Anybody know of any good books for beginners when building a layout? I was planning on creating a shelf layout featuring an urban enviroment with lots of trackside industry. If I can find a better track plan, which you post can them here, I’ll probably use it. Also, does anybody have any good tips?[#welcome]
Well, the one I recommend is John Armstrong’s Track Planning for Realistic Operations. If you’re a real novice like I was, your head may spin after the first read-through. As you acquire more knowledge and read it a few more times, is starts to make sense. It really has helped me in planning. Also, check out Spacemouse’s ( a popular poster here) guide for beginners. Look in his signature - I think there’s a link there.
Welcome aboard.
For building urban scenes, John Pryke’s Building City Scenery for your Model Railroad (Kalmbach, 2000) is a great guide, IMHO. Lots of examples and “how-to” info.
On-line, Bill Denton’s N Scale Kingsbury Branch is just terrific.
Byron
Model RR Blog
Thanks, these are some great resources. Here’s another question, as a beginner, would you reccomend I fallow someone else’s track plan or create my own. The room is 19’ wide and I was going to use most of it if not all.
[8D]
This is where Armstrong’s Track Planning for Realistic Operation would be your best friend.
Here is a spectrum of possible track planning options.
- Take a published track plan and build it exactly as drawn (the highly improbable dream - see the Modeler’s Maxim below.) Bear in mind that the designer planned for what HE wanted, which is almost certainly not a perfect match for your ideas.
- Take a published track plan and modify it to suit your space and your desires - sort of like shaping modeling clay. As long as you maintain or increase the curve radii, this might be the quickest way to a layout that will work for you.
- Take bits and pieces of several different track plans and hook them together - the salad bar approach (take a yard throat from here, a mine from there…) It can result in a more satisfying result, but also requires a bit more thought.
- Take your own, very personal list of givens and druthers, sketch the space in your room in Armstrong squares and design your own, very personal layout - paying strict attention to proper minimum radius curves and actual track geometry of such things as Brand X switches. The most thought-intensive, but also the way that will allow you to design a truly unique layout.
Note that all of the methods above will result in a satisfactory (but not necessarily satisfying) track plan. That is where the Modeler’s Maxim comes in:
No track plan, no matter how carefully drawn, survives first contact between the rails and the roadbed.
As you build, you will find it necessary to tweak the real trackwork to conform to reality - and don’t be surprised if the final result bears very little resemblance to the original plan. Also, as your experience grows, you will find yourself making changes - anything from moving a switch, to adding a siding, to a radical redesign and complete rebuilding. Model railroading is like that - and that’s the fun pa
[#ditto]
John Armstrong’s “Track Planning for Realistic Operation”
You can download free layout design software (Right Track) from the Atlas website. While it is not as fancy as the cadrail programs, the price is right and it will give you a good idea of what will fit in your available space. I used it to design my basement layout.
Ok, so now that I know which books I should buy here’s another fundamental question. I was going to create an Atlanta, GA/East Coast style industrial park fallowing two main lines circa 1993. The layout will feature very few curvatures but the staging area is going to loop back so I can run trains without having to reverse them, much like an ellipse with straight sides (see bottom). Trains will be 15 to 30 cars long at the max. Any tips?
Post your layout photos here, I’m just a bit curious as to what ya’ll’s looks like. I may even get some inspration for my own.
