Layout plan question (numbers on a plan).

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

Can anyone please clarify this for me as it doesn’t show it anywhere.

In the November 2012 issue of Model RR magazine, on pages 48-49 it shows a nice layout plan. It also shows numbers in little square boxes. What are those numbers and what do they mean? I see them on both N and HO scale layout plans.

Thanks.

Paul

2

Paul:

Those numbers indicate the elevation from the floor level.

Joe

3

Ohhhhhhhh!!! I get it now. Thanks, nowhere does it say that. That makes sense now. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what the heck it meant.

4

Not only a reference from the floor, but sometimes the elevations are from “0” reference of one particular section/ main yard etc. The elevations can run plus or minus from the zero reference.

5

Well, actually it does say it, sort of. If you look over in the “layout at a glance” box on page 48 it shows “height” as 48". The other thing to realize is that the number in the box, say 48, is the dimension that the layout builder used as his baseline. If you wanted to build an identical layout but wanted to have the baseline at 50", you could just add 2" to all the box numbers and end up with everything in the same relationship.