My father had a railroad layout in a spare bedroom when my son was young. My son has wanted one ever since then. I now have a spare room in the basement of a new house we just moved to (13.5’ x 20’) and my son (now 35) and I plan on building a layout. We want to model Norfolk & Western from the Lamberts Point Yard in Norfolk, Virginia (close to where I grew up) to a point in western Virginia (not yet sure exactly where). I have a plan of the Lamberts Point Yard. I have scaled out the room on graph paper, but am having a problem actually laying out the rail lines and switches for our modified yard. How do I go about planning such a yard on paper so I will know how to design the benchwork? Is there a template available for 1” = 1’ scale? What size switches should I use? Do I need a computer program to do the planning? Any suggestion and help will be appreciated. Thanks.
For HO, most people try to plan around #6 turnouts (switches) as a minimum. For a yard, you could get away with #4 or #5 turnouts if you’re tight on space. One thing you could do is get one of each type of turnout you plan to use, then photocopy it and reduce the size to 8.3% of the original (100% / 12). Then make a bunch of copies and cut them out and use them for planning your layout. For straight track, just use simple centerlines on the graph paper for planning purposes. To draw the centerlines for curved track, you could make a curved template out of a piece of cardboard - just divide your full scale radius by 12 to get your template size radius. Example: for a 24" radius curve, your template will have an actual radius of 2".
If you are not averse to using a CAD program, it would probably be much easier to do your track planning on a computer. There are a few free CAD programs out there that are specific to model railroad design. One is XtrackCAD, a free open-source program. It’s very popular and versatile enough for the average user, but there’s a bit of a learning curve. If you don’t mind spending a couple hours learning it, it would probably be worth your while. I can’t seem to get to the XtrackCAD website right now, but if you Google it, you should find it.
Good luck!
I’ll suggest an old-fashioned approach. It may actually work better than drawing the plan first if you don’t have experience already building a layout from a plan. I use a product that’s no longer available, a set of actual size cardboard templates of track components. You can make them yourself easily, so no need to buy them. Make cut-outs of straight track, various curves starting with your minimum radius up through whatever you think you can fit, and the various turnouts, etc. Create multiple of items that will be used frequently, like #6 turnouts.
These can then be laid on the floor and rearranged to your heart’s content. For me, this is much easier than trying to visualize on a computer and even on paper as a beginning. Once you have something you want to finalize, then draw it, either on paper or with the computer.
This method really helps you visualize how track will look, the space needed for structures and scenery, and the spaces needed for humans, like aisles and reach-over distances. All this tends to come easily if you’ve built several layouts before. For a first-timer, it makes everything much easier without needing that experience first.
I am sure you understand the idea of selective compression and that you can apply it as needed. I have used less than #4 turnouts for very short rolling stock, but it causes greater separation for a yard. The higher the number, say an #8 allows you to space more closely but of course you need finger room–at least I do. Depending on your working style you could even get a sheet of plywood and set it up on horses and use some track and turnouts to play with then document what you like and plan from there. There are of course some good CAD type programs if you prefer that. Check out the NMRA website as they have a lot of good advice on how to plan layouts including recommended practices(RP). One thing I try to do with my yards is to calculate how much room I have for a siding along the mainline(can be curved of course) and it’s corresponding train length and then if possible have at least a few yard sidings long enough to handle the longest train I’ll run. This is not necessary as you can double up, but it makes things easier during ops as yard time is normally high vs mainline runs.
Make sure you understand what type of elevation changes you want and where when determining how to build the layout–for example open grid. Some like foam now-lots of options.
Richard
Sounds like you and your son are in for some serious fun. I began designing my layout and yard after reading two Kalmbach books, Track Planning for realistic operation and The Model Railroader’s guide to freight yards. I rough sketched out my plan using a 1/2" to 1’ template, don’t know if there’s a 1" to 1’ available. Being old fashioned and still having my drafting tools from high school I next drew out the plan 11/2" to 1’.
Similar to what Mike suggested I then printed turnout templates from the Fast Tracks website, cut out and glued them to thin card stock. Transferring my drawing onto large sheets of paper full scale and using the turnout templates was invaluable in seeing what would and wouldn’t work. Being able to rearrange full scale and at will helped me think “out of the box”. In retrospect I think I could have skipped the drafting board work.
Regards, Peter
I would suggest drawing the plans to 3/4 in or 1.5 in to the foot. That way 1/16" or 1/8 in = one inch which makes it easier to scale. There are track planning templates available from various suppliers.
I do track planning many times by buying a roll of brown paper and drawing the benchwork outline on it, then photocopying a switch to make templates and drawing the track plan full size on the peice of paper rolled out on the floor. I’ll do 8-16 ft of benchwork at a time. I have attached the switch copies with rubber cement or painters tape so they can be peeled up and moved if I need to rearrange things.
I very much liked using XTrackCAD for planning layout options and then planning the one I built. I you try it, do first exercise the tutorial.
If not mentioned above, do recognize that you can modify purchased turnouts by shortening the legs somewhat to optimize how things fit together. As an example, a series of #5 turnouts with a given yard track spacing will yield somewhat longer track extensions in a given space. I also had a case where I had turnouts facing each other near an engine house entry and modifying the turnouts interacted with attached short curves connected to the exact track spacing needed for the engine house.
I want to thank all of you for your replies. You have given me lots of options to consider. I will no doubt be back with many more questions as I design my layout. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge with me.
Thanks!!
Jack (Starman)
Turnout number shouldn’t determine track spacing; sure you might have to add a short piece, or trim some rail from the turnout, but any track spacing should be able to be accomplished with any turnout.
I use graph paper to make initial sketches; maybe 1 square = 4" to start out with (usually I have graph paper with squares of about 1/4", but any size will work). To sketch a turnout on graph paper is easy, #4 turnout is 4 squares over, one up…#6 is 6 squares over, one up…and so on. The angle does not get scaled down, it will remain a constant ratio (1:4, 1:6, 1:8, etc); if you are drawing at a smaller scale (nothing to do with modeling scale), a #4 might be 2 squares over, 1/2 square up…but this ratio is always the same.
After initial sketching, to get a better idea of how much trackwork will fit in your space, redraw your trackplan at a larger scale, like 1 square = 1". Keep in mind that when you sketch turnouts, leave about 3" between turnout points if the turnouts are oriented with their points next to each other; if drawing a ladder type of arrangement, start an adjacent turnout where the first turnouts’ diverging leg reaches your track spacing distance (2" in my case). It never hurts to add a little more length when sketching, if you have ‘extra’ space when you lay your track, it will be fine; if you cram too much into your sketch, you may find out you can’t fit everything in…better to have extra space than not enough.
I hope this helps you sketch track plans. TIP: When you think you are satisfied with your trackplan, put it away for a few days and try to forget what you drew, now redraw it. This will probably result is a slightly different arrangement. Compare the two plans, if they are different, see which one is better, if they are the same, turn the paper 180 degrees so you are now looking at it from a different viewpoint. This will ‘turn off’ your brain from seeing it as a
Hey, I am also starting to model Lamberts Point. We should e-mail each other and share our progress. Mine is going from Lamberts Point to Bluefield and Princeton, WV (not scale distance though)
Let me add my vote for XTrackCad (which is free by the way). I’ve used it to plan (and replan) my layout. When you consider the amount of time you’ll spend building the layout, the investment in time it takes to learn the program is worth it. Planning on paper can get so tedious that it’s easy to declare your plan good enough because it’s too much effort to change it. On the computer, no matter how many times I redo a section the eraser never wears a hole through the plan.
I am also modeling the N&W, but just the 22 miles between St Paul and Norton, VA.
Yes I like and use XTrackCad as well. Takes a bit of learning though. However, an easier free software to use is the Atlas track planning software. Not as thorough and with only Atlas components but it should get you into the ballpark.
I designed my yard by using Andy’s book on yards and using actual track, #6 switches and flex track.
Useful information: http://www.housatonicrr.com/yard_des.html
Also useful but not particulairly relevent to yards: http://ldsig.org/ldsigwiki/hints-tips
Obligatory link (highly useful): http://www.layoutvision.com/id18.html