Over the summer I am moving from California to South Carolina. (Yea I know BIG Change) I will be moving into a house about twice the size but worth half as much. Houses around Orange County are really expensive. One of the only good things about the move is that I will be able to have a room to myself for my layout. Instead of having a small table in the garage. I am excited because I will be able to have many new things on the around the room style layout like a backdrop, a staging area and much more. I don’t know the exact measurements of the room I will be in yet so all layou ideas are not concrete yet. But my question is where do you guys get your layout plans? Do you make them totally from scratch? What? Im thinking of sorta the train route goes from a town in the desert and transforms as it goes across the room into a mountain type place. That is the idea I am starting with. Any oof you guys have some track plans or ideas for me? Thank you.
Metallicarocks28, are you modeling, or would you prefer to make it up in your head? If the former, you’ll have to do some lengthy research of the Line and era to get a feel for what you want to have in your model/layout. If the latter, take pen and paper, make a list of the items/facilities (mine, logging camp, turntable, roundhouse, bridge, grade(s), water features, etc.), and then begin to draw up several layouts. Take your time and make changes, deletions. Find the kits that you intend to use (if you will use kits) so that your measurements won’t surprise you when you try to marry track-ends with, say, the turntable diameter.
It took me several scrapped plans until I found one that made me jump up suddenly and shout to my wife, “I have it!!” And, except for not knowing to have staging track, I was pretty much right. I will add the staging under a hollow mountain in the weeks ahead, so I was lucky.
Big hint for you- Just accept that your curve radii, especially on your mainline, must be a minimum of 22". If you can build 'em at 26", even better. I listened to the more experienced guys/gals on these forums, and I am glad I did. You will be, too.
Does this help to get you going?
I downloaded the free Atlas software and used that for my initial design. I tossed a few designs, and finally ended up with what I wanted. I also bought a couple of Kalmbach books, more as examples than for the plans themselves. I laid out my old brass track (which will become part of a display case or something) loosely and fitted in buildings, giving me an idea of how the finished product would look. You should spend a LOTof time planning before you drive the first spike. It’s worth it in the long run.