I’ve spent a significant portion of time designing what will be the largest Ho Scale system in the world (yes, it will dwarf the Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg). I have several hundred sketches that I planned on scanning and importing into a program to connect them together something like a puzzle. However, I’m having an incredibly difficult time finding a program suitable for the task.
The sketches are drawn from real life locations throughout North America using google maps, so the entire system, cities, railyards, bridges, industries, scenic points, etc. will be replicated and built to scale — hence why the design will be so large. I have all the areas I want to build, I just need to figure out how to put them all into an easily viewable digital map.
Jared: Please explain your purpose in trying to design such a beast. If you are just doing it for fun, then say so. If you have plans to actually build something that large, and you have the financial resources to do so, please make that clear.
Quite frankly you strike me as being a troll. I hope I’m wrong. I really hope that you aren’t wasting our time.
A topic very similar to this came up in December 2020. It was called something like . . . “how much do I have to know to design something”.
Impossibly large, extremely complex layout. New, first-time poster. Different username, but very similar to this. Stuck around for a few days and a few posts.
Might be a coincidence. Might not. Might just be my ridiculous memory.
Is the OP’s plan feasible without any consideration of space? Not to rain on anyone’s parade, here. Warning bells are ringing loudly that we need a ton more information.
All he needs is a combination of some kind of elementary CAD program and the kind of map-generation software that was in old versions of Streets and Trips as a ‘convenience’ that could produce the equivalent of AAA Triptiks for drivers needing cheap paper maps.
He makes his number of sketches and then sticks them on a map grid to keep track of where they go relative to each other. He has a utility like autoclose that tinkers with the lines for the track so they smoothly join between sketches. In a sense this is like layering with tiles instead of overlays.
Not the least thing of importance that the program would do is provide the number of walkways and duckunders to allow people to actually view the masterpiece’s details without needing to remember their large ball of (distinctively-colored) string to ensure they get home afterward. I am still bitter about forgetting my glasses going to the World’s Fair in 1964, where Marklin had their enormous mountain of trains everywhere… the only one of which I could see was some poky little switcher going forward and back near the edge as an afterthought. Never again!!!
Then he expresses some cut of this virtual map into something like 3D Plan-It that can print off one of his <insert another ridiculous adjective, different to avoid monotony> number of templates for tracklaying.
The rest is just a bunch of benchwork and busywork, and he could always pay build teams to work in parallel or even use one of the modular conventions.
shouldn’t a straight question deserve a straight, technical answer?
I wonder how much Wunderland cost to build and maintain? Maybe if every model railroader in the world throws in a buck he can get started.[(-D] The first thing he should do is hire engineering professionals to tell him how much $$$$ he will need.[(-D]
How many sq ft of layout can one full-time employee maintain?
Even my 24x48 basement layout has proved to be an overreach. I thought being retired I would be able to complete the railroad in five years. Here it is twenty years later and I am just now getting into sight of the finish line and when I get there, there are a couple sections I plan a redo.
Even if one has the time and money to build a large layout, there are other obstacles. Model railroading can be mentally fatiguing which should be taken into account when planning a large layout. Maybe there are some who can spend a full eight hour day in the train room but I am not one of them. Four hours is a lot for me to spend working on the layout. Then there are always going to be the unexpected problems. A turnout or a curve or a structure that doesn’t quite fit where the plan called for it. Sometimes this can cause a major reworking. There can be delays when a needed item is out of production. There are always going to be problems that crop up that delay progress.
Another question is where is this layout going to be built? It would require a very large dedicated space and it better not be a rental because you never know when the landlord might decide not to renew a lease.
It the poster plans on actually building the layout he describes, I have no qualms about saying it is undoable unless he has a small army to help him build it. The layout he describes would require a lone wolf to spend several lifetimes building it.
