While focusing on a project I've been working on for the last five months or so, I figured that I would start a new thread on here for narrow gauge: (009, HOe, HOn30, HO 2 1/2, all the same thing) only this would consist of projects/layouts as well as further discussion of where Bachmann's narrow gauge range will potentially go from here, similar to the Large Scale Thomas thread posted by Large Scale Champion.
Ever since this range started, the sales for Skarloey went above and beyond the roof, selling out in less than a month in Bachmann warehouses. It's pretty clear that this range will not be slowing down anytime soon and Rheneas will be no different with sales. I am sure the range will continue to grow from there with other characters in future years such as Sir Handel, Peter Sam, Rusty, and Duncan just to name a few.
Now, I have something I would like to share with everyone, which is my 009 mining railroad that I have been doing over at my model railroad club. It is far from over as there is a lot more work that needs to be done. I hope you will enjoy the pictures that I am about to provide and that everyone will stick around for when I post updates.

This is what the mountain started as at first, a rather... basic design that was hardly touched. The bottom you could see an HOn3 line that never even got finished or had track laid, whereas the top was a dual gauge (HO and HOn3) track that hasn't been used compared to our main HO lines. It was pretty lifeless, and visitors at our shows always kept asking why we have never used it. The original plan was to just stick with HOn3 at the bottom and dual gauge on top, like the original, while redoing the mountain. However last year, after convincing a few other members (due to Skarloey's announcement) we are doing a track in the middle of the mountain for 009 making it possible to run Skarloey and other 009 models in the club.
Now here are some photos showing the mountain as of recent:

We have already started work on the mine. Each of the different tunnels you see within the mine are empty mine shafts. These will contain some stationary track and wagons in each shaft, while locomotives can travel alongside the main track.

There is a siding in the mine where we plan on leaving some mining cars with some decoration such as gold or jewelry. We may even create a scene involving mineworkers in there too.

Out in the open you can see that there's a second section of track that we plan on adding in the future, this will be used for loading and unloading different loads during our club operation nights.

This will be the other tunnel on the layout that the engines will be coming out of after traveling through the mine. We also get a nice view of the waterfall from here as a bonus.

We also have a staging yard. This is where we will be setting our trains, prior to our shows as well as where we will start our clubs operations. The staging yard leads directly to the mine.

As an added bonus for you guys, here are pictures from our Easter show. We decided to wire the tracks temporarily so we can run Skarloey in our show to show visitors and our loyal fans a sneak peek of what was to come.

The responses were amazing, I was amazed when parents told me that they were familiar with the Skarloey characters and even mentioned that they read the RWS (they called them the "old stories") involving the Skarloey engines. Another kid even mentioned Duke of all characters when he was talking about narrow gauge, speaks for itself really.
Even though I am still working on my own HO layout, this is a pretty good alternative for now for my own 009 set up as I am in charge of this specific project in my club. We still have a long way to go, but in the end we all know it will be worth it.

Feel free to leave feedback, otherwise I would love to see other 009 projects/layouts that people have been planning on here. This will also be a place where we can talk about future products for the Skarloey range, so if anyone has ideas or suggestions for this they would like to share they are more than welcome to do so.
Happy modeling!