Ok, here is what I came up with while planning my layout. I have two 4x8 tables arranged in an L shape. I’m trying to model the current logging and coaling industries in the North Carolina Appalacians. I’ve decided for my railroad to be based on a fictional CSX branch line serving the community of Hillside. The town has a sawmill and a mine for switching jobs and a small business district.
The only thing I am missing is a track plan. If any one has any ideas on a track plan could they help me. Thanks.
try www.atlasrr.com they have a lot of different designs for layouts…you can fudge them a bit too if you use flex track instead of the atlas preformed track…chuck
The altas plans are nice to get ideas. My layout is pretty much a stock N-scaler from them. I’d recommend, however, sitting down with some track planning software and playing with designs. You’ve got a nice chunk of space and the Atlas plans often don’t get all the elements you might want. Atlas’ RightTrack software’s fairly easy to use, although it does encourage the use of their track products (obviously).
Have you thought about what you’d like to do with your layout? Do you want to model a big class 1 railroad, or a little short line? Steam or diesel or transision era? Urban or rural? Mountainous or prarie? For that matter, American or European?
I’ll plug the forum too…people post here regularly with their track plans and ideas. I’d suggest reading up on what others are doing to see if an idea jumps up at you.
I looked at many MRR mags and found pics that I liked. When I had a notion of what it should look like I started to lay out track ideas, full size, on the floor with masking tape to try them out. Because I was interested in the final look, the scenes drove the plan rather than having a plan that I was trying to fit scenes into. I ended up with two mountains for the lumber and mine industries because they looked better that way. If what you want is pure opperation, then you need to go the other way. Some of the people planned for years, but I started building the first week. I preferred having a layout I changed than not having the layout. Many of the best people here will advise the other way - a good plan first.
There is an old aphorism used in the military- “Time spent on reconnaisance is seldom wasted.” The more you look and learn, the fewer mistakes you’ll make on your layout. The fewer mistakes you make on your layout, the longer you will enjoy the benefit of both your effort and money.
As Art says, though, if you just gotta have trains running, then put up a small, easy 2X8 on a counter or something and lay enough track to enjoy switching while you read and plan. The worst that idea can do is teach you some things about yourself and switching, and may lead to improvements for your plan that no book could tell you.