I have a book that includes this layout as an “easy to build,” and it does look like a decent starter. It lists the parts and shows a schematic. The only catch is it doesn’t list where each part goes and it’s a little hard to figure out. Anyone know where I can find something like an RTS file that I can use to figure out where to put the rails
Think we need a little more information. Since a search of these forums and Magazine Index turned up nothing, the name of the book or show the track plan would be a help. Any additional information would be helpful for the folks here to help yuou solve your problem
Good luck,
Richard
From the book Basic Model Railroad Track Plans: Small Starter Layouts You Can Build by Kent J. Johnson (Kalmbach 2001, out of print.)
A quick Google search reveals that enough of this book has been digitized to see the track plan.
Typical published HO 4X8, one siding, four spurs, 18" minimum radius, track right at the very edge of the benchwork. More operating interest is possible, even in an HO 4X8, but often requires flextrack rather than sectional components…
Since the Original Poster indicated in another thread that he had already chosen to constrain himself to a 4X8 table, it’s probably too late to suggest a simple move to a 5X8 created by having the lumber yard make one crosscut of the sacred sheet and adding a 2X4 handy panel of pre-cut plywood. Even this small addition in width would allow some safety room around the edges of the layout and/or broadening the curves (easiest with flextrack).
As far as determining what Atlas components go where, it’s fairly straightforward. Nearly all of the curves on the oval are 18" R. Looks like the 22" radius curves go on the outside track of the siding. Since the track plan in the book is to scale, you can determine the length of each track section just by scaling it out with a ruler and/or comparing the length of a particular shorter section with full-length sectio
The problem isn’t that I don’t want to go to 5x8, it’s that I barely have enough room around the layout as it is. Heck, I’d kill for a large rec room in my house with room for a couple of platforms, but I don’t have any such thing and I’m not ready to move to make it so.
I talked with the guy building the railroad table for me. He said he could build one at 5x8 and suggested I move my computer and computer table out of the room to make enough room to fit a table that size.
It actually might be nice to build a road or two along the outside of the track, leading into the town of White Creek Pass, the name of my town.
Sorry I didn’t give much information before. Usually I can say a layout on this board and someone seems to know “Oh, yeah, THAT one”.
Is there a more suitable track layout someone here might recommend if I went to 5x8?
Could you put your layout high enough to put your computer underneath it? Chest height is concidered best viewing angle. A little lower is better for working on. Depending on what you plan to have for scenic elements you may have to lower it a little more to reach over to your inside tracks. Set up a shelf as wide as you will have to reach. Put some buildings and trees on it, see how far you can reach, that would be the height you should set it at.
Have you concidered an around the room layout on a shelf? Your desired plan might be able to be altered to give you the elements you want on a more preferable layout platform.
Good luck,
Richard
Make a drawing of your room. Your entire room, not just the part of the room where you have decided you want to put a layout. Indicate on the drawing distances, indicate the location of door and windows, other things that has to stay in the room and stuff like that.
Then it is possible to see if a layout can be fitted into the room in some other way than putting a rectangle in the middle of the floor of a small room.
I have a small room that is 6.5 x 11.5 feet big (about 2/3rds of the size of a small bedroom), with a chimney foundation in one corner.
The room also has to be used for storage and a small workshop table. This is in a room way too small for a 4x8 and aisles, let alone a 5x8. This is how I put a H0 scale layout into my room:
Going around the room may not work at all for your room. And that sectional track you seem bound and determined to use is strongly limiting what you can do.
I would suggest that you, instead of claiming that a 4x8 is the only option unless you have a huge room, start with a drawing and description of your room, so it is possible to see if a different way of fitting a layout into the room would be possible.
It could be that you actually do not have room for a continuous run layout in H0 scale in a sen