I agree with other posters on that site - The roundhouse is just as important as the locos. It would be a shame for the roundhouse and turntable to go.

Resolutions:
1. Work on getting my wife to let me keep the Christmas layout in the living for another year.
2. Get the lights working in my LS combine. After I installed the roller bearing wheel sets with pickups, they didn't work. I also installed some rear marker lights on it and they didn't work either. I might have crossed a wire somewhere. I passengerized it with Christmas figures.
3. Passengerize my On30 passenger car.
4. Get another Lionel O-27 horse car (the flat, not the box type car).
5. Maybe expand a little and make an "L" shaped Christmas layout. That will require some serious negotiation with Mrs. Claus. (See RES. 1)
6. Put reversing trolley trackage on the upper section of the Christmas layout.
7. Get a haircut. My hair is now down to butt-crack length and I'm going to donate it to "Locks of Love".

The best present for me was seeing the joy and happiness in the eyes of my children and grandchildren. I'm thankful we were able to make Christmas good for them.
Aside from that, I got the new Eagles CD - Long Road Out of Eden and some shorts and pants.
My daughter and granddaughter made us a swamp of home made cookies. My son brought and made the whole Christmas dinner.
And there were no sibling spats as sometimes happens during holiday get-togethers.

jaellis -
For doing yards/towns with EZ Track, I use pieces of 1/4" foam board from Woodland Scenics in 2 layers. That makes it about the right height.
Lay one layer butted up against the road bed. Then lay the second layer over it,
With the second layer, you can butt it up even closer because of the taper of the roadbed.
Then sand off the sharp edge of the top layer to blend it in or fill the gap with putty.
Or the gaps could be drainage ditches.
To transition from rural to yard, taper the ends of the 2 layers of foam and you can try to hide the transition part with scenery or a bridge or something.
In this pic, I didn't have the gaps between the foam and roadbed filled yet, but you can see how the height works out.

Sorry for the confusion.
The way I glue it down is to dribble the white glue over it once I have it set in place.
I don't "paint" the area underneath with glue. You can do that.
I don't do it because I change my mind a lot with track plans and it's easier to pull up with a little glue than a lot of glue. I don't think I'll ever do a "permanent" layout.

An added benefit is that you can pull it up and reuse it if you change your mind about you layout plan. Ever try to pull up and reuse glued down cork?
I just use diluted white glue and dribble it over the liner when I have it in place.
When it's dry, I lay the track and put a dab of white glue along the edges of the plastic roadbed every 6 to 8 inches or so.

The best thing I've found is to use the rubberized shelf liner with the little holes in it. It's made of PVC vinyl. You can get it in various colors at Walmart or Lowe's.

Glue that down to your base then glue the track to it.
It works great and it's pretty cheap for a big role. 5 bucks for a 1 foot x 14 foot role.
Here, you can see it when I was building my Christmas layout -

Playing with trains as a job is a holiday

For younger kids, I'd stick with Lionel. The set I got for Christmas in '58, I still have. The loco is still going strong.
I am a big time Bachmann fan, but, as previously mentioned, they have a lot of small detail parts. This is great for older kids and adults who can appreciate the detail. Younger folks just want to run them fast and furious.
Maybe Bachmann's Thomas line would be good for younger kids.

OK... I'm a dummy here.
What does "have no truck" mean?

You can use 8 three inch pieces to replace the 4 six inch pieces.

You'll probably hear from people on both sides of the fence on this one. I guess it depends on how finicky you are.
I like EZ track. For me, it's much easier to plan layouts because I do it as I go rather than sit down and draw up a plan. The locks on the ends allow this.
I sit down and try layout ideas on the floor.
I'm one of those who doesn't want to spend hours making my own bed.
On the other hand, you have more flexibility with flex track

Great job on the church Kyle!

Robin,
Thanks for the info. We used to do some our training operations out of El Toro.

Is that the former "Western White House" in San Clemente?
When I was at Camp Pendleton, we used to get our weekend liberty canceled some times.
When there was word of a demonstration to take place there, they would load us up on 6-bys and truck us under the highway to the WWH on the other side.
We'd have to spend the weekend over there, prepared to do riot control.