A3 layout challenge pt 3

I've been doing some more thinking about this at work today along 2 lines.
1) There needs to be a common end plate (duh!). The wide dimension should probably correspond to 21cm ( the width of an A4 sheet of paper). The track should enter or exit in the center of the end plate, which gives a center line of 10.5cm from either end. The depth of the end plate should be 10cm. While this might seem a bit deep, it gives the builder the option of building terrain both above and below the trackbed. I'd like some thoughts about this from the peanut gallery out there. It would be intended that the modules would be placed on a table top, and possibly have a support system at each end ( I need to draw some pictures of this as its not making alot of sense, but that just might be the homebrew beer).

2) Railfan magazine has started a regular feature on branchlines, which in my not so humble opinion is one of the more interesting bits of the magazines, especially the photo's included. Its just occurred to me tonight that there is no reason why the layout nees to be a loop. Adding in junctions raises the possibility of running a branchline off the main line to a terminus station, which is similar to what people have done in FREEMO layouts. http://www.westportterminal.de/meetings/JT2006braunlage.html

now I'm not suggesting that the more complex track layouts should be emulated, but some of the more simple ideas are worth looking at.