I’ve tried searching and even puchasing books online, but I cannot find a layout using three sheets of plywood.
I want a “dogbone” layout in a 16ft wide room. One sheet will be centered horizontally against the wall. The other sheets will be placed vertically to the wall at each end of that sheet. The result will resemble the bottom half of the capital letter “H”.
Can someone point me to a source for this layout - doesn’t matter what the format (book, downloadable PDF, etc.)?
HO SCALE
jm:
Linn Wescott’s 101Track Plans (MR book) has a couple of H-shape layouts: Plan #63(Rio Grande Southern) is 11 X 14 with sharp curves. Plan # 67 (Monon Route) is 10 X 14 with sharp curves. Plan #68 (Iron Ridge & Mayville) is 12 X 16 with conventional curves.
The list price on this book is $14.95. You might be able to google around for a better price. I also recall seeing on another thread that Wescott’s 101 plan book is incorporated in a CD planning disc, but can’t remember the name of it, might be able to text word search on the MR forum for it.
Hope this helps.
Jim
jmknight;
You may want to try this site also. It’s a really good layout design forum that will give you lots of design help and support. Good people and good info. I don’t remember seeing any “H” style designs, but there are software tutorials to help you with design prosess. In fact, the site owner has posts of the construction of his U shaped (or bottom half of an “H”) layout and is being built on hollow doors, so I’m sure he would have some great ideas. He is very good, and his thing is designing layouts. He Loves it!
Take a look see.
http://layoutparty.disisus.com/index.php
John
JM,
I’d be concerned about reach problems in the layout configuration you describe. How will you get to a derailment or a repair problem in the back corners?
http://trainplayer.com/Site2/101%20Track%20Plans.html
unfortunately the plans are so small you really can’t see any details
there’s also http://atlasrr.com/ but it doesn’t seem to include all the layouts
Yea, those diagrams of the Wescott books plans are small, guess that’s why Kalmbach wants you to buy the book.
Jim
Some possible approaches to dealing with potential problems in the extreme rear corners:
Avoid putting any track back there. (I didn’t say the approach would be practical!)
Make the curves back there wider than standard, and keep all turnouts out where you can reach them (no more than 24-28 inches from the layout edge.) Avoid having any spurs into ‘beyond reach’ territory (potential ‘bumper induced’ derailment hazard.)
Narrow the rear ends of the two side peninsulas to reduce the ‘unreachable’ area. Narrowing the rear-wall cross piece would also help.
Provide some kind of access opening, open or covered. If the layout is high, buildings, or even fairly low hills or a forest, can conceal the presence of a sizeable opening. Or, you could model Butte, Montana, humongous open pit mine and all. Another way to hide an access hole is to put it under a plowed field, lake or similar surface that can be rigged to hinge downward and not have a surface easily vulnerable to damage.
As a last resort, build a ‘sky hook’ platform that can be positioned over the layout for construction and maintenance. One modeler actually did this, back in the '50’s. It was written up in Model Railroader at the time.
The key item to remember in your planning - your reach is finite, and probably shorter than you think.
Chuck
unless you’re young and flexible I’d avoid any access holes. I took out a diagonal 4x8 section of my layout for that very reason and am now much happier even thoough I’ve got a shorter mainline run. My layout is bout 50 to 60 inches high too, and it was still a pain. I think John Armstrong had some nice dogbone plans if you can find one of his books. Also I like looking at track plans and borrowing the parts I like. I like rearranging my track plan from time to time and so avoid gluing anything down until I’ve run it awhile and have’t felt like chaing it. Using screws to assemble your benchwork allows one to take it apart and recycle it. I only use foam for scenery because I can’t fasten roadbed and track to it securely enough without gluing. I do have two section of liftout track to cross the doorway access to the RR room and thats it.
I have an old trackplan book “Track Desugn 2” from Carstens Publishing (Railroad Model Craftsman that has a couple of similar layouts (11x12 and 8x10 1/2). If you can find a copy, maybe you could adapt one.
A good source might be old copies of MR and RMC, pre 1970 when the sort of layout you are building was popular. Most people today would cut the plwood and do some kind of a walk in layout in the space you have.
Good luck
Paul
Wait a minute, guys ! Most of you answering jmknight’s question seem to think he wants an H-shaped layout. Actually, he wants a U-shaped one.
Read carefully what he said…
The bottom half of the capital H is actually an upsidedown U.
Just thought I’d point that out.
I would rip all 3 pieces of plywood in half giving you 6 pieces each 24"x 8’.
This would make one nice point-to-point RR and give you easy access to all of the layout.
gtr
If I understand correctly you have a room that is 16’ wide and you want to use three 4x8 pieces of plywood to make half of a capital H.
Placing the plywood like you stated will make the section that is against the 16’ wall 16’ from one end to the other. In other words you will have 4’ + 8’ + 4’. That will not leave you with any room on the sides to be able to access your layout. Essentially you will have a 4’ wide around the wall layout.
I would suggest an L shaped layout where you can have a section 12’ long then angle with a 4’ section making the lower part of the L. You should leave a minimum of 2’ working space between the wall and the layout, more if you have the room. At the bottom of the L you would have 4’ to work around.
What size is the room you will be using?
I suspect that Paul has come closer here to answering jmknight’s original question than anyone else. Note that jmknight wants a continuously running, dogbone-style layout, not an around the wall, point-to-point arrangement. Older trackplans published long ago in MR or RMC are likely better to fit this concept than something resulting from cutting the plywood into a series of long, narrow, strips for an around the walls design.
Thus, with its somewhat out of fashion layout concepts, 101 Trackplans would be the best place to start , but jmknight really needs to do his own R&D to create something specific to his ideas.
CNJ831