I'm new to the hobby, and am gathering ideas for my 1st layout. Firstly, I live in Seattle but lived in the Boston area for 5 years. I would like to build a layout of an area in Mass, preferably with these characteristics:

- Circa 1948, thus with capability for steam & diesel, freight & passenger
- Small to mid-sized station, roughly in central Mass.
- Good variety of freight types
- A river and hills would be in the layout, perhaps also a pond or lake
- a small town with farms nearby

I'm thinking Hudson, MA. I had an ex-girlfriend who lived in Marlboro, and I've been to Hudson.

Any opinions out there?

Thanks!

Hudson, MA was on the Central Mass. Branch. This line would be ok if you want a small layout with small power. There were commuter trains and local freight on this line.
If you want to have a bigger variety, I suggest modeling Ayer, Mass. This is a major junction, but it is not too large to replicate. This way, you could have big mainline operations as well as branch lines too. Here you had the Fitchburg Main, The Worcester Nashua and Portland, the Stony Brook, and the Greenville Branch. You could have the Hill Yard, and local industry too.
There is one other consideration, which is the time period. Much of the larger steam engines were gone by this time. B&M started to buy main line diesels early. many of the Limas were sold to ATSF and SP. The first 3 sub classes of R! Mountains were gone too. If you want big steam, 1945 might be a good year. At this time you could have lots of troop trains from Ft. Devens. You will just have to decide whether you would like to have a bigger emphasis on steam or diesel.