Excellent stuff as usual. I’d say he is filling John Armstrong’s shoe’s quite well. Great bunch of ideas and practical solutions for those of us stuck with the perimeter of a shared room.
I’d love to see him put out a book for large basement spaces.
I am in the design stages of my first shelf layout and found the book to be very helpful. Being relatively new to the field, it had a lot of good information on a variety of topics. The one thing I wish had been covered in more details was the “benchwork” options. There was quite a bit on the brackets and shelving but only one example of shelf in a sort of open benchwork. I would have prefered some suggestions on building shelves that could be sturdy enough to be portable so I could take them down easily to work on them at a lower height. Overall I definitely thought I got my money’s worth out of the book and that doesn’t happen often.
I just picked up mine yesterday but I haven’t had a change to read any part of it. From the photos it looks like it could be of good help. We’ll see.
I like the book very much, I’m on my fifth read through it. Personally, I think it needs a few more examples, especially, off the small switching type. A recap of his Roque Bluff project would be great.
I like Iain’s simple free flowing style. It’s a refreshing change from some of the recent rigidily linear designs. Although my layout is reasonally “mature”, I picked up several new ideas for the next layout.
Nick
Don’t have the book, at least yet. Still, I like his plans and I find them to provide “handsome” but practical track arrangements. I like 'em. However, because the way the drawings are made, they look a lot bigger on paper than they probably will in person. That may be part of the appeal of his plans.
Mark
Is this book different enough from his prior books to make it worthwhile?
I find his stuff to be good for ideas, but never detailed enough to be actual track plans.
I enjoyed reading it and will build my next layout as an around-the-walls shelf system, BUT I’ll use what I think is a lot simpler construction approach that would be movable later on.
It is based on an article in Model Railroader entitled, “Build a layout without legs.” It is only two pages long but quite clear as to how to go about it. I
scan articles out of the magazine that I want to keep, rather than tearing them out to save. Results in much less clutter. In any event, you can scan the MR back issues for the title to find the date. I didn’t save that information.
I don’t want to rain on the book since everybody as different ideas.
I glance through a copy and wasn’t impress with the layout designs…IMHO same-o loop type layouts with little reason for being…
The two basic questions I have when looking at a track plans is:
Why was the railroad built?
How long would such a railroad last with its planned customer base?
I suppose I perfer layouts with major industries that actually needs rail service…
I picked up a copy recently myself. My wife just got orders again (Air Force), and after thumbing through it, there appears to be some great ideas that could lead into a portable layout that does not eat up a lot of real estate. Being that we either rent houses, or live in base housing, I can’t get too terribly “fancy” with things, and was looking for layout ideas that don’t have a huge footprint. I can install the shelf rail/bracket system, and just patch the holes when we move once again.
I have been experimenting with a domino type layout, and it just doesn’t seem to be working out the way I had envisioned. At least the shelf type layout will give me something to experiment with on those cold Montana winter days.
For those that have it, is it all new or is it reprints of articals from past MR that have appeared already?
Thanks, Chris
All new.
I look to his stuff for ideas mostly. His geometry is elegant as well, so I tend to reference it while planning. It helps one get out of the “box” at times.
I can’t find this article when I search the library. Do you think it was published prior to 1986? Do you happen to know the author?