Hi! I would like to hear from other who have based some or all of their layouts on a published plan or “project layout,” either from Model Railroader or some other magazine (or an Atlas track plan). If so, what did you do the same? What did you change? How is it working out for you?
My layout is based on Lou Sassi’s N scale Mohawk Division. The story ran in the early 90s, and is in the Second Edition of Kalmbach’s Small Railroads You Can Build. I changed the theme from 1970s Conrail in upstate NY to 1950s Pennsylvania RR in central PA. I changed a few sidings, too, but the trackplan is essentially the same. Here are two overall pictures (you may have seen the first one from another post of mine) of the layout. For more photos, construction log, and track plan click on my website in my signature block.
I model in N scale. When I decided to build a small layout, I looked at the Terrains for Trains pre-formed layouts. I liked the basic model, and decided to do it in a mirror image. Just as I began construction, I found an old article about John Allen’s original layout trackplan. To my surprise, it was the SAME layout I was building. Apparently, Terrains for Trains had used Allen’s layout, but with a reversed trackplan!
Later on, I added on to the layout. I was going to use another Terrain for Trains trackplan, but I modified it for my own purposes and it doesn’t look anything at all like the Terrain for Trains module.
I am planning a larger layout in a 12x11 bedroom. I can use an area about 12x9. I am looking at many trackplans from all over the internet for ideas. My original thought was a double decked layout using the room as a nolix. I haven’t abandoned that idea, but it could be expanded if I decide to use a duck-under or removable bridge.
Nothing on paper that I could post. Most of it is still knocking around in my head. Maybe someday soon I’ll get a big hammer and knock some real plans out of my brain! LOL
In 1966 I built an HO railroad based on the old Model Trains/Model Railroader PH&C series from about 1962. This was my first scale HO model railroad(17 years old), and it is still one of my favorites. I did not follow the plan exactly(The ‘project’ layout was basically 4’ by 6’ with a pair of 2’ wide extensions), and I started with a 5’ by 9’ sheet of 1/2" plywood(old table tennis setup). I was going to build a reduced size ‘Ma & Pa’ project layout, but landed a job in the LHS and could then afford the extra turnouts!
Hi guys. I am building 4x8 N scale layout with a extension to make it 4x11 with a 36x32 backwards L Peninsualla (Sorry about the spelling) I started with a plan from a Atlas track book from the 60s. I forget who wrote it but I think it the book was called 9 N scale track plans(ring a bell to anyone?) So I also forget what the RR was called but I know the pics showed a Burlington Engine. The original plan was a 4x8 layout. I original planed to only change a few things to make it easier to build for me. I changed the mainline so it did not have a reversing loop. I did not want to wire it as I had never did any wiring before Now I actaully like wiring! I also changed the freight yard. And the sidings. I changed the mainline more when I decided I was going to build a extension. Really the only thing that is the same is the location of freight yard 1 on the layout. So now I am done tracklaying on the 4x8 portion of my RR and did a little grass/tree work. I am not going to do anymore scenery until the my other section of the layout,has tracklayed on it. Wich is going to be a door that my dad is going to get for me. (he works for a lumber yard) So I am going to divide my money into a few types of things to spend it on. I will have seperate piles of money for Track, Locomotives,Rolling Stock,Scenery,And the Big E train show. Plus money that I save and for other stuff that is non RR related. My layout is based on New England RRs. Mostly Maine Central,Boston and Maine,Bangor and Arrostook,Guilford,Rutland/Green Mounatin/Central Vermont. But I have cars from other Railroads also. I do not have any pics yet but now that my mom has a camera I will post some pics some time. So thats my currently under construction RRs story. Dave nice layout it looks to be very nicely built. Tim
My very first layout in the early 1970s was based on the HOn30 Elk River RR (I think that’s what they called it) series that ran circa 1970 in RMC. I got it mostly scenicked, but me and HOn30 were both a little ahead of our times. I was 15 and still had a lot to learn about model railroading and the tiny little AHM locos and equipment were pretty difficult to get running well. Fortunately, before I got too frustrated, dad got reassigned to Germany and my layout was toast. I still have some of that stuff buried somewhere, but me and HOn3 get along much better.
The Elk River could serve very well as a plan for On30 with a little adjustment. It and Bob Brown’s On2 Maine waterfront modules featured in the circa 1968 MR are what got me into narrowgauge modeling.
My layout is based on the Turtle Creek Central from MR in 2003. I have added a few feet in length (the original is 4 X 8, mine is 4 X 11). I haven’t changed much else except to put in a couple of extra sidings.
Construction on the layout is on hold, pending the possibility of a move in the near future.
In the early '60s I acquired a Kalmbach book titled HO Railroad That Grows based upon a 4 X 8 Linn Westcott project railroad - The Great North Pass Railway - from MR in the mid-50s. The railroad was essentially an oval with two reversing loops, one on the lower level and the other which took an “airline” route across the center of the railroad. Was a good begining layout and I contemplated building it in HO. When I switched to N-Scale in the early '80s I did build a slightly modified version in that scale. I stayed with the 4 X 8 and the 18 inch radius curves but was able to get about 50% more industrial trackage. I discarded it after about three years of operation.
I am getting ready to design and build a new layout and am again eyeballing this HO Railroad That Grows - this layout will be portable with three 54 inch by 72 inch platforms configured in an el shape. I propose to continue using 18 inch radius curves.
Beautiful job on the layout. Is it foldable as well as portable? Hopefully, the layout I’m just getting started on will come somewhere near looking that good before the 2012 Olympics, at least in a few places.
My very first Japanese-prototype layout was actually a John Armstrong track plan published in MR in the 1950’s. It was basically an oval of track with passing sidings along front and back, with a switchback branch up to a mine. (After all these years the title of the article/Armstrong’s name for the railroad escape me.) The entire pike was called the Tomikawa Tani Tetsudo, a name which has persisted to the present. Size was 4x10 (I think) and mine was built on open framework with homosote spline roadbed, adhering to the published dimensions. That layout succumbed to military change of station orders shortly after the first train ran and before any scenery could be added.
Every layout I have been involved with since has been based on prototypes I have seen, either in person or in photographs. Somewhere in my massive collection of miscellaneous data is a bulging folder of prototype track layouts and rail trivia, the result of nine years of active railfanning in Japan between 1957 and 1970. (Some time was lost because of Stateside assignments and active participation in the Great Southeast Asia War Games.)
The final overall concept of the “imaginary prototype” JNR Nichigeki-sen and its connections jelled in 1965. All of my efforts since have involved using selective compression and calculated omission to adapt my master plan to whatever layout space I had available.
Chuck (modeling the spirit of Japanese railroading in September 1964)
I’ve built many HO & N layouts over the years with several loosely based upon project layouts or featured layouts such as Lou Sassi’s Middle Division, Dave Frary’s Pennsy Middle Division, Linn Wescott’s HO Railroad That Grows and two of Dave Methlie’s: Maggie’s Cover & Deer Mountain…and liked 'em all but it seemed each one had something lacking and I couldn’t figure out what. And then I saw Dave Vollmer’s layout and realized its slightly modified (from Lou’s) but simple design and excellent scenery placement was what I’d been looking for with both running trains and switching opportunities on a small operating layout. Thanks Dave.
My first HO layout was the 4x6 Simplicity and Great Plains from Atlas as a teenager. Track was laid exactly as per plan. Was demolished before starting scenery for assisting my father with a bigger layout, an enlarged modification of the Atlas Grand Trunk Western.
First layout when I got out on my own was a start of a 4x8 loop-to-loop that appeared in MR in 1967? (not “layout that grows”, this had town and oval connection on upper level, lower reversing loop tunneled underneath for most part) The article contained suggestions to start with an oval and gradually grow it to the final plan. That suited me, as this was my first attempt at hand-laying track. Gradual was good. Set my era for 1920s. Before I got to scenery stage, a move forced me to cut the table to 4x6. My big lesson from that layout is that small track plans with reversing loops in the main line usning conventional DC (no DCC back then) are not particularly fun to operate because of the constant attention to toggle switches - with a 4x8 loop-to-loop being about the worst.
Next was my version of the 1957 MR project railroad, the 4x6 Tidewater Central. The plan is overly simple, so I added spurs, a turntable, and then a branch on a steep grade to pass over the main and continue on an extension (never built the extension). Cookie-cuttered the track and used dyed plaster on fiberglass window screen for scenery shell. I set the layout in coastal Oregon, and called it the Picture Gorge and Western. As I laid the track, I wanted to follow Ben King’s “living history” of a layout. The layout would start in 1877 (this was in 1977) and advance the era continously, remaining 100 years behind the actual date. Due to scarcity of money, knowledge of eras, and especially time (with the coming of kids) the “living history” could not be maintained, and layout was broken up in the 1982 m
In a word NO! I was inspired by the Clinchfield project layout to invent my own coal hauling short line in Appalachia but,that’s where the similarities ended.
Early on I built, a few layouts from Atlas Plan books; SImplicity and Great Plains (track laid and badly sceniced); the Waterlevel Western (a move intervened and I never finished laying track); and Grade Crossing Deluxe (track laid, but I moved again before I could finish the scenery.)
My favorite though, was the Southside Connecting switching layout. I incorporated this one in to a larger layout, that I acutally finished.
VERY nice lookig layout Dave, definately makes me look at Nscale again… and I like the plan very much too, it would give me something to actually see to completion while I decide w.t.h I am doing with the rest of my life. In answer, no I’ve never done a project layout, but I think you may have just inspired me.
Yes - I started with the track plan for the “HO Railroad That Grows,” and modified it considerably, increasing the radius on the principal loop to 24" and the minimum radius on the flyover reversing loop to 22". I then took the plan for the “Switchman’s Nightmare” from Linn Westcott’s “101 Track Plans” and added it on the same side of the layout as the lower reverse loop, with the yard lead connected to the main loop between the two switches for the reverse loop. This increased the size from 4’x8’ to 5.5’x10’, and allowed me to use #6 switches throughout, with one exception (I added a small yard inside the reverse loop, with a pair of #4s). I pitched the recommended order and built and wired the entire thing at once, leaving the scenery for later; wired it for dual-cab control with 23 separate electrical blocks. As how-to books go, that has to be one of the best-written manuals I’ve ever come across: I wired the whole thing, from start to finish, with the book open in front of me and it worked perfectly when I threw the first switch. I was in a bit of a hurry (I wanted to get it working before the baby arrived), and it was not a terribly time-consuming project; I went from first cut to dual-cab operations in about a month.
