Does anyone have some pics of some track plans for a 4x8 layout using N scale?
Take a look at this site. The trackplans are smaller, although quite a few are door size. It’s always possible to open them up a bit by adding some straight track or using wider surves. In any case they’ll give you some ideas.
http://www.cke1st.com/m_train2.htm#topopage
Regards
Ed
I’ve got some on my website, but if none of those work I’m always happy to work with people to help them design one just for them.
http://s83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Track%20Plans/
Let me know if I can help. BTW, I use the free Atlas RTS 7.0 track planning software.
Oh, and remember, some plans can be expanded or contracted a little to fit your space, so it doesn’t “have” to be a 4x8 plan exactly. But it should probably be close to that size.
You sent me a message asking about the Atlas program I mentioned. I’m not sure if my reply will get to you so I thought I’d post it here as well. Besides, everyone can use the info here.
The Atlas program is found here;
http://www.atlasrr.com/righttrack.htm
Just download it and do the tutorial. The flex track shaping tool is a little tricky to get the hang of, but not too bad. Just play with it some and you’ll get the hang of it.
The down side of this program is it only has Atlas track in it.
For a more powerful, but more difficult to learn tool, check out X-Trak Cad. It’s a free download too. It can do more, but it’s not as intuative, so you should definately do the tutorial. It can be found here;
It has many brands of track in the library, but again, it’s not as easy to learn.
Hope that helps!
A Model Railroader supplement, 8 Great Track Plans for Small Places, had a port terminal in N scale, size 4 x 8.
Also, another supplement, 5 Compact Track Plans, had an N scale 3 x 6 (which could be expanded) layout - The Kootenay Lake Navigation Co.
Not sure of the issue numbers they were with, but I think the 5 plan supplement has been included with at least 2 separate issues, the the 8 plan says all the plans in that previously appeared in Model Railroad Planning, from MR. Both supplements were in the last couple of years or so.
Was this the 4X8 N scale layout in the supplement?
http://home.earthlink.net/~mrsvc/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/mr_ptra.jpg
It was in my Model Railroad Planning 2002 article on Houston’s Port Terminal Railway Association.
An interesting aspect of doing articles for Kalmbach is that they turn up in new and unexpected places!
Regards,
Byron
Yes it is! Excellent work …
Alex.
Train Crazy, there is nothing in the narrative of your topic which says so directly but I am going to infer from the nature of your question that you are relatively new to model railroading; if I am wrong at this then I apologize for making a false assumption; regardless, I am going to proceed on the basis that you are what is frequently referred to as a "newbie’ - which appears to be short for newcomer and is not, necessarily, meant to be a derogatory expression.
Do not - let me repeat that with greater emphasis: DO NOT - get hung up on scale. Scale is only a representation of proportion. N-Scale is 1:160 proportion; HO-Scale is 1:87.1 proportion. This means that in a particular geometric space, a 4 X8 for example, if modeling in N-Scale you can achieve roughly 3.3 times the amount of density as if that space is being used for HO-Scale. On the other hand, an HO-Scale 4 x 8 layout would only need a space of 26 X 54 inches to achieve the same density if being built in N-Scale. A track plan is a track plan; it has curves, and side tracks, and spurs, and industrial tracks, and bridges and tunnels and all those other things which we like to exhibit on our layout. And there is no such thing as an HO layout, only a layout built in HO-Scale; so also, there is no such thing as an N-Scale layout, but rather a layout built in N-Scale.
Having said that let me give you an example: the first layout I built after retiring from the Air Force in 1978 was built in HO-Scale. I took an N-Scale track plan (2.5 feet by 7 ft) which I had encountered in an MR some years before and I scaled it up to 4.5 feet by 10.5 feet. I had a layout built in HO-Scale even though the original concept had been designed for N-Scale. Did the conformity police break down my door in the middle of the night?; if they came around I wasn’t home!!! Did I break some law pertaining to intellectual property by building this layout in HO instead of N-Scale? No one at my
nmra (national model railroad acc.) http://www.nmra.org/beginner/ has a layout that is 4 by 8 and planes for it u might want to check it out