussion on the MRH forums (where I sometimes walk trembling amongst the gods) about whether the focus on huge layouts is turning kids and younger adults away from the hobby.

Not only because of the expense involved, but also the 'frustration' factor - if you set about trying to build something of that size there are high chances of getting stalled, or running out of ideas, or realising halfway through that all along there was a better way to do trees etc.

Even if I had the space, I don't think I'd want a layout larger than I could view from a nice comfy chair.

I'd probably consider doing a big room-filling layout if I had a wife and kids and they were all on board, mind. (This is purely theoretical, in several ways.) 

I have come to the conclusion in my old age that my own layout is way too big, and if I stare at myself honestly in the face, I'm starting to realise that it will probably never get finished.

There are also things which should have been done differently, and they jump out at me in a very annoying way to the point of frustration.

If I could pluck up the courage I sometimes think I should rip it all up and start a smaller more manageable layout.

Weired just like American Railroad fans call Solder Sodder, I always thought Sodder was something a bloke said when he had an argument with his Wife

After reading MRH for a couple pf years I came to realize that N Scale is almost non existent in their mag/

Yeah it's a shame about that, though Joe Fugate asked for more N submissions in his latest editorial and they cover new N releases in their new products section. I sort of don't mind though because it's free.

How many giant basement empires will ever get past the mostly being at the Plywood Central stage?
Even on some of the fine layouts featured  in MR, one notices most, if not all, the accompanying images are taken in one smallish area of the overall plan....

That isn't a criticism, the main purpose of the layouts is operation so PC works jsut as well as any other part

My Mother's cousin(s) of whom several live in Canada pointed out that large layouts were as much about the winter weather as the space a basement offered....