I think the first thing that should be looked at is standardising everything. Is it one board per person, if so all boards need to be the same size. Track code 100 or 75. Operating system DC or DCC. Catenary is available from Dapol in 00, it won't be prototypically correct but is passable. The inner city stations like Connolly, Tara Street, Pearse, are overground. I think it would be good to keep it on the one level and south of the river. Platform length's at the Stations on the sea front, Booterstown, Blackrock, will take up a couple of boards. If two different people are doing Blackrock it will need to be seamless when boards are joined as the platfroms will need to be identical on both boards.
Coastal railways are really good to look at. If I wanted to catch some Dart trains on camera myself I would rather be standing at a seafront Station as opposed to Killester, or Harmonstown. Dun Laoghaire is below street level and although it would make a beautiful layout it would be wrong for this kind of setup. Trains need to be able to arrive on scene and move on to the non scenic boards as an end to end type of setup or a rectangular, oval setup. The size of something like this needs to be looked at also when looking for somewhere to exhibit it. Draw up some plans, look at what will be the most suitable for everyone involved.
Dave produces fantastic baseboards from the pictures I have seen. Eoin of course has his fantastic Dart models. We also have folk that are qualified in engineering and architecture, get them on board. Last but not least there are some fantastic modellers on here. If it is done right and kept simple it will work better and achieve the right result.
It is a wonderful idea and it would be something to see in operation. I have no doubt it could be pulled off.
Rich,